What Home Remedies Are Successful Against Fruit Flies?

Fruit flies are annoying, but fortunately they have no negative consequences for humans. If you ever have the little pests in the apartment and do not know how to get rid of them, then you can resort to simple home remedies. The advantage of home remedies is that they are directly available at your place. Thus, fruit flies can be effectively controlled with home remedies.

Most of the home remedies for fruit flies are based on vinegar because vinegar attracts fruit flies. However, if you do not have vinegar at home, then there are other home remedies listed.

However, if you do have vinegar in your house, then this is the first remedy of choice to get rid of fruit flies.

Eliminate causes of fruit flies

Fighting fruit flies with home remedies is a good way to get rid of them for the time being. But with fruit flies there is a great danger that they will quickly reappear and do their mischief. Fruit fly larvae can be both in the fruit and the garbage already laid. If you eliminate only the live fruit flies, the following generations will still be able to hatch. Therefore, you should also take precautions after the fruit flies have been successfully expelled.

Remove overripe fruit

One cause of fruit flies is overripe fruit. Fruit flies especially like to make themselves comfortable on overripe fruit because it has a simple skin. Fruit flies can penetrate this more easily and lay their eggs in the fruit. Thus, the larvae have directly a perfect nesting place and are supplied with sufficient food.

So, if you see fruit flies in your home, there is a good chance that your fruit has already been completely “infected” with the larvae eggs. Now it is up to you whether you want to remove the fruit or consume it quickly.

The consumption of fruit fly larvae is harmless to humans, but it is also understandable if you do not want to eat this fruit anymore.

Therefore, to prevent the outbreak of the following generation of fruit flies, you should eat the fruit immediately, throw it away, or feed it to animals.

Sealing beer bottles

Did you have another party and couldn’t bring yourself to put the beer bottles away? If at the same time you complain about fruit flies in the apartment then the beer bottles are probably one of the reasons why you have fruit flies in the kitchen.

This is because fruit flies are attracted to alcoholic beverages. They lay their eggs in the beer bottles and after a short time you have a lot of fruit flies bothering you.

Even though fruit flies are more commonly associated with fruit, alcohol is also one of the triggers for persistent fruit fly infestations. Therefore, take away the empty beer bottles or other alcoholic beverages immediately and do not just leave them on the floor. For the future, put the beverage crate somewhere where fruit flies can’t reach it.

Protect the garbage well

A third source of danger for fruit fly infestation is household garbage. Here, organic waste is a particular source of danger. All kinds of waste, from food scraps to empty beverage cans, end up in household garbage.

Since these contain sugar, they have a great attraction for fruit flies. Even if you already have a lid on your trash can, chances are that it may not close properly and is always slightly open.

To effectively protect the trash can from fruit flies, the lid should completely close off the trash. In addition, the garbage should be disposed of regularly.

Especially with organic garbage, fruit or other food residues can ensure that fruit flies are attracted. This is because the fermentation odors attract fruit flies and they use the trash can as a breeding ground.

Home remedy against fruit flies without vinegar

Fruit flies are attracted to a variety of odors. That fruit and other sweet foods attract fruit flies should be no secret. But besides fruit, vinegar also has a very attractive effect on fruit flies. This is because in addition to sweet foods, sour foods also have a very attractive effect.

While vinegar smell attracts fruit flies and is therefore wonderful as a home remedy, it is very unpleasant for humans. Probably no one wants to leave vinegar open in the kitchen to attract fruit flies with this smell.

To avoid being exposed to this vinegar smell, you should use home remedies against fruit flies that do not use vinegar.

Here now follow the best home remedies against fruit flies without the use of vinegar.

Fill a trap with fruits

To keep the apartment free from fruit flies, there is a very effective method. To do this, you just need a glass filled with water and this is covered with foil. Fruit flies are very simple animals and driven by their instincts. If they smell something or if there is food nearby that seems attractive to them, they will do anything to get close.

Therefore, it is usually sufficient to design traps in such a way that the fruit fly can get in but cannot find its way out. This does not even require the creation of a complicated mechanism.

To build the fruit fly trap, fill the jar with some water and the fruit. Now cover the jar with a foil and poke small holes in the foil with a fork or a knife.

After a while, the fruit will start to rot and emit the odors that are so attractive to fruit flies. The fruit flies can now get into the jar through the holes in the foil, but it will be almost impossible for them to find their way out of the jar again.

With the water, you can make the fruit flies drown and gather there. If you do not want to kill the fruit flies, but only relocate them, you can simply move the jar with the fruit flies to another place and release the fruit flies into the wild in the garden, for example.

Attract the fruit flies with sugar

If you don’t have any fresh fruit or you want to eat it yourself and not give it to the fruit flies, then you can also use sugar to attract the fruit flies.

