Gnats: 10 Tips To Stop The Invasion In The Kitchen Or Home

Last updated on October 23rd, 2023 at 08:47 pm

Has a gnat invasion taken up residence in your kitchen? If so, you’ll have to get rid of them quickly or you’ll find a whole colony of them everywhere.

They have a knack for reproducing quickly and you don’t have time to say “wow” before they start to dot the kitchen wall and take the garbage can for Club Med. In fact, these flying insects are not dangerous, but they are still a nuisance when they start invading our homes! It must be said that they like humidity, odors, heat and food… so many possible explanations to your problem.

Here are some solutions to put in place to chase away these undesirables. Complement them with some effective traps.

1) Basic tips against midge invasion

• Do not leave food or leftovers exposed to the air (even in a closet, gnats will have easy access to it) or open bottle of wine so as not to attract them.Everything should be in the refrigerator, closed or in a jar. It’s more complicated with the fruit basket, which sometimes decomposes quickly, but there again, a good remedy exists!
• Do not leave standing water in the sink or in a container on the table (a simple glass of water lying around, a bowl or a dog or cat bowl could give them a choice place to reproduce).
• Cleaning dirty dishes, sinks and work surfaces is important. To do this, liquid black soap is a good non-toxic, multi-purpose grandmother’s product. Be sure to dry them well afterwards to have as little moisture as possible. Less humid interiors are less affected by these invasive insects!
• Use closed garbage cans and empty them often. You can take care of the odors with a few tricks or disinfect the garbage can with ammonia to kill all the little bugs (leave for an hour and then rinse).
• Clean traps and drains by regularly pouring boiling water, coffee grounds or soda crystals followed by boiling water.

If the season is right, let the fan blow them out of the house.

2) Two quick tips to get rid of as much as possible

There are two techniques that will kill many of them quickly, but they won’t solve the problem:

With your vacuum cleaner, regularly suck up as many as you can and then seal the vacuum bag in a tightly closed plastic bag so they can’t get out.
Use fly tape to attract them to the color and stick to it, or use adhesive with a little powdered sugar sprinkled on top.
Like running an oiled plate through the gnat cloud to remove as many as possible, these are not substantive solutions. In fact, supplement these efforts with the treatments discussed in this article to prevent the return of these bugs.

3) A trap with a bottle

Put an uncorked bottle in a strategic place and pour in something to attract the gnats (a little beer or syrup or raw meat). The gnats will go inside and get stuck. Then simply empty the bottle and replace the bait.

4) A trap based on cider vinegar against midge invasion

Its smell is very attractive to these little beasts that will go to trap themselves. Pour it into a bowl and add a little dishwashing liquid and mix well. Replace your mixture every day.

5) With eucalyptus

Place 150g of fresh eucalyptus leaves in 5 liters of water. Boil it for 15 minutes and then let the mixture sit to cool. Strain your decoction and pour it into a spray bottle to spray this solution. Eucalyptus leaves are some of the best repellents against these little flying beasts, so don’t go without!

6) With geranium essential oil

Dilute 8 drops of geranium essential oil in a neutral dispersant and then mix it with 100 ml of water. You get a great repellent spray mix.

7) With peppermint essential oil

There’s no prep required here! Peppermint essential oil should just be used as a diffuser to scare away gnats.

Use an electric diffuser to diffuse peppermint essential oil.

8) Essential oil and sponge

Cut pieces of sponge with a few drops of tea tree, lemongrass or lavender essential oil. Place the pieces all over the kitchen and around the trash can.

9) A lemon tip

Prick half a lemon with cloves, place in a saucer to be placed in a strategic corner.

10) A little mixture against midge invasion

In a spray bottle, prepare a mixture of ¼ of white spirit vinegar, ½ liter of water and 10 drops of lavender essential oil. The gnat invasion need not be so bad!