If you are seeing small flies or gnats in your kitchen, they’re probably fruit flies. Such flies are common during summer/fall as they’re attracted to ripened or fermented fruits and vegetables. Fruit flies are incredibly annoying and seem to be pop out of nowhere. Surely you can shoo them away, you need a long-term solution to get rid of them. Chemical sprays can be harmful to use in the kitchen. But there are many natural procedures also. Here we will know about 11 best ways to get rid of fruit flies naturally.
Before starting, let’s know what causes fruit flies in our houses.
In this article:
What Causes Fruit Flies in Your House?
Can Fruit Flies Make You Sick?
11 Simple Natural Ways to Get Rid of Fruit Flies
What Causes Fruit Flies in Your House?
Fruit flies are generally attracted to the scent of ripened vegetables and fruits. Alcohol and sugar contained drink is a favorite of them also. They are attracted to the non-food items especially cleaning supplies such as damp mops, moist cleaning rags, sponges, bucket of wastewater. They require only a thin layer of fermented material to thrive and lay eggs.
Fruit flies can live and breed inside drains, where they can find the required food and moisture they require. Fruit flies don’t segregate about where they get their nourishment. If they find any food item in your bedroom, then they will stick around there also. Whether it’s through cracks in the wall, or pre-laid eggs on a piece of fruit, fruit flies will find a way inside your home. Their brain can sense fermented fruit from miles away. Fruits, vegetables, wine, fermented decaying organic matter are the primary sources of nutrition for the fruit fly.
Fruit flies have an annoying and often disgusting presence. Now, let’s know if the fruit flies are harmful to your health or not.
Can Fruit Flies Make You Sick?
Many people think if these fruit flies pose any health risks. Despite the annoying and disgust factors, there is no specific medical illness caused by accidentally ingesting fruit flies or with eating food that has touched by such flies. But there are some concerns about fruit flies carrying bacteria from one place to another. This has been postulated as a means of transporting infections. The bacterias can get on our food or hands and spread illness that leads to health problems such as diarrhea.
Fruit flies don’t sting or bite, so they can’t do a lot to harm you. But they can create tiny wounds in fruits that allow the bacteria to take hold. Fruit flies occasionally make their pit stop on cutlery, plates, drinking glasses or even toothbrush. And when you eat or drink something from those objects, you become exposed to some bacteria that the fruit flies have transferred from site to site.
The following are the 11 best ways to get rid of fruit flies from your house naturally. Let’s have a look.
11 Best Natural Ways to Get Rid of Fruit Flies
You can Try a Carnivorous Plant
You can get a carnivorous sundew plant in your rescue. Such plants trap fruit flies very easily on their sticky leaves and then eat them. This can be an ongoing solution for your fruit flies problem.
Try to Avoid Keeping Ripe Fruits Out on the Counter
After the fruits start to get ripen and ferment, fruit flies start to appear out of thin air. Try to keep ripe fruits and vegetables in the refrigerator and the ripening ones in the paper bags. The cold of the refrigerator slows down the ripening of fruits. By keeping the fruits in the refrigerator, you can save your fruits from the fruit flies. Actually, the ripening fruits release ethanol which attracts fruit flies.
Try a DIY Fruit Fly Trap
To make this homemade fruit fly trap, all you need are a jar, dish soap, apple cider vinegar, and a plastic wrap. At first, you need to pour enough apple cider vinegar to cover the bottom of the jar. Then add only a drop of dish soap. Now, you need to cover the jar with the plastic wrap. And lastly, you need to poke a few holes in the top. The drop of dish soap will break the surface tension of the vinegar so that the fruit flies can’t sit at the top of the liquid.
Keep Up on the Dishes
Washing dishes regularly can help you in this matter, it helps you to prevent the fruit flies breeding grounds. The fruit flies are then not able to lay their eggs in the gunk that accumulates on the plates in your sink. Avoid keeping any cup of water or any other liquid. Dirty dishes are one of the main breeding grounds of fruit flies.
Freeze Your Compost
Some bugs are great for the compost pile, but fruit flies can wreak havoc because they zip from the pile to your garden. If you will freeze the fruits and vegetables before they become compost, then this will kill the flies and their eggs. Try to hang a fruit fly trap near your compost.
You can Try Essential Oils Also
Keeping basil plants near your fruit bowl and sprinkling basil leaves directly on fruit will keep your fruits safe from fruit flies. Fruit flies can’t tolerate strong smells, if you keep a lavender oil-soaked sponge or cedar ball on the counter, this technique will also help you to get rid of such flies. You can use lemongrass or incense also, as fruit flies dislike these also.
Carefully Wash Incoming Produce
You unknowingly bring fruit flies in your home from grocery stores on your products in the form of eggs. So one way to keep fruit flies away is to wash fruits and vegetables as soon as you get home. For example, bananas can be covered in sticky substances from other products and fruit flies can be attracted to them. You can also keep a bucket outside your house to wash the incoming produce before bringing them into your house.
White Vinegar in Your Rescue
This method can be beneficial also for you. You need to pour boiling white vinegar or boiling water into drains. It will immediately kill the existing fruit flies. Mostly fruit flies make themselves at home in moist and hidden areas such as shower drains, sink drains, garbage disposal disposals, toilets and more.
Basic Cleanliness is Always Helpful
Try to keep your home environment clean and food covered. You don’t want to support their survival, as they can breed on anything they can. You need to keep your food out of their reach. Cover food items always by using an upturned bowl, cake domes, foils, plastic wraps and more. Avoid keeping food items for a long time. Wipe down your counters, wash your dishes regularly, don’t preserve dirty dishes in the sink. Throw away the food items that are going bad.
Use Red Wine
Keep a little red wine at the bottom of the bottle. Fruit flies love red wine and this will attract them to go into the container. As a result, they will get stuck inside because of the skinny neck of the bottle. It will help you to trap the fruit flies. Try to keep a wine bottle in such areas where fruit flies seem to be living in your house. With this technique, you not only enjoy some red wine but also you can get rid of your problem related to fruit flies.
Soap Water can be Beneficial
Soap water can be beneficial in resolving your problem. Mix some drops of liquid soap and water and place it under a light during the nighttime. This trap not only attracts fruit flies but mosquitoes also. The reflection of the light on the soap water entices the pests. If you have liquid soap in your house, then better make it a trap for fruit flies. It will be difficult for the fruit flies to escape from the soap water once they landed on the trap.
The above-mentioned methods will surely help in solving your fruit flies problem. If you are annoyed by such a problem, try these techniques immediately without wasting any time. By doing a little cleaning in your home, trying some DIY fruit fly traps and stocking up on some pantry staples, you will be footloose and fruit fly-free in no time.
