I just bought some ripe fruit last evening at the market and low and behold I woke up to a swarm of fruit flies. Where do these things come from and how to you get rid of / prevent them? I'm all into preserving life and all...but I don't want bugs in my kitchen! HELP PELASE!

ack i just read something about this and i don`t remember where now!!something about putting some acv into a glass of water with a bit of sugar or honey or i sppose agave will work also. set the mix by the fruit and the flies are supposed to be attracted to the sugar water and fall in and drown or something like that
patty

I tried all sorts of traps and I accidentally came upon the solution when I left my compost jar (its a huge former pickle jar) open all night. The next morning the 500 or so flies that were in my house were in the jar, I put the lid on and they went outside. To live in my compost heap where they will be verty happy

earthiemama Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I tried all sorts of traps and I accidentally came
> upon the solution when I left my compost jar (its
> a huge former pickle jar) open all night. The
> next morning the 500 or so flies that were in my
> house were in the jar, I put the lid on and they
> went outside. To live in my compost heap where
> they will be verty happy

don`t cha love it when accident becomes invention!!
patty

well, I set up my little trap...acv + honey. NADA! I think the flies like my fruit better! Oh well...maybe I can keep them as pets.

OK, this works:

Take a cup that you don't mind throwing away - plastic or paper would be fine. Put a little bit of ketchup in it, or a bit of fruit peel if you don't have ketchup. They are attracted to ripe, spoiled, and fermented fruit. Make a cone with a small hole at one end by rolling a piece of paper. Tape it to keep its shape, trim it so it's shortish, and place it, inverted (pointy side down) in the cup. Tape it in place to form a seal. The bugs will go into the cup through the hole in the cone, but most of them won't be able to get back out.

Good ideas. Maybe next time try washing your fruit before bringing it in. I don't know if it works but worth a try.

Seabucktho Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> OK, this works:
>
> Take a cup that you don't mind throwing away -
> plastic or paper would be fine. Put a little bit
> of ketchup in it, or a bit of fruit peel if you
> don't have ketchup. They are attracted to ripe,
> spoiled, and fermented fruit. Make a cone with a
> small hole at one end by rolling a piece of paper.
> Tape it to keep its shape, trim it so it's
> shortish, and place it, inverted (pointy side
> down) in the cup. Tape it in place to form a seal.
> The bugs will go into the cup through the hole in
> the cone, but most of them won't be able to get
> back out.

that`s like the one i read!!
patty

Do you compost? I had a really bad problem with fruit flies, and I had a worm composter going outside - but I keep my windows open...they don't have screens on them. As soon as I got rid of my composter, the flies disappeared. My guess is that even though the compost was at the opposite end of the house relative to the kitchen, they were sneaking in through the window.

I also recommend washing your produce when you bring it home. Chances are, when you buy local produce, they've used less pesticides or none at all, so the chances of fruit flies laying eggs on it is greater than them doing so on imported produce. Although, I hear bananas are particularly bad for harbouring eggs. Nonetheless...wash.

I LOATHE fruit and horse flies. I don't go into my backyard because the sound of horse flies pisses me off so much. I don't feel like they're a

OMG, I love this post! I tried using plain apple cider vinegar the other day because I couldn't remember what I was supposed to do with it. I left it in a plastic can top and three flies sat by the edges of it but didn't do anything to it.

I'm going to try the ketchup thing and this is what I found.

"In all my attempts, I found the best way to capture and remove the ones that escape is to create a simple trap using a jar, plastic wrap and a piece of food. Here's how it works:

1. Get a small jar you don't plan on using again ( like a baby food jar or something similar ) and wash it out well. Make sure it is not a jar with a funky smell such as a used pickle jar or anything that use to have strong spices. You want a clean, odorless jar.

2. Take a chunk of banana and place inside the jar. This is why you want a clean, odorless jar - so that the banana smell won't be overpowered by other not-so-tempting smells. Banana seems to work the best, but you can experiment.

3. Fit a piece of plastic wrap over the top of the jar, making sure that it fits tight and well sealed around the edges. Then take a pen or pencil and poke 4 to 5 holes in the plastic, just big enough for a fruit fly to fit into. Once a fruit fly crawls in, it can't get out. You would think they would just fly back out through the holes, but they won't!

4. Place the jar in an area where you have seen the most fruit flies. Depending on the amount of fruit flies you have, you can expect to start seeing the jar fill up within just a few hours. After 24 hours, you will discover just how bad your fruit fly problem is!

This simple, inexpensive & safe method works perfectly and if you don't want the jar on public display, you can always slip it behind the garbage can, in the cupboard or even under the sink (Just don't forget about it!). You will want to empty the jar every 3-4 days before any eggs have a chance to hatch. While adult fruit flies can't easily escape through the holes, their maggots can very easily, and besides that - they are disgusting to see crawling around in the jar. You don't want to see these things crawling on your counter!

Cleaning out the jar shouldn't be a problem. If you have a kind heart, you can choose to let them go outside. Personally, I spray the little buggers with bug spray, wash out the jar and start the whole process over again if I think there are still some fruit flies left to capture.

For bad fruit fly problems, you will want to use this method for a good two weeks to make sure you've captured the majority of fruit flies. You might even want to use a few jars in different places. Before long, your kitchen will be back to normal."

I'm gonna go do it right now before I leave for work!

Thanks everyone...I've got a project for today!

I know this is not a very kind solution but I suck them up with the nozzle of my vacuum cleaner.They tend to sit together so you can get loads in one go before they realize what's happening and because they're so small they can't fly for very long because they get tired quickly so when they settle down again you can pick off what's left.

Francis

I'm a contrarian on this. I think fruit flies are very, very useful because they tell you whether your fruit is good or not. If fruit flies are attracted to your fruit then the fruit is either over-ripe and beginning to ferment (and should not be eaten), or else there are just spoiled sections of otherwise good fruit. Either way the fruit flies are helpful in letting you know about your fruit.

Fruit flies are not interested in ripe fruit -- only over-ripe/spoiled fruit! Take away the "bad" fruit and the fruit flies will go away too.

Fruit flies would definitely be attracted to compost with fruit in it but I would think most composting is done outdoors.

The fruit that I bought was definately not over-ripe or spoiled. In fact, I'm still waiting on it to soften enough to eat. I resorted to putting some apple cider vinegar in a spray bottle and just spraying them. That has taken care of most of the problem for now and my kitchen smells like a salad bar!

Guyyys!

Don't kill things! Especially when there's a VEGAN option available.

If you came home to a swarm of chipmunks eating food from your fruit bowl you wouldn't poison them all or suffocate them!

Seriously, I know most people don't care about insects, but one of the things about veganism is you don't use shellac and cochineal, because of how insects are farmed and killed. No vegan deliberately kills an insect. Live and let live, folks.

For the record, like learningtofly, I only get fruit flies in the house when the fruit is starting to go off. Is it possible the fruit was 'in' with bad fruit?

no...2 firm bananas and 3 green firm pears