How To Get Rid of Fruit Flies In the Kitchen

Updated on July 21, 2022

Are you trying to get rid of fruit flies in your kitchen? There are several techniques available to rid yourself of a fruit fly infestation.

If you’re looking to use available household items to get rid of fruit flies, consider using a bowl of apple cider vinegar, wine or beer, or even dish soap and plastic wrap. For those of you who want to spend a few dollars, use a fruit fly trap to get rid of your fruit fly issue or call an exterminator if the problem is serious.

How a Fruit Fly Infestation Can Start

You might be wondering what causes fruit flies to infest your home, after all, they weren’t there the day before you went grocery shopping. There are several places where fruit flies can enter your home without you being aware.

Grocery Store

When you bring your groceries home from the store, you’re probably also taking home fruit flies.

Drosophila on ripe banana

Fruit flies are attracted to fruit, their food source, and they lay their eggs on it, which then lies in wait at the grocery store for the unsuspecting customer to purchase.

Fruit flies can lay more than 500 eggs at one time, talk about heavy breeders, which makes for a lot of mouths to feed around your home.

Garbage Disposals

Garbage disposals are a breeding ground in the home for all kinds of flies and insects, such as fungus gnats and drain flies. All of the rotting fruit and unused parts of your produce are an ideal camping ground for them.

As if you needed another reason to want to avoid fresh fruits and vegetables. Shoofly don’t bother me won’t quite cut it.

See Also: How to Unclog a Kitchen Sink With Garbage Disposal

Garbage Disposal Maintenance

If you have a garbage disposal installed in your kitchen and you use it, clean it regularly. Although most people prefer to forget about the horrors that lie in wait just beneath the kitchen sink, it’s a must-do for anyone trying to prevent pests like flies, cockroaches, and rodents from infesting their home.

How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies In the Kitchen

Given that fruit flies love fruit, hence the aptly chosen name, you might be thinking the only choice you have to to get rid of fruit flies is to get rid of fruit. But there are ways to prevent flies without abandoning your fresh produce.

  • Practice good housekeeping.
  • Make sure to keep your garbage disposal clean.
  • Empty and clean your trash cans on a regular basis.
  • Wash your produce thoroughly, not just the fruit.
  • Keep fruit on the counter covered.
  • Get rid of any rotting fruit in your home.
  • Use fruit fly traps.

Keeping good housekeeping is important and you may have noticed a chemical called sodium lauryl sulfate in your cleaning supplies. It’s a surfactant and is used to lower surface tension among ingredients.

dirty looking sink area

Cleaning Tips

You can easily prevent fruit flies by following a few simple cleaning tips.

  • Take out your trash every 2-3 days, you don’t want to know what all is living in it.
  • Clean up spills immediately, especially sugary liquids.
  • If you store your fruit in a bowl, wash it regularly.
  • Make sure to keep your sink clean.
  • Eliminate any standing water, such as soaking dishes, as soon as possible

Most people don’t like the thought of home fruit flies because their kitchen is a breeding ground. Prevent that with a few simple cleaning habits.

Homemade Fruit Fly Traps

Fruit flies are attracted to a number of things. Enjoy some tips and advice from people who don’t work off commission and do a DIY fruit fly trap — if need be, check out a video to help yourself get started.

If you’re impressed by what MacGyver can do with a rubber band and a paper clip, then check out these homemade fruit fly traps made from household items by fellow enthusiasts.

Use a Paper Cone

One simple way to trap fruit flies is to use a paper cone. All you need to do is roll a piece of paper into a cone and place it in a jar or cup with some juice, etc. as bait.

Steps

  1. Roll a sheet of paper into a cone (funnel) leaving a small opening at the bottom.
  2. Tape the paper cone to keep it intact.
  3. Fill a glass, cup, etc. with desired liquid of choice, a few ounces will do.
  4. Insert the paper cone into the cup, ensuring that the paper cone is above the liquid.
  5. Place the cup on a counter and allow the trap to do its thing.

