How To Kill Fruit Flies

Spring has sprung and the grocery stores are overflowing with delicious fruit selections! I’ve been so excited that I’ve been buying tons of fruit and putting it in my fruit basket. While it looks beautiful it is causing MAJOR problems in my house.  Fruit Flies are taking over!!! They are absolutely driving me nuts!

I’ve tried many many different approaches to killing the, all of which did not work:

1. A bowl full of dish soap placed near the fruit basket

2. Sprayed indoor/outdoor bug killer that is supposed to kill on contact (didn’t even kill one darn fruit fly)

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3. Lemon/orange peels in a bowl with dish soap – even tried with a tin foil tent so they couldn’t get back out

4. I even took my fruit basket outside and guess what? Not a single fruit fly in sight. even after 3 days. However, the fruit flies are still in my house – with nothing to feed on!

I have however, found 2 methods that do work! 

How To Kill Fruit Flies

1. A mason jar filled with vinegar, strawberry stems, broken grapes, and kiwi peels (kiwis can be optional)

Below you can see all the dead little fruit flies:

2. Smoke from a candle

The fruit fly’s respirator systems are really small and delicate that they cannot withstand the smoke. This sounds so cruel :-/ I kept lighting my candle and then blowing it out and waving the smoke all near the fruit flies. Sure enough they were dying!!

I’m slowly but surely reclaiming my house from these darn pests!

 

Prevention

1. Wash your fruit and veggies

I’ve started washing my fruit first thing when I bring it home – before ever placing it in my fruit basket. I wash it with Basic H mixed in the General Purpose solution.

2. Take garbage out daily

I have a large garbage can in my kitchen – in 1 week I fill up 1-2 garbage bags on average. However, my recycling is usually about 5 bags per week (I’ll admit, I’m horrible at crushing my containers and boxes). Anyway, I’ve found that now with the warmer weather it’s very important to take my garbage out daily. It stinks to have to do it, but…I don’t want the fruit flies, so out goes the garbage! Also make sure that you wipe down the garbage can so there is nothing sticky on it.

3. Wash your counters well

Make sure after each meal you wash your counters well. I again use the Basic H2
mixed in the General Purpose solution. It’s safe on my granite as well! Make sure there’s nothing sticky left or any crumbs.

4. Don’t leave dirty dishes in the sink

I personally can’t stand piles of dirty dishes – it just makes me feel defeated when I see a messy kitchen. Now that is not to say that I never have this happen – because I certainly do. We all get busy and I know it’s hard to wash all the dishes directly following a meal. However, the fruit flies will find the dirty dishes and swarm them. So if you absolutely have to leave dishes in the sink, rinse them off and rinse the sink!

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