It’s one thing to know how to kill fruit flies quickly, but what’s even more important is knowing how to prevent fruit flies from infesting your house in the first place. Today, I’m going to tell you how to do both naturally.
If you’ve ever had fruit flies in your kitchen, you know they breed at unbelievable speed. There’s a myth that they live and die in the span of 24 hours. Turns out, the life cycle of a fruit fly can be over two weeks. Some species live several months. During that time, each female can lay over 100 eggs per day!
Now, imagine you have a suitable breeding ground for just four females in your kitchen. At 100 eggs per day after they’re old enough to breed — usually when they’re three days old — you’re looking at thousands of fruit flies in your home!
Fruit Flies Are Gross
Fruit flies don’t just eat your food, they also carry disease. If you have a cat litter box in your home, you’ve probably seen a few flitting about when you’ve gone to scoop kitty’s business. You’ll find them near bathroom and kitchen drains, too, as well as around toilets and other sources of water.
Guess where they’ll head next? To their favorite breeding grounds: your food!
Females love to burrow into fruit, vegetables or any other food left on the counter. Once cozy, they lay their eggs and guess where those eggs are going to end up? That’s right: you’ll eat them.
If that sounds unappealing to you, then you need to take action the instant you spy a fruit fly flitting around your house.
How To Kill Fruit Flies
Now, as with any attempts to get rid of household pests, a lazy approach won’t work. Sure, you might see fewer fruit flies for a couple of days but, if you don’t follow through, they’ll just come back again and again. So, read through these steps then follow them.
Bait them with traps
One of the easier ways to kill fruit flies is to bait them into a bowl filled with liquid. I’ve used several different kinds of such traps. Here are the three I’ve found most successful:
1. A shallow bowl of apple cider vinegar left near their favorite breeding grounds attracts fruit flies with its scent. Cover it with a piece of plastic wrap (or a lid) in which you’ve poked a few holes with a toothpick. The flies will go in, but they won’t come back out. Change the vinegar daily.
2. A bottle with a paper funnel will entice them to fly in, but they won’t figure out how to get out. A half-empty beer or wine bottle works particularly well for this since fruit flies are attracted to those scents. Use a kitchen funnel or roll a piece of paper to form one and insert the narrow end into the bottle. Tape it in place if needed. Change daily.
3. A bowl of water with just a couple drops of liquid soap left under a light at night (the light over your stove is perfect for this) will attract both fruit flies and mosquitoes that have found their way into your home. The light’s reflection on the water attracts them, but the soap will create a surface tension that prevents them from flying away. Change every morning.
NOTE: With new eggs hatching daily, you’ll need to keep the traps going and your prevention measures in place for a couple of weeks.
Kill fruit flies in drains
Some fruit flies make their home in areas where it’s just not practical to place a trap. Examples include shower drains, bathroom sink drains, toilets, etc. To get rid of fruit flies in these areas, pour boiling water (or boiling white vinegar) down drains and toilets.
Also, make sure your drains are clear of hair and other debris that create ideal breeding grounds for these pests. (See How To Clean Stinky Drains.)
How To Prevent Fruit Flies
Once you’ve done the work to kill fruit flies, keep them from coming back with these preventative measures.
1. Keep counters clean. Fruit flies don’t just like to eat fruit. They’ll feast on spilled food, crumbs, spilled juice — just about anything. Wipe your counters at least once a day with a microfiber cloth and homemade all purpose spray, so they don’t turn into a snack bar for the pests.
3. Wash bananas and melons. Fruit flies piggyback their way into our homes on these two fruits more than any other. Wash them in homemade fruit and vegetable wash as soon as you get back from the store to get rid of flies and their eggs.
3. Cover your fruit bowl. Like many moms, I leave a bowl of fruit on the kitchen counter to keep healthy snacks within reach for my family. If left uncovered, that fruit bowl becomes a “single’s bar” for fruit flies. Now I cover it with clear cake dome which lets us see the healthy options but keeps fruit flies from touching them
4. Deal with household odors immediately. If it stinks, chances are it attracts fruit flies, too. Clean drains, garbage cans, pet bedding, litter boxes and similar things as part of your regular cleaning routine. (See How To Deodorize Your Home Naturally.)
Repeat, repeat, repeat.
Remember how female fruit flies lay over 100 eggs per day? With new eggs hatching every day, you’ll need to be diligent for a couple of weeks about using traps, depriving them of food, and keeping them from favorite breeding places.
More from this blog:
• How To Get Rid Of Cockroaches (and DIY Cockroach Killer)
• How To Get Rid of Spiders In Your Home
• Daily Cleaning Routine Checklist
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Dearest Katie,
As always, very to the point and practical tips for living and eating healthy!
