How To: Get Rid of Fruit Flies

This is a simple and very effective guide how to get rid of fruit flies which have occupied your fruit basket or your sink. When you buy fruit and other vegetables from the farmers market or grocery store you risk of bringing small fruit flies eggs with you home. Fruit flies have a relatively short life cycles going the eggs to adults in 7-11 days – this makes them able to reproduce at a very fast rate. Thus, it’s important to start treating the problem as soon as it’s observed. Fruit flies are attracted and thrive in moist and wet environments at room-temperature. And they especially like the fruit and garbage bags, where you might have rotten food which tends to be preferred by the small bandits.

There are several different way of getting rid of these small irritating insects. However, we believe that this is the most simple and effective method.

How To: Get Rid of Fruit Flies

Level of difficulty: very easy

You’ll Need:
1 dl (1/2 cup) apple cider vinegar
3-4 drops of dish wash soap
a glass or cup

Directions:
Step 1: Pour the apple cider vinegar in a glass or cup.
Step 2: Add 3-4 drops of dish wash soap and stir in the mixture.
Step 3: Place the glass with the vinegar mixture at the place where the fruit flies are staying the most. This is typically close to the fruit basket, sink or the garbage bag.
Step 4: Leave the glass there for at least one or two weeks, even though you can’t see the fruit flies anymore. If they have laid eggs they will hatch and the problem will come back.

How It Works:
The method works because the fruit flies are attracted by the sweet smell of the apple cider vinegar. The flies will now try to land on the vinegar to eat of it. However, the dish wash soap, that we have added to the vinegar, will remove the surface tension and the fruit flies will sink to the bottom and drown. This is a very effective method of getting rid of the irritating and unsanitary fruit flies.

There are several guides on the Internet describing the problem and how to solve it. Some of the guides suggest that you add a sheet of plastic warp, with small holes, over the opening of the glass. We have tested both methods and it’s our experience that this method works best without covering the opening of the glass.