Tired of swatting? Here’s how to get rid of pesky fruit flies fast

Key points

• Fruit flies lay eggs on the surfaces of rotting fruits and vegetables.

• Eliminating fruit fly breeding areas is the best way to get rid of them.

• Simple homemade traps are often all you need to get rid of adult fruit flies.

Fruit flies aren’t dangerous, but they’re certainly annoying. According to Oklahoma State University, they can multiply rapidly in your home by laying up to 500 eggs at a time.

Getting rid of fruit flies involves preventing breeding and eradicating the adults. You need “a multiprong solution for an infestation,” said David Price, associate certified entomologist and director of technical service at Mosquito Joe, a pest control company offering services for a range of common household pests.

“First, clean out the garbage disposal, drain and trash receptacle and remove any rotting or aging fruit or vegetables,” he said. “Next, treat drains with a product that has an enzyme to break down the deeper organic matter in the drains.” After that, you can apply insecticides to kill the current population of adults.

What are the best ways to get rid of fruit flies?

The best way to get rid of fruit flies is to eliminate their breeding grounds. Fruit flies lay their eggs on overripe and rotting fruits and vegetables, so clearing any past-its-prime produce from your kitchen and storage areas is the most effective way to prevent an infestation.

Once you have removed the food, a few simple DIY fruit fly traps are usually sufficient to kill the lingering adults. Here are the most effective cleaning and trapping methods.

Keep your kitchen clean

Fruit flies are attracted to ripe fruit, so throwing produce in an outdoor trash receptacle as soon as it goes bad is your best line of defense. Even slightly cracked fruit can quickly become a hotspot for fruit flies to breed.

Rotting fruit on the counter is easy to clean up, but if your problem is in a less obvious spot, it can be hard to identify. If you’re having trouble finding where the fruit flies are coming from, here are some tips:

• Check the drain: Dirty sink drains are a popular breeding ground for fruit flies. If you’re not sure whether fruit flies are coming from your drain, you can tape a clear sandwich bag over it overnight. You’ll find adult fruit flies in the bag in the morning if they’re breeding in the drain. If they are, clean the drain with a baking soda and vinegar solution or a commercial drain cleaner that breaks down organic matter.
• Clean the garbage disposal: Having a garbage disposal makes it even more likely that your drain has become a breeding hotspot for fruit flies. “Once they are inside the house, the fruit fly will head to the garbage disposal to lay eggs in the organic matter just under the flap,” said Price. You can use the same clear bag trick to figure out if you have fruit flies taking up residence in your garbage disposal and clean it accordingly.
• Clean out your cabinets and pantry: It’s easy to accidentally leave a piece of produce, such as an apple or a potato, to languish in the back of your pantry. You might not smell anything or notice anything until it’s too late. If you can’t figure out where your fruit flies are breeding, take everything out of your cabinets to ensure there are no rotting pieces of fruit.
• Keep your counters clean: Make sure your kitchen counter is always clean and free of fruit and vegetables. Consider forgoing a fruit bowl for a few days until you get the fruit flies under control.
• Take out the garbage: Garbage cans and recycling bins can also be fertile ground for all types of flies. Emptying your trash can and recycling bin more often can help deal with a budding infestation.

Make some homemade traps

Traps might temporarily reduce the number of fruit flies you see, but they’ll be back in no time unless you eliminate their breeding ground.

If you decide to set traps before you get rid of the fruit flies’ breeding ground, understand that you’ll have to keep setting them until you eliminate the source of the problem. If you make the homemade traps we describe in the next section, it won’t cost you much money, but it will take more time.

How do you make a homemade fruit fly trap?

You can purchase fruit fly traps from your local hardware store or Amazon, but they’re cheap and easy to make yourself.

