After writing, how to get rid of bed bugs?, how to get rid of cockroaches?, how to get rid of wasps?, and how to get rid of fleas?, we are now writing the best ways to get rid of fruit flies fast and naturally. Fruit flies are small flies that feed on over ripe fruits and vegetables. They can be even found across sinks and garbage bins at our homes. These insects are small but they come in huge numbers. This article will help to get rid of fruit flies fast, naturally and easily. An average female fruit fly can lay up to 600 eggs in one cycle. The eggs take only 10 days to hatch and turn to fruit flies. From the farmer to the market and then ultimately to our homes, these flies are hard to eliminate.
You can find them even in the cleanest of the homes. Any open fruit in the kitchen is a feast for colonies of fruit flies. Since these flies sit on garbage bins and other unhygienic places, they can easily contaminate our fruits and vegetables. So it is very important to get rid of these fruit flies. There are certain methods by which one can get rid of fruit flies fast and effectively.
What Causes Fruit Flies?
Ripen food items are the main reason of fruit flies in the home, because it mainly depends upon the decayed items like decayed fruits and vegetables. Always try to clear your dustbin and kitchen with ripen foods items as soon as possible. Fruit flies are mainly dependent upon garbage items for their food and to reproduce.
Sometimes you will find one or two of them and after a week you will not able to count them, this happens because they grow very fast and vastly. They can lay 500 eggs at once and the total time duration for becoming an adult from an egg takes 8 to 10 days. It’s not that difficult to get rid of fruit flies. Here’s some fast and simple steps to how to get rid of fruit flies.
Ways to Get Rid of Fruit Flies Fast:
Contents
1.) Keep Your Surroundings Clean
This is the first and basic step in how to get rid of fruit flies fast. These flies are attracted by unhygienic surroundings. So it is very important to keep our place clean and well maintained to avoid these flies on the first place. Try to get doors and windows with net of small holes, so that they cannot enter the home.
Fruits and vegetables should be eaten fresh and at the same time should not be left open. Keep the fruits and vegetables in the refrigerator. Dustbins should be with closed lids to prevent contamination. Keep the sinks clean and disinfected with cleaning solutions. Room freshening sprays and air purifiers may help in the cause.
2.) Red Wine Makes Them Crazy
You may be shocked that even flies love wine. If you find your fruits and vegetables being eaten by the flies, red wine can have another use except drinking. Take a bottle with narrow mouth and nearly half filled with red wine. Keep the bottle open in the area having larger number of flies. These flies will get inside the bottle to enjoy the wine but remain stuck there due to the narrow mouth bottle. The process is very effective and usually takes 20 minutes to help you get rid of fruit flies fast. When the flies are trapped in the bottle, close it with a lid to suffocate the flies to death.
3.) Jar with Ripe Fruits to Get Rid of Fruit Flies
Yes, you can easily bluff these fruit flies and get rid of fruit flies. Take a ripen fruit pieces in a jar. All the flies will get attracted to this jar and it will enter to eat the ripening fruit. In this way you will be able to catch all of them.
- Take a jar, keep few ripen fruit pieces in the jar. Make a cone with the help of paper and put it on the jar, do not forget to make a narrow opening in the cone.
- Keep this jar where you find them most for an hour or two. You will find all the flies inside the jar and don’t worry, it will won’t find a way out of the jar. Close the jar and wash it with water.
4.) Use Fruit Fly Sprays
There are several brands in the market, who supply sprays to kill fruit flies instantly. This is the most effective way to get rid of fruit flies fast. These sprays can be used in the homes to kill the flies in just 4-5 minutes. These sprays are not harmful to us and come with good fragrance to help soothe the environment. In order to effectively use the spray, it is recommended to spray in areas highly affected by the flies. You can make your own spray, some homemade spray are in this article.
5.) Use Apple Cider Vinegar
Apple Cider Vinegar is one best and effective component available at your kitchen. This is because the fruit flies cannot resist the odor of the fermented stuffs. All you need to do is open the cap of the bottle and cover it with a thin plastic wrap or a cotton cloth. Now tie a rubber band over the covered portion by making a tiny hole in between the covering. By doing this you will let the flies enter inside the bottle. But they won’t be able to come out of the trapped bottle. This is effective when you have less fruit flies in your kitchen.
