Lots of tips to fight and prevent fruit flies in the house

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Sure enough, they’re back in abundance: drosophilas. Annoying critters. Seven tips to combat and banish fruit flies, as they are popularly known, from your home and food.

Just a disclaimer right away. The fruit fly is of vital importance to humans. The animal is very similar to humans and is useful for all kinds of research. For example, it plays an important role in the search for a solution against Alzheimer’s. Read more in this article. So don’t exterminate it, but keep it out of your house. Because they are annoying.

Fighting fruit flies

Fighting fruit flies is still quite difficult. The critters are small and fast and therefore difficult to catch. In addition, they also multiply very quickly (they can lay 400 to 800 eggs in a month), so that you no-time can speak of a plague. Fortunately, there are handy tricks and tips that will ensure that fruit flies are quickly eradicated (okay, there are plenty) or stay away!

(Afbeelding: Tennessee Valley Exterminating Co., Inc. )

Because prevention is always better than cure, or in this case eradicating, we first list a number of points that you should take into account to keep the fruit flies (also called banana flies) away in advance.

1. Provide ‘anti-odors’ like cloves and lavender

Hardly any insect likes strong, spicy scents, so fruit flies don’t like that either. And you can then take advantage of that.

1. Cloves, sage, dill or garlic I find fruit flies horrifying. That is why you can put some cloves and garlic cloves between your fruit, after which there is a good chance that the flies will stay away from your fruit.

2. Basil and lavender emit a strong odor that fruit flies also hate. So: put a few plants of basil and some sprigs of lavender in your kitchen, on the windowsill or near the fruit bowl. This will make this area a lot less attractive for the critters.

NB: if you have trouble keeping your basil plant alive, and this tip doesn’t seem to be an option for you, you may be able to follow these tips so that your plant will live longer.

3. A clean kitchen is always nice, but remember: use cleaning products that do NOT smell like fruit. A strong-smelling cleaning agent is handy, but use one with the scent of eucalyptus, for example.

4. sprinkle some drops of basil oil or oil from other strongly scented herbs in your trash can. Why? Because this masks the smell of rotting food.

5. wrap yourself fruit and vegetable waste first in an old newspaper before you throw it in the organic waste bin. This way you stop the rotten smell that fruit flies love.

Good airflow

Fruit flies hate good airflow, so you can respond to that if you want to keep them away from your home. You do this by opening your windows regularly, preferably several windows at the same time. An electric fan at the fruit bowl (often the source of the fruit fly family) also sometimes helps. You can read more about this here.

Tips for if you already have fruit flies in your house

You can print these tips and hang them on your fridge.

1. Find the source
Find the source where the fruit flies come from.

2. Clean up this place
Once you have found the source, clean it up and free it from food scraps, dirty dishes and empty cans or bottles. Also, clean and empty the trash and keep it clean.

3. Clean it up
Then clean the place where the fruit flies come from. Use a cleaning agent without fruit scent. So no lemon scent, because that’s what they come for. You can fight again in no time.

4. Fight
Now you have to fight the fruit flies. This can be done by making your own fruit fly trap or by purchasing a pesticide specifically for fruit flies. Below we tell you how to make the traps yourself.

5. Repeat steps 2 and 3
Do not skip this step, otherwise you will have a new family of fruit flies in the house in no time.

Trap for fruit flies with vinegar and dish soap

Also a way to fight fruit flies: a trap. You can buy them, but it’s very easy to make one. And it’s also cheap, because chances are you already have the stuff at home.

1. Fruit and/or wine
Take a glass jar and put a piece of fruit and/or a little wine in it. Then cover the top with some cling film and put a rubber band around it to get the foil tight around the pot. Note: there should be no openings on the side. Then poke some small holes in the foil, so that the flies can get into the jar, but can’t get out.

2. Fruit vinegar and dish soap
With this trap, the fruit fly will drown in what it likes oh so much: fruit vinegar! Pour some fruit vinegar (not regular vinegar) into a container and add a few drops of dishwashing liquid. Now place the bowl where most of the flies are and you will see that they will ‘swim’ (=drown) in no time.

NB: To ensure that it continues to work, it is necessary to change the trap daily, and the
to throw away caught fruit flies (outside).

3. The vacuum cleaner and flea collar or flea powder
Before you immediately rush at the flies with the vacuum cleaner, it is necessary to first vacuum up a flea collar or some flea powder and only then to vacuum up the fruit flies. If you don’t do this, they won’t die and they will fly out of the vacuum cleaner again. And then you can start all over again…

Prefer to make an animal-friendly trap?

Are you too big of an animal lover and would you rather catch them alive? That is also possible. You can read how to do that here!

less fruit

Also an option: get less fruit at home. Limit yourself to one of these ‘healthiest’ varieties.

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Lots of tips to fight and prevent fruit flies