Fruit flies are a pesky and even embarrassing problem to have, especially during the warm season. How can you be prepared this summer {or any time of year if you live in a warm climate} and prevent fruit flies before they start? Today I’ll show you how. Stick around!
What are fruit flies anyway? They are tiny little pests that get in your home because they either hitch a ride on a piece of fruit you brought in, or they sneak in through tiny openings in screens or other crevices. Once inside, they reproduce and grow very rapidly; they will grow from just an egg to an adult in a week. That is the number one reason why they are so hard to keep on top of!
Fruit flies are going to seemingly explode in population anytime you leave fruit out for too long, or don’t clean up scraps and juice spills quickly. So the first and easiest way to prevent them is to limit how long you leave fresh fruit out on the counter, and keep the kitchen clean. Promptly dispose of fruit waste in the outside trash container or compost bin, and wipe up spills as they happen.
Don’t forget to regularly clean up around the trash can–including the wall and floor–because that is one place where food waste can lurk and attract fruit flies. An all-purpose cleaner such as Clorox Clean Up is an effective way to prevent them and kill any hidden eggs you can’t see.
If you already have some fruit flies, the simplest and most effective way to conduct pest removal is to set out a small bowl or glass filled halfway with apple cider vinegar. Cover the container with plastic wrap and poke a few small holes in the plastic with a fork. It has to be apple cider vinegar–plain white vinegar won’t work. The apple cider vinegar attracts the fruit flies to the container, and they will easily crawl in through the holes in the plastic wrap. However, they can’t crawl back out again and will drown in the vinegar.
For more on repelling and getting rid of fruit flies with natural methods, see The Ktchn.
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