How Do You Get Rid Of Small Fruit Flies Fast?

Last updated on October 23rd, 2023 at 08:52 pm

Do you enjoy summer fruits and vegetables, it will be hard to avoid this time stands for a long time. Although the fruit still seems edible, you discover that small flies are circling around.

As if from nowhere, the fruit flies appear and it seems impossible to get rid of them. They are so small that ordinary remedies against flies seem useless.

Nevertheless, in order to fight fruit flies, you can resort to your own means. How about a fruit fly trap, which will fight the small pest without much effort?

How effective the self-built trap against fruit flies and what it depends on the construction, you will learn in this guide.

How do you prevent the fruit fly?

If the fruit fly has already taken up residence in your kitchen, only control methods will help. Less effort is required if you take preventive measures so that the small flies are not even present in your kitchen.

Fruit flies are small insects that feed on fermenting and rotting fruit. The skin of these fruits is less resistant, so that the fruit fly can penetrate it more easily. When the fruit is still young, the fly could not penetrate to the pulp, so it prefers to choose the older fruits.

The fruit flies mostly live on the purchased fruits. There the eggs are already laid and with time the fruit flies grow up. They are not exclusively in the kitchen. To get food, they search the entire apartment and often find themselves next to trash cans.

A single fly can lay up to 400 eggs. Therefore, it is necessary to fight the small animals as soon as possible. With the following preventive measures, the problem will not occur in the first place.

Do not leave food scraps

Fruit flies feed on the food that you leave open. The flies don’t just target fruit. They prefer all sweet and sour or sweet foods. This also applies to drinks, which is why soft drinks are particularly attractive.

After eating, you should avoid leaving dishes standing for any length of time. It is best to rinse them directly and dispose of the leftovers in such a way that they are out of reach of the fruit fly. This will stop them from spreading and you won’t have to deal with the pesky flies.

Keep trash cans closed

When it comes to finding food, fruit flies are not very picky. In addition to slightly overripe fruit, they also linger near trash cans. If you dispose of food scraps in the trash can, the flies can feed on those.

To avoid providing a food source, cover all trash cans with a lid and keep them closed. Empty the trash cans more often and flies will be less likely to feel at home with you.

Wash fruit only before eating

To wash off the eggs, there might be a desire to clean the fruit immediately after purchase. However, the water causes the fruit to rot faster and become more attractive to fruit flies. Therefore, you should wash it only before eating it.

Thorough cleaning

If you clean your kitchen, you should use warm water with dishwashing liquid for this purpose. The dishwashing detergent will ensure that fruit flies will no longer find a foothold on these surfaces and will prefer to stay in other places. Thus, you can at least protect your kitchen.

Use smells to drive away the fruit fly

Building a fruit fly trap proves to be effective, but it comes at a small cost. If the infestation is low, you could first use odors to send the fruit fly fleeing.

An onion scent is said to be effective. To do this, cut open the onion and place it in the fruit basket with them. The fruit fly will avoid the onion smell and will not go after the fruit.

As an alternative, lemons and oranges are also said to be effective. To increase the chances of success, lard the lemon and oranges with cloves. Spread this odor nuisance wherever you want to keep the fruit flies away.

To prevent any fruit flies from entering your home from outside, you can also set up the odor barriers under the window. The fly is so impressed by the smell that it will not dare to enter the house through the window.

Build a fruit fly trap yourself

If you want to fight the pesky flies, this can be done relatively simply by building a fruit fly trap yourself. This succeeds with simple home remedies and different attractants. Needed are:

• flat bowl
• Fruit, sweet juice
• Apple cider vinegar
• Water
• Washing-up liquid

Put the fruit or juice into the shallow dish. After that, add the water to a small amount. This provides the basic framework for your fruit fly trap. The small flies are attracted to the fruit and the sweet smell. They settle on the water to get to the food scraps.

In order for the trap to snap shut, you need to add dishwashing liquid. This ensures that the surface tension is reduced. The fruit fly no longer succeeds in staying on the water and sinks. It drowns in the water, so that it can no longer eat the fruit.

Place this fruit fly trap near the infestation and wait. The practical thing here is that the effort is minimal. On hot summer days you should renew the fruit fly trap every few days. After a short time you will already notice the effect and the number of fruit flies will decrease significantly.

Stable fruit fly trap

In addition to the rather simple variant, you can use other variations that will prove to be just as effective. If you want it to be a bit more hygienic, you can cover the bowl with a plastic bag.

Here you proceed similarly to the previous variant. Put some fruit in the bowl and put a plastic bag over the bowl. Make a small hole at the top of the plastic bag so that the fruit flies can reach the attractant.

The advantage of this variant is that the smell is better concentrated and appears more intense. You need to renew the fruit fly trap less often and the effort is clearly limited.

Fruit fly trap with plastic bottle

Another alternative is to make a fruit fly trap, which is equipped with a plastic bottle. It proves to be a bit more time-consuming to make, but it is considered more hygienic and disposing of the fruit flies is much easier.

Use an empty plastic bottle and cut it approximately in the middle. Now fill the lower half with the attractant. This consists best of a piece of fruit, as well as a juice or other sweet drink. Filled up with water you get a mixture that attracts the fruit flies.

The mixture is now filled in the lower part of the bottle. The upper neck of the bottle you put upside down on the bottle. Of course, you should unscrew the cap beforehand.

With this construction you attract the fruit flies and through the funnel you are better guided into the trap. With a drop of washing-up liquid you make sure that the small flies drown and do not escape.

The attractants

Essential to the success of the fruit fly trap are the attractants. Using fruit is considered the obvious choice. However, there are a number of other foods and scents that are attractive to fruit flies.

Wine

Fruit flies are attracted to all sweet drinks. Of course, this also applies to the wine. Use a white wine or rosé to fill the trap. What is practical about this method is that you only need a small amount. A shot glass will provide enough lure, so you don’t have to waste expensive wine.

Yeast

A feast for the fruit fly also seems to be yeast. You will need a narrow-necked bottle to make the fruit fly trap. Carefully fill the bottle with water.

Prepare the yeast by adding it to lukewarm water with a little sugar. This will make a yeast milk, which you now pour into the bottle.

The fruit flies will be attracted by the yeast and will try to find their way into the bottle. From there they will not find their way out, so you have built an effective trap.

The fruit fly trap

If you are frequently visited by the small flies, you should first change your eating habits. Wash the fruit only shortly before eating it and do not let the fruit become overripe.

If you were still careless and the fruit flies appear, then a trap will help you fight them. Place a bowl of fruit as well as sweet juice to attract the fly.

A drop of dishwashing liquid will lift the surface tension so that they drown. In this way, you get an effective fruit fly trap with little effort.