6.) Vacuum Them Out
It is advised to use a vacuum cleaner with considerable power to suck in the fruit flies. To get rid of fruit flies fast get a light weight vacuum machine and trap all the fruit flies from the affected area. The machine will trap them in a bag inside it. Most of the vacuum cleaners have hot air in them. Hot air will kill the fruit flies and then the bag can be disposed in the garbage. This method is fast and easy for everyone to get rid of fruit flies.
7.) Keep the Drains Clean
Fruit flies lay their eggs in places where it is very hard to reach. Mostly they lay eggs in the drain which helps them to build colonies of fruit flies. In order to get rid of fruit flies fast it is recommended to keeps the drains clean. Vinegar is a natural cleaning agent and it can be used to keep the drains clean and fruit fly free. Take a cup of vinegar and mix it in one litter of water. Pour the solution in the drain slowly and for the time being avoid using water for the next 10-15 minutes .This will flush out the eggs laid by the flies and hence help in controlling their growth.
8.) Vinegar and Dish Soap Trap:
Prepare this trap by adding the vinegar and soapy water. The fruit flies will be attracted towards the smell of the vinegar. Leave this bowl near to the area where flies generally roam. The flies will come to consume it and will sink and drown in it.
It is not a daunting task to get rid of the pest like fruit flies. You can easily fight them by using the fruit fly traps to capture them. Now, fruit flies are no more a big problem for you. You can easily capture them by using the fruit fly traps. No fruit fly will become a bane of the homeowners. Just use these methods and prepare fruit fly traps at home.
9.) Lemon Grass Spray
These flies do not like to be sprayed with lemon grass oil. Though they will not be killed with it, we can use it to keep them at the bay. Take 10 drops of lemon grass oil and mix it with two ounces of hot water. Put the solution in a clean spray bottle and spray it all around the home in areas prone to fruit flies. This is a natural method and dates back to ancient times.
10.) Use The Camphor Tablets
Use camphor tablets as a home remedy to get rid of fruit flies. The smoke produced from the burning camphor is very much effective to make them fly away. Burn 2 to 4 camphor tablets put it in a metal bowl with the help of match sticks. Keep it in the area you find the fruit flies. You will notice after a few minutes they will vanish.
11.) Rue Herbs to Get Rid of Fruit Flies
Rue herb is very effective and old method to get rid of fruit flies. It is easily available in vegetable or plant market. This can be kept in bottle filled with water that it covers the stem of rue herbs. It can live up to 2 weeks but even if it dies it can work for 2 to 3 days. Try to change the water every day if not possible change it after 2 days, spray the water on herbs so that it lives longer. Keep it in the area where you find them most.
12.) Lets Play With Fruit Flies
When you find a lot of flies eating up your edibles, it is time to kill them. To get rid of fruit flies fast, use the electric badminton. It looks like a normal playing badminton, but it has wire mesh supplied with high voltage current enough to kill the flies. It is easily available in the market and works with two aaa size cells. The fruit flies die as soon as they come in contact with the wire mesh. The badminton racket produces crackling sound when the fruit flies touch the mesh. One may also get a burning smell of flies’ body.
13.) Milk Pepper and Sugar
Fruit flies are born to die for sugar. So, the use of this paste is the best way to how to get rid of fruit flies fast, as you can prepare it with the ingredients which are we are easily available in your kitchen. It will hardly take 5 minutes. Boil a half glass of milk in a pan. Mix 2 spoons of sugar and 5 to 6 pinches of black pepper. Wait till it cools down and keep it for an hour. After an hour you will find all the fruit flies in a bowl.
14.) Prevention is Better Than Cure
This phrase suits best. To prevent things before it gets worst, try to keep your home clean to get rid of fruit flies.
- Do not keep ripen fruits and vegetables in your kitchen like onion, tomato, banana. Try to keep your dustbin covered with a cap or tie the garbage in a bag at night.
- Keep all the fruits and vegetables in the refrigerator because it mainly attacks on unrefrigerated food items.
- Try to close your windows and doors properly. Clean all the fruits and vegetables with water before keeping it in the refrigerator.
Do not panic if they already exist in your home, as there are some more magical and effective solution for how to get rid of fruit flies. Read below to know more.
