How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies

Fruit flies are definitely gross and can lay up to 50 eggs per day. Discover easy ways to kill fruit flies in your home with clever tips and traps.

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how to get rid of fruit flies

Fruit Fly

There a number of methods to get rid of fruit flies in your home, including simple DIY fruit fly traps made with vinegar and red wine.

There a number of methods to get rid of fruit flies in your home, including simple DIY fruit fly traps made with vinegar and red wine.

Fruit flies are a definite nuisance, feasting on rotting produce in your home, laying their eggs and fluttering around your kitchen as they go about their dirty business.

There are many, many ways to get rid of fruit flies. But one expert we consulted, Todd Schlenke, assistant professor of biology at Emory University, spends all day studying these pesky pests.

Where do Fruit Flies Come From?

Fruit flies may be tiny, but they have a powerful sense of smell and pick up on "odor plumes" that emanate from your home. They often hitchhike into your home on fruit or vegetables from the grocery store.

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"Fruit flies spend their whole lives searching for the smell of rotting fruit, then get in through cracks in the door or however the smell is getting out of your house," Schlenke says. "Fruit flies don't actually eat fruit, despite the name. They eat the fungus or rot that grows on the fruit. So the best thing is to not let your fruit rot."

how to kill fruit flies

Fruit flies

Fruit flies spend their whole lives searching for the smell of rotting fruit.

Photo by: iStock/Drbouz

iStock/Drbouz

Fruit flies spend their whole lives searching for the smell of rotting fruit.

What Is a Fruit Fly?

The fruit flies you are seeing around the house are genus Drosophila — as opposed to the larger Mediterranean fruit flies that live in orchards. They are most common in late summer and fall.

Female fruit flies lay their eggs on or in fruit that is decaying. And after the larvae hatch, they eat their rotten, fruity surroundings before they grow into adults.

6 Ways to Get Rid of Fruit Flies Fast

The best way to keep fruit flies at bay is to keep rotting fruit and veggies out of your kitchen. If you have a current infestation, keep all fresh produce in your fridge until you get a handle on things. Clean up all spills immediately, take out your trash often and clean up any food residue in the trash can itself.

There a number of DIY methods to get rid of fruit flies in your home and we rounded up a sampling of some of the most tried-and-true methods here.

fruit fly trap ingredients

Fruit Fly Magnet Ingredients

Make a fruit fly trap using household ingredients: sugar, apple cider vinegar and dish soap.

Photo by: Julie Martens Forney

Julie Martens Forney

Make a fruit fly trap using household ingredients: sugar, apple cider vinegar and dish soap.

1. DIY Vinegar Fruit Fly Trap

When fruit flies show up by the dozen, whip up a batch of fruit fly magnet, a quick blend that lures these winged pests to a buffet they can't resist — and can't escape. The ingredients are likely already in your cupboard: sugar, vinegar and dish soap.

Vinegar Fruit Fly Trap Recipe

  1. Use 1 1/2 tablespoons each of vinegar (apple cider or white) and sugar.

  2. Add a small amount of warm water, stirring to dissolve sugar.

  3. Complete the mix with a few squirts of dish soap and enough water to make 8 to 16 ounces of the mixture. How much water to add depends on what you use to hold the blend — and this is where your success hinges.

Researchers have discovered that fruit flies track potential food sources by both odor and shape. In particular, they're looking for roundish shapes that resemble fruit. Displaying your fruit fly magnet in a round bowl or tea cup enhances the odds you'll catch more fruit flies.

This blend snares fruit flies for a few reasons. First, it reeks of the odor that's irresistible to fruit flies.

Second, the soap cuts the surface tension of the solution, which means once fruit flies land, they sink.

Fruit Fly Trap

Fruit Fly Magnet With Fruit

Make a trap with vinegar, sugar and dish soap to get rid of fruit flies in the house.

Photo by: Julie Martens Forney

Julie Martens Forney

Make a trap with vinegar, sugar and dish soap to get rid of fruit flies in the house.

Some Tips on Using the Trap:

  • Let the solution sit out for up to 14 days, adding water as needed to replace any that evaporates.

  • Place it near ripening fruit on the kitchen counter.

  • For a massive outbreak — the kind that occurs in autumn when fruit trees are heavy with ripe fruit — fill large serving bowls with the mixture to provide a larger surface area to catch more fruit flies.
how to get rid of fruit flies with red wine

Dinner Party with Stemmed Glasses of Red Wine

Fruit flies are attracted to red wine.

Fruit flies are attracted to red wine.

2. DIY Red Wine Fruit Fly Trap

If fruit flies have made themselves at home in your kitchen, Emory University's Todd Schlenke says the best way to get rid of them is to give them a nice glass of wine and say goodbye. "Fruit flies like the smell of rotting fruit because they eat the microorganisms, like fungi, that make up the rot. Fungi convert fruit sugars into energy using the process of fermentation, of which alcohol is a byproduct," he says. "So if you have a glass of wine — which is really fermented fruit — or vinegar — which is really, really fermented fruit — that's where they want to be."

And that's where you want a funnel to be. "Fruit flies will go through the hole for that smell and get trapped in the liquid," Schlenke says. "Around the lab, we make traps like that with vinegar all the time. If you want to make it even better, you can put baker's yeast in the vinegar as well."

3. Dish Soap Trap

Place a few drops of dish soap in a shallow bowl of water and mix to form bubbles. Place the dish under a lamp so that the light will attract the flies that will then land and be trapped in the foamy water.

4. Boiling Vinegar or Water

Boil white vinegar or just plain boiling water and then pouring them into shower, kitchen and bathroom drains are both great ways to rid your home of fruit flies.

how to get rid of fruit flies with apple cider vinegar

The smell of apple cide vinegar will attract fruit flies

Photo by: Cassidy Garcia Photography

Cassidy Garcia Photography

The smell of apple cide vinegar will attract fruit flies

5. Apple Cider Vinegar Trap

Fill a dish with apple cider vinegar. Cover it with plastic wrap and secure with a rubber band, then poke a few small holes in the plastic wrap to allow the flies entry. The smell of the vinegar will attract the flies and the plastic wrap will trap them in the dish.

6. Rotten Fruit Trap

Place a chunk of rotten fruit and a little vinegar in a jar. Create a paper cone by rolling a piece of paper into a cone shape and insert it into the jar. Fruit flies will be drawn to the rotten fruit smell and once in your clever trap, won't be able to get out!

How to Prevent a Fruit Fly Infestation

1. Keep all of your produce in the refrigerator.

2. Don't keep overripe fruit and vegetables around.

3. Wash your produce when you bring it home from the store or in from the garden to remove any possiblity of transporting fruit fly larvae into your home.

4. Take out the garage frequently since fruit flies can breed in empty bottles, trash cans and cleaning supplies like mops and rags.

5. Clean up spills immediately, especially sticky, sugary spills.

6. Use a commerical product like Aunt Fannie's FlyPunch.

7. Keep food residue out of the drain.

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