Thanks for these tips.
Hugs,
Mariette
Thank you, Mariette! Hugs to you, too. 🙂
We had a lot of fruit fly problem at home and I use apple cider vinegar…works like a charm.
Thanks for the tips 🙂
You’re welcome!
Good tips, also use the two ( apple cider vinegar and dish soap) at the same time. This attacks and breaks surface tension.
Another issue if you live in the Southern portion of the United States is “no see em’s or Punkies. These are super small black, or brown or grey files, that bite, and can get through almost any screen, and will go through any home screen.
They love water, shade and wet damp soil. Like Fruit Flies they lay 100’s of eggs a day, and are super hard to get rid of.
Here are some tips for your readers.
1. Like the above Fruit Fly traps do the same. Use the stove light, Apple Cider Vinegar and one drop of soap, in a bowl. But add fruit to it, (old berries work great) and give it about 3 days, and leave about half the fruit exposed out of the Apple Cider in the bowl.
IMPORTANT: Use plastic wrap or paper, and poke tinny holes in the paper, and secure tightly to the bowl, with tape if you have too. The holes should be done with a needle and make about 25 to 30 holes. And do not touch or hit the bowl until you are ready to throw out the contents of the bowl.
WHEN YOU GO TO THROW IT OUT: When you go to throw away the bowl contents it will look like nothing is in there, but they are there, ( if you have the bowl on a dark surface you might see white or grey salt specks of the dead “no see em’s”). Before you touch the bowl or hit the table its on, DRIP OIL over the holes, VERY IMPORTANT. This will clog the holes and when you pick up the bowl, any live ones that try to run will get caught in the oil. If you do not do this, some will escape and you will have to start all over again. I learned this the hard way.
When you throw them out, do so at least 100 ft away from your house, or they will come right back to you.
For huge infestations, you must get a carbon dioxide trap, and they are expensive, ($300 to $500 USD).
Use the above traps and give it about 2 to 3 weeks, they work wonders, at least it did for me.
Oh, No See Ems are the worst!
What if this doesn’t work? We have tried EVERY single remedy we could find and they aren’t falling for any of them. Now we have a full on infestation in our house and there seems to be more every single day. We’re freaking out!
Have you gone through cleaning every one the things mentioned above, including cleaning the drains and been diligent about doing those daily for at least a week?
Other culprits might include onions if you store them in your kitchen. At the store yesterday, a swarm of the things went flying when I reached for an onion. The potatoes were just as bad. (I wound up going to the green grocery for mine instead.) So check yours.
Dirty garbage cans also give them great homes. Be sure the trash goes out daily, and give your kitchen can a thorough washing.
Anyone else have ideas?
Yeah, we’ve done all that. I discovered this cleaner (Awesome from Dollar Tree) that stops them in their tracks. We spent HOURS spraying them yesterday. We cleaned the entire house, dried everything so there was no standing water, poured bleach down all the drains, removed every piece of food and stuck it in the fridge. They seem a LITTLE better today but I still think it’s going to be quite the journey to get them out. We think there might also be something we’re missing. Our basement leaks when it rains and our landlord refuses to fix it, so that could be the problem, and there’s nothing we can really do about it. :/
I know this is old, but we discovered that flypaper works wonderfully when placed near a small dish of apple cider vinegar. It really helped while we dealt with the culprits (fruit bowl and trash can, for us).
That’s an excellent tip. Thank you!
Hi
I have done everything I can find to get rid of fruit flies and they still come back. They are coming in from outside Im sure, but I cant live with windows sealed shut all year long. I dont have fruit, I am ocd with cleaning, and yet they keep appearing. Everytime I ask how to stop them returning the answers dont help, they just say how to catch them and be thorough to stop them breeding. If they are coming in from outside what the heck do I do?
If you can offer any advice Id love to hear. Thank you
If you’re certain they’re coming in from outside, try this: first, clean your window screens and sill, then wash your windows using my homemade window cleaner. Add 5 drops of lemongrass, cedarwood or basil essential oil to that mix when you clean.
Then, combine 1 cup water and 15 drops of lemongrass, cedarwood, or basil essential oil in a spray bottle. Spray your windowsills, both inside and out, daily with this mixture. Fruit flies do not like these essential oils, so using them regularly on your sills, and when cleaning your windows, should help keep them away.
Best of luck!
Thank you for the tipes it help me and my family I hope it works for other people
Ketchup is a great bait too! Putting the traps in the freezer (after plugging the holes) kills them very quickly and you can reset your trap again without taking it apart. Fruit flies don’t do well in the cold, so we are lucky that we have a cool winter to kill them off here. I feel for you people who live in year round warm weather having to deal with them! Yuck.
