How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies in Your Home, Once and for All
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Of all the household pests that can invade your home, fruit flies aren’t the worst. They’re not going to poison you, they’re not especially disgusting to look at, and they're scared off with the flutter of your hand—temporarily, at least. Still, they can make you feel a little ashamed like you have an unclean home, and they’re certainly annoying. Luckily, there are plenty of steps you can take to prevent fruit flies from settling in, to get rid of them, and to prevent them from coming back.
First, what causes fruit flies in your home?
Good news: Fruit flies aren't necessarily your fault. “It's not a cleanliness issue. Flies can come in on your produce when you bring your groceries home,” says Melissa Riker, who blogs home tips at the Happier Homemaker. “And they are incredibly hard to control once you have them in your home because they can lay eggs on anything, even the smallest little crumbs. And they can get in your drains and lay eggs.”
The experts at Orkin confirm that fruit flies are attracted to ripe, rotting, and decayed fruit and produce. They also like fermented items including beer, liquor, and wine. Not only can they breed in drains, but they can do so in garbage disposals, trash cans, and mop buckets. "Once they begin reproducing indoors, females are able to lay about 500 eggs and the eggs will hatch in as little as 24-30 hours after being deposited by the female," Orkin shares on its website.
How do you prevent fruit flies?
Rinse your fruit.
When you bring home fresh produce from the grocery store or market, wash it off before storing or displaying it. “You could just rinse it with water, or you can use one of those fruit and vegetable washes that they sell, or you can just use vinegar and water,” says Riker.
For that vinegar wash, Riker mixes around two parts water and one part vinegar. She notes that the combination might also keep your food from rotting a little bit longer as it kills some bacteria. Make sure to give your fruits and veggies one more final rinse in water before you’re done, though, so the vinegar flavor and scent don’t stick around.
Watch out for crumbs and older fruit.
No, you shouldn’t shame yourself as a housekeeper if some fruit flies appear, because again, “You would have to be unbelievably meticulous,” says Riker, to keep them out. But there are some hygienic behaviors you can be sure to maintain. “It's just a matter of cleaning up crumbs, and if your fruit starts to go overripe, go ahead and throw it out, because that sweetness attracts them.” There you have it! Tiny pests, begone.
How do you get rid of fruit flies?
Create a jar trap.
If the little suckers have already infiltrated, here’s one way to kill them. “I would take a jar and put something that's going to attract them inside,” says Riker. Fruit flies like sweet, rotting, fermenting things, so you could try overripe fruit, old wine, stale beer or soda, or apple cider vinegar. “Put that in the jar, cover the jar with plastic wrap and poke a couple of small holes. They can get in but can't get out,” she says.
Riker suggests placing a few of these jars around your home, perhaps near sinks, cabinets, or the trash, if the problem’s gotten worse and you want to guarantee to wipe them out quickly.
Stage a dish trap.
Another way to kill the flies is by... drowning them. “For that, you would use the apple cider vinegar or the wine or the beer as well, but you would add three drops or so of dish detergent,” Riker says. “Put it in a saucer, so it's wide, because then once they come down to it, the detergent breaks the surface tension and they drown.”
Try a store-bought product.
There are insect sprays and repellants you could spritz around your kitchen, as well as sticky fly paper and plastic traps. But Riker hasn’t tried them, she says, because “I feel like the apple cider vinegar really does the same thing. It just attracts them and traps them.” You probably already have all the stuff you need to fix the problem.
If you're on the hunt for an easy product that'll get rid of any flying insects in your home, consider the TikTok viral ZEVO Electric Flying Insect Trap, which is basically like a plug-in night light and bug trap combo. For a few other highly recommended options, see below. And make sure to check out a few of our favorite non-toxic cleaning products and the best natural bug repellant to control all pests once and for all.
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