The first type of trap uses a jar, a paper funnel and a piece of rotting or overripe fruit as bait. Here’s how to make it:

1. Bait the trap: Place an old piece of fruit in the jar as bait. You can use an old banana peel, a piece of a banana, a ripe tomato or any other piece of old, fermenting fruit to attract fruit flies.
2. Make a funnel: Roll up a piece of paper to make a cone-shaped funnel. Place the paper cone in the jar with the small end inside the jar. Tape the funnel to the jar so that the only way in is through the wide end of the funnel.
3. Leave the jar on your counter overnight: Fruit flies will enter the trap overnight because they’re drawn by the scent of the decaying fruit. Once they’re inside, they won’t be able to find their way out as long as you make just a small hole in the bottom of the funnel.
4. Dispose of the fruit flies in the morning: Let the fruit flies out of the trap outside or kill them to dispose of them.

You can make as many of these traps as you need to. Placing several traps around your home can help the process go more quickly.

If you don’t want to use a piece of fruit as bait, you can make a vinegar trap that uses apple cider vinegar to attract the fruit flies.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Set the trap: “Add apple cider vinegar with a drop of dish soap [to] a small cup,” said Price. “They are not attracted to white vinegar, so ensure you use apple cider vinegar.” One-half cup should be sufficient. Dish soap reduces the surface tension of the vinegar, so the fruit flies won’t be able to sit on top of the apple cider vinegar the way they normally can. When they try to land on the water’s surface, they’ll fall in and get trapped.
2. Cover the top with plastic wrap: “Cover the cup with foil or Saran Wrap and poke some holes to allow the adult fruit fly to enter and limit their ability to leave,” continued Price.

Traps like these will reduce the number of adults that can reproduce. “By eliminating the adults, you will start to break the egg-laying process and, over time, eliminate the population,” Price said.

What causes a fruit fly infestation?

Fruit fly infestations start because the insects are attracted to decaying plants and organic matter. Fruit flies lay eggs in rotting fruit, and you wind up with an explosion of flies when they hatch. Even a small number of adults can quickly lead to a serious problem.

The question still remains: How do the first fruit flies wind up in your home? “More often than not, they hitch a ride on fresh fruits and vegetables brought into the house,” said Price. 

“Additionally, they can enter from the outside, slipping in through an open door or open window from the garbage or organic collection area (leaf pile, compost [or] mulch beds) of the property. Also, if you have a fruit tree, they will naturally be outside feeding on the fruit that has fallen to the ground,” he said.

Price continued: “Inspect fruits and veggies before bringing them into the house, keep drains and garbage disposals clean of organic debris, and remove leaf piles and any fallen fruit in the yard.”

Where fruit flies lay eggs

Female fruit flies lay eggs on the surfaces of fermenting fruits and vegetables. Fruit fly larvae feed on the yeast and fungi that grow in decaying fruit matter until they’re fully grown and capable of finding their own food sources. This makes kitchens, cafeterias, hotels, and restaurants prime habitats for fruit flies.

Fruit flies develop quickly. Each fruit fly develops from an egg to an adult in about ten days. This fast development time — combined with the fly’s ability to lay 500 eggs at once — is responsible for the reputation fruit flies have for forming infestations seemingly overnight.

How to prevent fruit flies from breeding

Preventing future fruit fly infestations involves limiting their ability to breed. That means throwing out old fruits and vegetables before they start decaying. You should also consider storing fruit in airtight containers.

You also need to make sure your sink — especially the drain — is clean and free from old plant matter that could serve as a fertile environment for fruit flies to lay their eggs. Garbage disposals are prime breeding grounds for fruit flies, so pay extra attention to your sink’s cleanliness if you have one.

What’s next?

If you’ve had problems with fruit flies in the past, changing how you store your produce can help. Invest in some containers with lids to store any fruits and vegetables you normally keep on your counter. If you prefer not to keep fruit in a container, only buy as much as you can eat before it starts to go bad.

Keeping your sink clean is also a good habit to build to prevent future fruit fly problems. If fruit flies don’t have a place to breed, they won’t be able to reproduce, and you won’t be overrun when new eggs hatch.

If you notice an infestation forming, identify and eliminate the breeding grounds and set fruit fly traps as outlined above. “If the infestation is overwhelming or you can’t find the source, then seek a professional for a thorough inspection and treatment plan,” said Price. Contact a local pest control company if the infestation gets out of hand.

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