You design the trap for the fruit flies in the same way as in the previous example. The only difference now is that instead of fruit, you put in sugar as an attractant.

The advantage here is that you don’t have to “waste” any fruit and the sugar is similarly effective in the fight against the fruit flies.

Drown the fruit flies with dishwashing liquid

Another home remedy in the fight against fruit flies is dishwashing liquid. Now you don’t put the dishwashing liquid to clean your whole apartment with it, but you put the dishwashing liquid into the trap with the water.

Normally, fruit flies are so light that they can simply land on the water. They manage to do this thanks to the surface tension of the water. Smaller animals can thus easily land on the water without sinking.

Now add a little dishwashing liquid to the trap with the water, however, and the surface tension will be reduced. The reduced surface tension not only makes it easier to remove dirt, but the fruit flies will no longer be able to move on the water.

However, before the fruit fly realizes this, it is already too late and it will drown. If you want to fight fruit flies quickly and effectively, then dishwashing liquid is probably the best home remedy.

The vacuum cleaner

For many people, the vacuum cleaner is a universal weapon against unwelcome insects. The vacuum cleaner can suck in smaller insects like spiders very effectively.

Fruit flies can also be caught with the vacuum cleaner. This is done quickly and very effectively. To suck in the fruit flies, you should remove the attachment and work only with the tube against the fruit flies.

But the method with the vacuum cleaner also requires caution. Because the fruit flies are more resistant than often assumed. Even if the vacuum cleaner applies a high suction effect, this is no guarantee that the fruit flies will actually be killed. Many fruit flies survive being sucked in and may continue to lay eggs in the trash bag.

The fruit flies can continue to reproduce there and if you are particularly unlucky then the fruit flies will also find their way out of the vacuum cleaner.

Therefore, you should change the bag after vacuuming and empty the vacuum cleaner.

Vinegar against fruit flies

As has already been indicated, the vinegar is probably the best home remedy against flies. But how can you use the vinegar to eliminate the problem with fruit flies with it?

In principle, you proceed here again similar to the other tips with the fruit fly trap. However, it is important that the vinegar does not work alone, but this is still mixed with a sweet liquid. Therefore, it is best to mix the vinegar with sugary drinks. For example, you can use a fruit juice or use cola.

As a vinegar, you should use a variety with a sweet note. Balsamic vinegar is a good choice here, and should probably be available in most households. Apple cider vinegar is just as good and works great against fruit flies.

Now, to combat fruit flies, all you have to do is set up a bowl in which you fill with the mixture of vinegar and sweet juice. With a squirt of washing-up liquid you make sure that the attracted fruit flies cannot escape from the vinegar mixture.

Now wait until all the fruit flies have been lured into the trap and then you can dispose of the fruit flies.

Note, however, that the fruit flies may have already laid their larvae in the fruit. Therefore, especially older fruit should either be eaten or disposed of if you do not want fruit flies in your home.

Other home remedies against fruit flies

If you have neither vinegar nor other sweet liquids, then now follow other home remedies against fruit flies. These are rather from the category “curious” and the effectiveness is not always proven. But it is certainly worth a try and maybe you will get rid of fruit flies just as well as with vinegar.

Denture cleaner

One of these curious methods to attract fruit flies is the denture cleaner. The effervescent tablets are added to the water and dissolved. This should attract the fruit flies and with the help of the splash of detergent the fruit flies can be killed.

Carnivorous plant

Plants do not only need water and light to grow. Some of them use the animal protein to sustain themselves. The advantage of carnivorous plants is that no fertilizer needs to be used. This ensures that carnivorous plants are generally very low maintenance.

While a carnivorous plant cannot eliminate an acute fruit fly problem, it can help in the long run to prevent the possibility of fruit flies reproducing in the first place.

As a carnivorous plant against fruit flies offer the butterwort, sundew or Venus flytrap.

They are very small and therefore can be well placed in the apartment and kitchen without taking up much space. Furthermore, they are also very easy to care for.

Where are the traps placed?

Making the traps against fruit flies should not be a problem. But where should you place them now and how many do you actually need?

A single trap against the fruit flies can already make a big difference. However, you will not be able to get rid of all fruit flies with it.

Therefore, to really get rid of all fruit flies, you should place more than one trap in the room.

Also, did you know that fruit flies also lay their eggs in flower pots? The moist environment of flower pots is an ideal place for fruit fly larvae to lay their eggs. Therefore, traps should also be placed near houseplants. If fruit flies want to lay their eggs now or if the new generation hatches, they will be decimated by the new trap.

The larger the room, the more traps should be placed. It is best to place one trap in each corner of the room and you will have the entire room covered efficiently.