How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies How To Videos and Tips at The Home Depot

Table of Content

• Milk and sugar
• Try a store-bought trap
• How To Get Rid Of Fruit Flies Without Vinegar
• Old wine or beer trap

After all, you might as well use your fruit fly infestation as motivation to clean the whole kitchen while you're at it. It's an affordable and convenient way to sterilize and prevent future fruit fly outbreaks. All it takes to stop these irksome insects in their tracks is some strategic cleaning and a few household supplies.

It’s also smart to wash produce as soon as you get home from the grocery store to remove any potential larvae that might be hiding inside. This Dr. Axe content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure factually accurate information. Additionally, after mating, female fruit flies inject batches of eggs into fresh fruit.

Milk and sugar

They often lay their eggs in rotten fruit and other organic materials, and this can escalate the problem quickly. Thankfully there are natural ways to prevent them from proliferating in your home. Fruit flies are mostly just an annoyance and normally not a major problem when it comes to your health. For example, they don’t bite people or pets , but they are capable of potentially contaminating food with bacteria.

Fortunately, following a good cleaning of your house, especially your kitchen, it’s pretty simple to do using basic ingredients such as vinegar. If left untreated, a fruit fly infestation can pose potential health risks. Fruit flies are known to fly around and pick up bacteria that they then deposit onto fresh foods. If homemade traps aren’t working for you, visit your local hardware store and purchase a sticky fly trap. Over at Frugally Blonde, the isopropyl alcohol method is further enhanced with the addition of dish soap or lemon essential oil. As mentioned in other remedies, the soap bubbles trap the flies, while the lemon essential oil will draw them in with their scent.

Try a store-bought trap

If you see little black bugs flying around your kitchen, you first want to make sure you identify the critters correctly. Fruit flies usually appear light or dark brown in color with red eyes. Double-check that your pests in question aren't drain flies, which lurk around drains or garbage disposals, or fungus gnats, which prefer overwatered houseplants. For those bugs, check out our guides on how to get rid of gnats and how to make a homemade fly trap. Even after you've checked your house for cracks or any open windows and doors, fruit flies can enter through your kitchen garbage disposal and even the drains. Web MD recommends pouring boiling water into these areas.

Fruit flies are attracted to ripe, rotting or decayed fruit and produce, as well as fermented goods like beer, liquor and wine, say the pros at Orkin. They also like to buzz around trash cans and garbage disposals if enough food is present. And, unfortunately, considering their reproductive prowess, two tiny fruit flies will quickly multiply into an infestation that can feel almost impossible to control.

How To Get Rid Of Fruit Flies Without Vinegar

Are there extra guests in your kitchen that you didn’t invite? Are they buzzing around your fresh fruit and vegetables, or even your trash can? Maybe you left out some empty beer bottles and they’re flying around those, too?

They are most active during the summer and in moist climates. They tend to be found in your kitchen near food, in drains and garbage cans, or even inside decaying meat and open alcohol. As mentioned above, they seek out ripe, rotting or decayed fruit and produce.

Paper cone, vinegar and old fruit trap

Immediately after, tape a clear plastic storage bag over the opening and leave overnight. Fruit flies will attempt to leave the drain, but will become trapped in the bag instead. Carefully throw the bag away outside, and your fruit fly issue will hopefully be solved.

While many solutions involve trapping the fruit flies, a targeted spray also works well if you have good aim and a little patience. Mix some isopropyl alcohol and water together and pour into a spray bottle. Spray it all over the area where the fruit flies are located, and they will die on contact. While you're spraying down the area for fruit flies, the mixture will also rid your kitchen of mold, bacteria, and other unwanted substances.

How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies Naturally

Throw out very ripe produce, regularly clean your kitchen and wipe down counters, clean spills quickly, empty your sink drain regularly, and cover your trash cans. Keep any open drinks or ripe produce in sealed containers or in your refrigerator. Most store-bought traps are available for under $20 and come in fun shapes like apples so they don't clash with your kitchen. Like any bait trap, be sure to keep fruit fly traps away from children and animals.

A fruit fly is a tiny insect that is drawn to overripe or decaying fruit and other produce that contains a lot of sugar/fructose. Rubbing alcohol also kills fruit flies, so some people simply fill a spray bottle with pure rubbing alcohol and spray areas where flies tend to be hover and accumulate. When purchasing fruits and veggies at the grocery store, be careful not to choose those that are too ripe, especially if you aren’t using them right away. Buy fruits and vegetables that are underripe, or store very ripe produce in your fridge so it’s not out in open air. The tiny larvae of fruit flies tend to crawl out of the breeding site, such as inside rotting fruit, over to a nearby dry spot. Within about 24 hours these larvae can mature enough to begin flying around.

Professional traps

Caroline is a writer and editor with almost a decade of experience. From 2015 to 2019, she held various editorial positions at Good Housekeeping, including as health editor, covering nutrition, fitness, wellness, and other lifestyle news. She's a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism and dreams of the day Northwestern will go back to the Rose Bowl. Cover the opening with plastic wrap and secure with a rubber band.

Again, you want to act quickly since the problem can escalate rapidly once they start laying eggs in your home. The information in our articles is NOT intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. Healthline has strict sourcing guidelines and relies on peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical associations.