You won’t need to call in the professionals to remove fruit flies, as a two-ingredient mixture will do the work for you to trap and kill them.
There are a few absolutes about the end of summer: The long evenings start to creep ever shorter, back-to-school items are in all the shops, and fruit flies seem to be absolutely everywhere.
Officially known as ‘drosophila melanogaster’, fruit flies are a smaller species of fly, with yellow-brown colouring, brick-red eyes, and black rings across their abdomen.
They have a short lifespan — about 50 days from egg to death. They develop into an adult in about a week at a temperature of 25C but this happens quicker at higher heat levels, so summer heatwaves can mean more fruit flies develop than usual.
Female fruit flies lay 400 eggs in their lifetime, with five being laid at a time, usually into rotting fruit or material like decaying mushrooms.
Fruit flies find their way into our home through various entries. They are tiny, so they can access small wall cracks and loose seals around windows and doors — not to mention an open window or door.
While they are attracted to ripening food and food waste, they are also drawn to drains, rubbish, empty bottles and cans, mops, and other moist environments.
They can also be brought into our homes via our groceries. As mentioned above, they are attracted to ripe produce to lay eggs, so you may unwittingly transport some into your kitchen as you’re restocking your food.
You might think they have suddenly swarmed out of nowhere but this is unlikely. Fruit flies are around all year but the end of summer and start of autumn bring higher temperatures and a glut of produce, so their breeding ramps up, causing even more of the insects to be around.
Unlike other types of flies and flying insects, fruit flies do not bite, sting, or produce any poison, so they do not directly harm humans. If they are accidentally ingested through food, they are not likely to cause any medical illnesses.
The potential for danger or harm comes from any harmful bacteria they could carry from one place to another, typically infectious bacterium such as E.coli, salmonella, or listeria, which can cause sickness.
After reading about the potentially disease-carrying pests, you’re probably keener than ever to rid your home of them. Luckily, you won’t need to call in the professionals as a two-ingredient mixture will do the work for you to trap and kill them.
Fill half an old jar with apple cider vinegar (you could also use a cup or glass but, by the end of this, you will never want to drink from it again, so a glass jar you don’t mind recycling will be ideal). Don’t fill it too high; you want to leave plenty of space between the top of the liquid and the opening of the jar.
The second ingredient you need is dish soap, so whichever washing-up liquid you have to hand will work. Flies are already attracted to the apple cider vinegar but, if you want to make it particularly tempting, a fruity-scented dish soap will attract them, or else add a couple of spoonfuls of sugar.
Once the fruit flies are drawn to the mixture, they will fall inside the jar. The dish soap is a slippery substance that will make it impossible for them to get a grip on the glass sides of the jar to escape, so they then drown in the liquid.