Trapping Fruit Flies with a Pepper Funnel to Get Rid of Fruit Flies Fast and Naturally
1.) Choose the Best Bottle to Catch the Fruit Flies
You need to select the tall jar, or wine bottle or vase to serve as the base of the trap. You can choose any of the jar, which will work in a pinch. This method is one of the effective methods to get rid of fruit flies fast and naturally.
2.) Put Fruit Fly Bait
Fruit flies feed on anything that is sugary, so you will have lots of option for the disposal. Any type of the fruit, juice, soda, or any other sweet item, that will give you the great benefit for fruit flies to fly into your trap. You can try these bait ideas ranked from the most to least effective.
You can chop up pieces of over ripe or rotting fruit. For example, you can choose a few slices of bruised banana, you can also take the soft strawberry or squishy peach which will work best.
You can also add honey syrup or maple syrup for fruit fly bait. For fruit fly trap, you can take any kind of flavors of fruit juices or sodas. But make sure, you use regular soda as diet soda won’t work best for the flies trap.
Go for apple cider vinegar or soy sauce. The dreg from a wine or beer bottle can work in a pinch. Fruit flies are get attracted to those drink which contain sugar even in the alcoholic beverages.
3.) Make a Funnel and Put into the Container
A funnel with small hole will allow the flies to enter the jar but be careful, won’t be smart enough to fly back out. Just tape the funnel properly so that it keeps in the shape. Keep the funnel inside of the container so that narrow side is pointing down. The tip of the funnel should not touched the bait.
You can make funnel with any piece of the scrape paper or a page ripped from a magazine can easily make into a paper funnel. You can create a hole by using a toothpick to poke a hole in the bottom of a coffee filter.
4.) Set the Trap in a Fruit Fly-Infested Area
You need to put this near the kitchen, the garbage can or fruit bowl. If you are getting more trouble with many parts of the kitchen, then you have to set multiple traps to catch the more flies in the traps. You have to set the trap and leave it overnight. By the Next day you will see fruit flies are happily eating the bait inside the bottles. But in case, if you didn’t trap any of the flies, then create new bait and make sure the whole is big so that the flies trap into the trap.
5.) Kill All the Flies Inside the Trap
You need to pour a mixture of warm water and add a dish soap into the container. The soap works best to reduce the surface tension of the water and cause the flies to down. You need to wait a minute or two, then you need to discard the contents of jar.
If the trap is still buzzing with the fruit flies, you need to trap outside before removing the funnel. Wash off the jar thoroughly with hot water when you are done. You can even use it again for the trap.
6.) Repeat until the Trap Remain Empty
Fruit flies tend to multiply quickly and get attracted to food particles, especially those which contain sugar. Their life can be as short as eight days. It also can happen that you have to repeat the trapping process many times to get rid of fruit flies completely.
You should also aware about the fruit flies eggs that will hatch after eight to ten days. It can also possible that you need to do trapping process several times to get rid of fruit flies completely. You can do this process for a week or for two. Stop making efforts when you see no flies in your trap after leaving it for several hours. If you want to get rid of fruit flies completely then you need to take care of the eggs too.
Trapping the Fruit Flies with Bowl Traps to Get Rid of Fruit Flies
1.) Go with a larger or Medium Bowl
Although, it is not quite effective as it is a paper funnel method. You need to apply the same approach that you have done above. Attract the fruit flies with the trap with the small opening and make it hard them to exit.
2.) Put Sweet Bait into the Medium Bowl or Large Bowl
The type of bait doesn’t effects with the quantity, you probably should at least an inch of sweet liquid to cover the bowl. Here an suggestion for sweet concoction that works amazingly.
For the trap, add the bait. You need to put a piece of bold, skinless fruit such as banana or orange along with some balsamic vinegar in a bowl.
You can also do experiment with white wine and coriander seeds. This mixture works effectively to get rid of fruits flies completely. You need to add while vinegar to make the concoction even more pungent. A mix of honey, balsamic, and sugar, that also works well when you add these things in the bait.
3.) Cover the Bowl Completely
You just need to use a large sheet of plastic wrap that covers the bowl completely. For better trap, use plastic wrap that works the best.
4.) Poke Numerous Whole
You need to make numerous whole with the help of folk. Try to keep the holes as small as possible. Don’t make the large holes that can let the flies escape back out again. The main thing is to lure the fruit flies into the bowl and make it extremely hard to get back out.
If you are using a fork makes that make the holes too big then try to use toothpick that will make small holes in the small plastic wrap.