I recently have "acquired" fruit flies in my kitchen! These creatures suddenly began to appear earlier this week and now seem to be multiplying in droves! I remember reading about this topic a few months ago, but did not look at the responses since I did not have this problem. Now, I wish that I had read the responses!
Please help me with a solution! The counters are all clean and wiped daily and dishes are washed daily. I have put out a few bowls of vinegar (I thought that I read about vinegar attracting the fruit flies and then causing their demise--so far, it attracts them, but I don't yet see a lot of dead ones! LOL)
Thanks in advance for all of your helpful replies. You ladies ROCK! This site is the GREATEST!
Ladies, thanks for all of the advice! I tried the vinegar and plastic trick, but I had the best success with the very fresh fruit and the funnel technique. The bleach and hot water have been a good deterrent as well. I still have a few left; however, the fruit fly manifestation is almost conquered!
I have the same problem and haven't found a solution however I have spray lysol in the air a lot and it seems like there are less than there was. D.
I was keeping my bananas on the counter near the sink. Once I moved them to the other side of the kitchen, I haven't had the fruit fly problem again! Good luck!
i just had them too. put orange juice in a bowl with saran wrap over the top and punched holes with a fork in it. that didn't work so i threw a banana in there and got them all.
check and make sure you don't have any potatoes going bad. That is where we came up with them really bad and didn't notice it until we got in the potatoes one day and they were completely covered. yuck. anyway we had to use flying insect spray to get rid of them.
I just went through this myself! I put a glass on the counter with a little red wine and a piece of banana. Then I covered the glass with saran wrap and poked about 8-10 small holes in the plastic. The flies go in after the wine and fruit, but aren't smart enough to get back out. After a few days there were about 50 fruit flies in the glass! I then just opened the saran wrap outside. Problem solved. Worked like a charm. Good luck!
I had this problem in an apartment I was in. I don't remember how I finally got rid of them but I do know that it helped to pour a cap full or so of bleach down my drains. Not sure if it will help you but it's worth a try.
Good luck!
Here is what i did just a couple weeks ago. We finished all the bananas on the counter. Put the trashcan outside if there was food in it (removing the bag makes all the flies fly out into the house). I made sure to keep up on the dishes. then I started to put most if not all food waste in the garbage disposal, so there was no place for the flies to lay their eggs. I also kept fruit off the counter for 4 days or so and they disappeared. Now I have some ripening bananas on the counter and not a fruit fly in sight.
The traps that the other ladies suggested sounds great too.
Sounds like you have a plan already, but in addition to the bleach, the guy from our exterminating company said to also flush the drains with boiling water. You could alternate: first the boiling water, then the bleach, then the boiling water again? Give it a try if you need another option.
Put saran wrap over your bowl of red cidar vinegar & then poke a few holes in the saran wrap w/ a fork. The flys will get into the bowl but will not be able to get it out. Hope it helps!
Hi! I havent read your responses, but I had some last week, and couldnt figure it out. But sometimes I put fruit on my kitchen table in a bowl as a center piece. Duh! Why didnt I think of that???? Thats why I had them, I put the fruit away and no more fruit flies. Common sense right? So if you have fruit laying out, I would suggest putting it away.
I've had great results with a small glass of cider vinegar with a few drops of dish soap mixed in. It takes most of the day, but it will work!
Bowl + plastic wrap + vinegar/wine ... yes. But if you don't get any flies inside there after a couple days, you could be dealing with drain flies instead. Just so you know.
Set a bowl of water with dish soap in it in your sink. It works wonders!
I thinks its a bowl of water with a little dish soap in it. The soap coats their wings and they can't fly out.
need to make sure you clean out the drains in your sink, sounds gross but they can live off the food in the drains. Also put a little dishsoap in with the vinegar and then they can't get out, they will die and you will see the dead bodies in the vinegar and dishsoap solution. If that doesn't work for you you can Buy gnat traps at walmart, they look like a see through jar with a red lid, they have a hole they can climb into then a sticky strip they stick to, gross looking but effective. Lots of luck
B.
Take a tall glass jar and put a piece of really ripe fruit in the bottom, then make a funnel out of paper and put in on top with the pointy end down. The flies will go down to get the fruit, but they can't figure out how to get back out. Empty the jar evey couple of days.... it works I have one and I hardly have anymore problems. Also, make sure that your sink traps are clean by pouring hot water and bleach down them.