To get fruit flies quick. I use my Kirby vacuum hose attachment. They aren’t very fast. I can get an entire colony in about 15-20 minutes. If u have plenty of light and light colored walls they are easy to see and easy to catch even mid flight.
This is a great idea; the only other thing I would add is to be SURE to EMPTY the machine immediately after doing this, outside. When I used to have a flea problem, I would put a cut up flea collar inside my vacuum, then let the vacuum do its work. IMMEDIATELY dump the vacuum or change the bag, adding another part of the cut up flea collar. If your machine uses bags, yes, this can be expensive, but it works. Make sure your animals are also treated at the same time, using the same tips you can find elsewhere. I think I’ll go vacuum some fruit flies and then some of the other ideas here.
I’ve tried everything but there in my bedroom and in the kitchen and they won’t leave. Please tell me how I can get rid of them fast
Many thanks for useful tips.
Kind regards.
You’re quite welcome!
My refrigerator is full of these dead tiny flying bugs. Are these fruit flies?
Yes, they’re most likely fruit flies. They could also be gnats. Here’s how to get rid of gnats.
As far as teenage boys smelly feet, my grandmother learned many many moons ago that if you soak the feet in a 50/50 solution of cheap bleach and water about 10 to 15 minutes EVERY DAY and eat high iron foods (like a handful of raisins every day) the smelly feet will go bye-bye.
I have a bad fruit fly issue in my bathroom. (Brand new house) ugh!!! I opened my window on a chilly morning yesterday, at my lunch break the bathroom was FULL of them!
I too am a clean freak, I have read your whole article throughly and have done all of it. And know to continue doing the drain cleaning for a few weeks.
My problem is WHY aren’t my 2 bowls of apple cider and dish soap loaded with the nasty little things this morning . I don’t get it I’ve used this potion before in past years when you get a few here and there in the kitchen. Now with that said I do not have a cover on my balls or saran wrap but I have never done that. These little suckers in my bathroom seem to just swarm around the bowl and want to go in but they’re not. What can I do about this as I type this I’m watching them , And my mirror!!! I’m getting frustrated I have two bowls of apple cider potion sitting on my bathroom sink I expected them to be loaded and my problem to be under control I don’t know what to do
Lisa, you’ve got me stumped! Are you certain they’re fruit flies? I know it seems silly to ask, but you’d mentioned the swarm came on a chilly morning and fruit flies tend to go dormant when it’s cold. Coming in through your bathroom window then covering the mirror is odd, too, since it’s not a food source nor even one of their ideal habitats. Whatever they are, I can tell they’re driving you nuts!
Try this: leave the bathroom window closed and set a bowl of the apple cider potion on your bathroom counter. Be sure to add the dish soap! Arrange a lamp of some kind so it shines directly onto the surface of the potion in the bowl. Turn off all of the other bathroom lights so it’s dark in there, and close the door. (If it’s at all possible, cover the mirror — maybe tape newspaper to it — so the only surface reflecting the light is the liquid in the bowl.
The reflection of the light in the surface of the apple cider potion should attract the bugs to it and they’ll try to land, just like they do on your mirror. The soap will create a surface tension that keeps them from escaping, and they’ll drown. Leave that overnight and you should wake up to a bowl filled with their little dead bodies.
Best of luck, and please let me know how it works!
I have been dealing with a similar issue in my bathroom. I figured out that I was using too much dish soap in the uncovered shallow bowls of apple cider vinegar. I also found an empty water bottle with red wine and a paper funnel caught more than anything else. In the past ACV worked best but these little guys seem very into red wine!! I am putting the water bottle traps in the bathtub and by the sink and I have caught tons. Good luck!!
You bring up a great point about using too much dish soap, Joie. I harp on that quite a bit: more isn’t always better, and when people are following DIY tips or making homemade cleaners they really need to follow the measurements precisely. Love your suggestion about using a funnel. I’ll give that a try!
It seems like they develop a dislike for it after awhile. In my case, apple juice really attracted them. So I put apple juice with a drop or two of dish soap in a funneled jar and caught 10 within minutes!
I tried the vinegar/dish soap trick and it did not work. What I did find by accident is they seem to like soy sauce. I keep soy sauce on the counter in one of those tall square class bottles with a pull out spout designed for salad dressing, olive oil, etc. So, I pour out some soy sauce and a bunch of fruit flies come with it. The bottle is full of fruit flies so I would suggest trying that in one of those store bought traps you can get for a few bucks.
Huh. I wonder if it’s the fermentation that’s attracting them, like the wine trap?
Yep, I have the same fruit flu problem. My freezer is full of them!!
Do they just fly in when I open the freezer door? If not, how on earth do they get in??
I have no idea how they get in there. It always shocks me to find them, though.