This method, similar to using plastic wrap, allows the flies to get in easily but makes it hard for them to escape.

fruit and small flies trap

Soon you’ll have a watery graveyard full of flies. Hopefully, it will serve as a dreary sign for their fly kin to seek greener pastures elsewhere.

Use Apple Cider Vinegar

Apple Cider Vinegar isn’t just for making turnip greens and your grandmother’s bitter cure-all. It can also be a great way to get rid of fruit flies.

  1. Grab a bowl and pour apple cider vinegar in it, 2-3 ounces should do the trick.
  2. Cover in plastic wrap, leaving a small opening.
  3. Wrap a rubber band around the plastic wrap to keep it in place.
  4. Place it on the counter and ignore it.

This can take a while, so feel free to go about your business and leave it overnight.

Use Dish Soap

Not just for the dishes, dish soap can work well to kill fruit flies. The fruit flies get trapped in the dish soap like quicksand and suffocate. All you have to do is pour some dish soap in a bowl and let it do its thing, like moths to the flame, they shall come.

It’s not the most humane method, but they started it by trespassing upon your land and eating your fruit.

Use the Fruit Juice Method

Another great method to get rid of fruit flies is by using fruit juice. All you need to do is pour some in a bowl and cover all but a small opening of the bowl with plastic wrap and a rubber band.

Use UV Light

For a method that will produce results, considering luring the fruit flies away with the UV light from a bug zapper. Who doesn’t like staring at the soft glow given off by an indoor UV light bug zapper, just remember to only touch with your eyes.

It might not be as cool as a black light, but at least all your fruit will be safer.

Use Wine or Beer

Spring breakers aren’t the only ones who like to party. Pour some wine or beer into a bowl, cover it almost all the way with some plastic wrap and set it out on the counter.

Like a bear to honey or a monkey to an unsuspecting tourist’s drink, the fruit flies simply can’t resist the temptation of a free drink.

Some of these DIY fruit fly recipes work better than others, you’ll have to experiment and see what works best for you in ridding your home of fruit flies.

Fruit Fly Products

If handmade traps aren’t for you, you can always purchase a vetted solution and eliminate the guesswork. There are several products you can buy to kill fruit flies without going through your kitchen cupboard and pantry.

Fruit Fly Traps

Perhaps the most well-known product to kill fruit flies is a fruit fly trap. All you have to do is hang it up and the flies take care of themselves. If only everything was as easy as that.

Given that the pests are always flying around, it’s a recipe for success. No more invasion of your home’s airspace from pests.

Fruit Fly Exterminators

If the issue is bad enough and none of the DIY fruit fly traps or products worked. Call an exterminator company and say goodbye to drain flies, fruit flies, and fungus gnats.

They might have the rights reserved to their formula for killing fruit flies, but you can still take advantage of it.

They’re not quite the ghostbusters, but something strange is going on in the neighborhood, and it might be more than just flying insects with a love for fruit.

Best Method for You

After reading all of the ways to get rid of fruit flies, you might be wondering what the best method to choose is. The easy answer is to pick the one the will produce results.

If it’s not a full-blown infestation yet, start with the household items, such as apple cider vinegar or dish soap ,and make a fruit fly trap. If it’s out of hand, consider calling in the heavies to get rid of the fruit flies with a more serious product.

For further information, there is a discover cleaning summit video where they provide links to retailer sites, additional details, and talk about raising the green bar.

Share Your Knowledgefruit bowl

If you know of another great way to get rid of fruit flies, then consider writing some articles yourself, put a page ad in the newspaper, or create your own website to share it with the world.

Revealing your wealth of wisdom may earn you the recognition you deserve among the avid fans of fruits and vegetables. After all, the fruit flies can’t win, our key lime pies depend on it.

While it’s nice to have a fruit bowl, the unwelcome pests flying around it aren’t. Adult fruit flies can quickly infest your home. Help prevent this from happening by being proactive and practicing good housekeeping — as they say, act, don’t react.