The fruit fly is are tiny but can cause a havoc. How to get rid of fruit flies becomes essential to save your fruits from decaying fastly!
In the past, it was believed that the fruit flies were something that spontaneously spawns out supernaturally from the rotten fruit.
But, today everyone is aware of the fact that fruit flies do not come from inside the fruit but perhaps it is true that they can smell the rotten food from miles. They also love to enjoy fermented drinks and wines and are mostly attracted to sugary and organic materials. They are so tiny that they can enter through any cervices or tiniest inlets of your house even if all your windows and doors are closed.
When the fruit gets rotten it starts to ripe and produces alcohol. This smell attracts fruit flies. They come there and lay hundreds of eggs that hatch in 24 to 30 hours multiplying the number of fruit flies in your house that is not an easy thing to control because in just a week the larvae turn into an adult fly.
Fruit flies also breed on drains, kitchen sponges, garbage bins, open mop buckets, and our laundry area. They contaminate our food with bacteria and other pathogens and infectious microorganisms. However, they are not disease vectors but think of the time if you mistakenly eat fruit fly contaminated food or its egg by mistake. It will surely make you sick.
Once the fruit fly infestation starts in your home it is not an easy task to control them. So, here are some ways for you to get rid of fruit flies easily.
How to get rid of fruit flies (Easy and Effective ways)
Here are some of the easy yet effective ways on how to get rid of fruit flies!
1. Store your fruit properly
The very first way to get rid of fruit flies is to isolate their breeding and surviving ground by throwing all the rotten food products, oozing liquids out far away from your house after packing it up in the proper bags.
As the name suggests, fruit flies are often found on fruits. Any fruit brought home from the grocery shop should be washed and stored properly in the refrigerator. This is the first basic step to stop fruit flies infestation at your home because fruit flies often lay their eggs on rotten fruits and other sweet and organic materials.
2. Investigate your house
If you find fruit flies in your kitchen, so now it is the time to investigate your kitchen and all your house properly. Dispose of all the ripe and rotten fruits and vegetables. If there are no fruits in the kitchen so check for other uncovered sweet and organic products and also check all the drains and kitchen sponges. Besides this, check all the wet clothes, kitchen mops, and also drains as they are the source of bringing fruit flies to your home.
If there are some recycling cans in your home like beer, soft drinks can, wine bottles then it’s the time to scrub them, because they are sweet and fermented and attract the fruit flies. Also check for jams, jellies, sauces, fruit preserving cans, and jar lids whether they are properly intact and clean from outside.
3. Replace old sponges, mops and kitchen clothes
If fruit flies have taken up your home and you are unable to get rid of them after long and hard effort then look at your kitchen sponges, dish rags, mops, and other cleaning accessories. If you haven’t changed them for a long time then now it is the time to replace them with the new ones because fruit flies often breed on old sponges, wet and untidy dishrags, mops and kitchen cloths.
Female fruit flies lay hundreds of eggs that hatch in mere hours and the process of their breeding continues.
4.Keep your kitchen clean
If you have fruit fly infestation at home so always try to keep all your kitchen clean. Always keep your kitchen sink empty and clean. Try to keep your kitchen clean and wash all the dishes as soon as possible. Don’t keep it till the end of the day. At least try to give your dishes a little rinse of water to clean all the food particles from the dishes. Doing this will not invite the fruit flies to your home.
They can get attract to dirty plates, drinks glasses and other stinking things in the kitchen. Keep the burner drip pan clean and remove the spilled milk. Check your refrigerator too if there is something spilled underneath.
5. Cover your garbage bin
Always try to cover your garbage bin and don’t scrap all the leftover food openly on the bin. Always try to throw the leftover trash outside far away from your house or decompose in proper bins.
6. Fix all your drains
Always take care of your drains. If you have any slow drains then there is a chance of organic matter and slime stored in your drains which invite the fruit flies from miles as this is a source of their breeding population.
If you suspect any slow drain at your house, then at least cover the drain or wrap it up with any plastic until you get it fixed because it can lead them to enter your house. Secondly, always try to keep all your plumbing clean by pouring boiling hot water in your drains. Try to use drain openers or drain cleaners at least once in a month or use a firm brush to scrub the inside of your drain pipes to keep them clean.
7. Check your potatoes and onion storage bins
Most of the people prefer to store their potatoes, onions, ginger, garlic and other vegetables in a cool and dark place. Make sure to check them once in a week and shuffle all the rotten vegetables because just one rotten potato or onion is quiet enough to enhance the population of fruit flies in your home. Also, try to clean the place and the storing containers.
8. Making traps for them – Important
Setting a few vinegar traps is the quickest way to eliminate the population of the fruit flies. Pests mostly like fruit flies are not very much smart. Fruit flies love to dive in the things that smell like fermenting fruit. Cider Vinegar is a thing that is easily available in every home and helps to wipe out the pests from your home.
Besides this, sometimes washing bleach is also effective to trap adult fruit flies. Just place some few drops of bleach on the problem area or in your drains and I am sure this thing will help you a lot to trap adults’ fruit flies. Once you get them to trap you will surely get rid of its infestation.
Lighting a candle in the dark room to burn them and making a sticky glue trap for them is also the most effective method to get rid of them.
One more effective way to get all the fruit flies caught in one place is to trap them in a jar. Just place any rotten fruit in one jar and cover its lid. Make a few tiny holes on its lid. Once you get all the fruit flies to trap in the jar. Decompose it far away from your home.
Also read about how to get rid of lizards in summers!
