How to Catch Fruit Flies: A Guide to Stopping an Infestation

Consider this your ultimate guide to preventing an infestation in the first place and learning how to catch fruit flies if you’ve already spotted them in your house.

Identify the flying insect correctly: Fruit flies appear light or dark brown with red eyes, while drain flies are found near garbage disposals and fungus gnats prefer overwatered houseplants.

Are Fruit Flies Dangerous?

Have you notice fruit flies in your home? Fruit flies are certainly annoying, but can something that small really pose a threat to my health? Plus, they can’t even bite me!

The answer may surprise you, but recent studies have found that fruit flies are fully capable of spreading harmful bacteria around your home or workplace — and that the threat is especially dangerous when there are fruit fly infestations.

You need to know that fruit flies are present in over half of foodservice facilities.

Additionally, fruit flies are able to carry at least 1,000 foreign bacteria like biofilm, soil, and other potentially dangerous germs.

This means that not only are you at risk for an infection, but also that bacteria from fruit flies can spread and get out of control much faster than you think.

Plus, because fruit flies can live for around ten days, an infestation can also happen almost overnight. They can lay as many as 500 eggs at one time — meaning that even more bacteria is spread around your home.

What Attracts Fruit Flies?

The old adage “prevention is the best cure” certainly rings true when it comes to fruit flies.

Knowing the kinds of spaces fruit flies like to call home — and making sure that you keep your home clean — will help you to mitigate the risk of them showing up and taking over your space.

Standing water, dirty dishes, and in some cases, even leftover pet food can also attract fruit flies. The same goes with filthy sponges and mops that you’ve had for far too long.

While it’s important to keep your home as clean as you can, sometimes, you just don’t have the time to do so.

If you’ve spotted tons of fruit flies zooming around your kitchen or any of the above areas, it’s time to take action. The same goes if you’ve noticed fruit fly pupae/eggs in your home.

The Life Cycle of Fruit Flies

Fruit flies have a short but active life cycle. They are small flying insects that lay eggs near sources of fermenting fruit or moist organic matter. The eggs hatch into larvae and feed for about two weeks before developing into adult flies.

Adult fruit flies live between two to four weeks, depending on environmental conditions. During this time, they mate and the female fruit flies lay eggs to start a new generation of fruit flies. This cycle is repeated until the life span of the fruit fly has ended. Thus, a fruit fly has a short lifespan but are incredibly prolific in their breeding habits.

How to Catch Fruit Flies

Now, let’s talk about how to get rid of fruit flies in your home. In this section of our guide, we’ll fill you in on the best ways to understand fruit fly traps, so you don’t have to waste your time on methods that don’t really work.

A Fruit Fly Traps: The Most Effective Way to Stop an Infestation

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Fly traps are unquestionably the most effective, affordable, and simplest way to get rid of fruit flies in your home.

However, going with a homemade fruit fly trap often means that your traps won’t be as powerful as you’d like them to be. Instead, you need to know what to look for when you’re buying traps that will banish fruit flies for good.

First of all, look for traps that are sticky on both sides, as a fruit fly can attack your home from all directions.

Ensure that the trap doesn’t contain any harmful chemicals or pesticides that could end up being just as dangerous to your health as the fruit fly itself. Plus, a natural option will be much safer for any pets you have in your home.

Also, evaluate the adhesiveness of the traps. You want to be sure that the flies won’t be able to land on the traps and then easily fly away.

Finally, look for traps that come with their own hooks, so that you can hang them anywhere in your home and catch flies and other insects before they even land on any surfaces.

You can always contact trap companies directly and ask about what sets their products apart from the competition.

Create Your DIY Fruit Fly Trap

Are you looking for a way to get rid of those pesky fruit fly in your home? Whether it’s swarming around the fruit bowl, or breeding larvae in your kitchen sink, these little critters can be annoying and difficult to manage.

Fortunately, creating a DIY fruit fly trap is an easy and effective DIY solution that can help you quickly and easily get rid of fruit flies and keep them away for good.

Apple Cider Vinegar Fruit Fly Trap

Making your own fruit fly trap with apple cider vinegar is an easy and effective way to keep these pesky bugs out of your house. All you need are some plastic wrap, liquid dish soap, overripe fruit, and a few small holes.

With this simple mixture, the smell of the ripe fruit and fruit juice will attract the flies. Then the surface tension created by the liquid dish soap will drown them once they land. You can use ripe tomatoes or bananas, but rotten food is recommended for optimal results.

Once you have all the materials ready, start by placing them into a small bowl and adding enough cider vinegar to cover the bottom of the bowl. Then, wrap the top of the bowl with plastic wrap and secure it with a rubber band.

Finally, pour the mixture into a mason jar, make a few small holes in the lid of the jar, and wait for the flies to sink into your makeshift trap. You’ll have less produce waste from overripe fruit and drowned fruit flies flying!

While white vinegar is an effective ingredient for making many cleaning agents in your home, it’s not an effective tool to get rid of fruit flies.

Wine Bottle Fruit Fly Trap

To make a DIY fruit fly trap, you need an old bottle, apple cider vinegar, dish soap and some plastic wrap. First, pour the apple cider vinegar into the old bottle. Then add a few drops of dish soap to the liquid in the bottle.

Next, loosely cover the top with saran wrap and secure it with a rubber band. Finally, poke several holes into the plastic wrap so that fruit flies can enter the bottle but cannot escape.

Place this fruit fly trap near areas where fruit flies tend to gather and watch as they get lured by the sweet scent of vinegar and then drown in the liquid. With a few simple steps, you can easily create your own DIY fruit fly trap.

Beer Fruit Fly Trap

Making a beer fruit fly trap is an easy and effective way to get rid of pesky fruit flies. All you need is an old beer bottle and some bait, such as overripe fruit or a splash of vinegar for your fruit fly trap.

First, take your bait and place it inside the bottle where the lid used to be. Finally, invert the top of the beer bottle and place it back into the bottom half of the bottle.

This will trap any fruit flies that are attracted by your bait and unable to escape. With this simple trick, you’ll soon have a fly free kitchen!

Disinfecting Your Home After a Fruit Fly Infestation

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So, you’ve finally gotten your fruit fly situation under control with your homemade fruit fly trap.

Deep cleaning your kitchen and making some basic changes will go a long way towards preventing a fruit fly infestation in the future, as well. Get rid of garbage regularly. Clean your kitchen counter daily.

Make sure that you thoroughly clean and disinfect your kitchen sink and that you clean the disposal/drain. Make sure that you leave no food in your garbage disposal.

Every week or so, turn off the disposal and faucet. Throw in ice cubes, baking soda, lemon slices and bleach. With the motor running, grind everything until it stops. Then flush with cold water for a minute.

Check all fruits and vegetables for rot, decay or overripeness. Discard any decaying produce to prevent female fly from laying eggs. Always dispose of too-ripe or rotting produce.

Need the Right Tools to Stop a Fruit Fly Infestation?

If you truly want to understand how to catch fruit flies, then you’ll need the right tools – even a homemade fruit fly trap, which can kill fruit flies and fruit fly larvae. This way you will catch all kinds of bugs including drain flies and fungus gnats.

That’s where we come in.

With over 600 reviews on Amazon, a four-star rating, and more than 10,000 satisfied customers, we’re absolutely confident that our traps will handle the job better than anyone else’s.

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