See below.
6dogs4us
1 Remove the food sources attracting the flies. Fruit flies have a life-cycle of 10 days giving them plenty of time to punish you for leaving moist, fermenting, organic material in which they may lay eggs. Most fly trap ideas only serve to illustrate the flies' progress in taking over your home, and some will themselves provide a breeding ground. Sanitation is the only effective resolution! Address these frequent problem spots:
Launder the dishrags, or at least wash them thoroughly with soap, rinse them well and wring them dry before hanging them up. Don't leave them in the sink.
2 Keep your house clean, and throw away rotting fruit. Store trash in a covered bin.
Do not toss food garbage into waste-paper baskets.
Cover your fruit bowl or store fruit you wish to keep in the refrigerator. Also, raisins, dates and prunes are favorite attractants.
Use or discard all overripe fruit.
Clean opened containers of fruit juice, fermented or vinegar products, for example ketchup, Sriracha sauce, or cooking wine. Seal them well. Keep these in the refrigerator if possible.
Wipe up crumbs and spills from your cabinets, counter and floor.
Take out all trash, do not re-use the plastic liner garbage bags.
Clean the seals of your refrigerator door, the top and under the fridge, especially clean the evaporation pan if it has one.
Clean under and around your dishwasher and stove.
Dump mop water, clean the pail, launder the mop rag.
Remove damp lint from the laundry room.
Take out your compost and keep your collection bin covered and food additions to your pile buried beneath yard waste.
Do not use manure or lake water for fertilizer near the house.
Use screens for your doors and windows.
Put a household fan near the most vulnerable areas (fruit bowl) and keep it blowing across the fruit. The flies cannot land in a cross wind. If doing this then put any bottle trap etc away from the fruit as it won't work either.
Put new soft fruit in a brown bag, this helps it ripen but also keeps the fruit flies away from the easiest targets. They will have more difficulty with harder skinned fruit that you can leave out.
Catch and release method
1 Drop a piece of rotten fruit into a large, clean jar such as a Mason jar.
2 Place the jar near the greatest concentration of flies, i.e., if they're hanging around the fruit bowl, put the jar in the fruit bowl.
3 Put a paper cone with a small hole in the bottom in the mouth of the jar. It should have the pointed end pointed downward. The fruit flies will enter the cone through the large end by the mouth of the bottle and find their way through the hole into the bottle. They will not be able to get out.
4 Release them outside when you have several, if you like.
Make a bowl trap
1 Put a piece of old skinless fruit and some wine, or some balsamic vinegar in a bowl (think like the flies: what do you want for dinner?). A mixture of white wine and coriander seeds works very, very well. Cover the bowl tightly (no wrinkles) with plastic wrap.
Poke many small holes in the plastic with a fork. The fruit flies go in and can't get out (if the holes are too big they will fly back out). Then you can release them outside.
Make a plastic zip lock bag trap
1 Place a few slices of an apple inside a zip lock bag
2 Leave an inch open to allow pests to enter. The little pests will soon be on and surrounding the apple.
3 Zip the bag closed and release them outside.
Vacuum Cleaner Method
1 Use your favorite vacuum cleaner: Fruit flies tend to congregate in certain areas, so if your vacuum is powerful and has a good filter (hepa or otherwise) you can easily suck up lots of them and send them packing.
2 Remove the floor cleaning attachment and suck the flies from shaft. Many vacuums come with extender attachments to reach those hard to get spaces.
3 Jazz the vacuum cleaner hose method using a tapped on clear soda bottle, or try a piece of clear plastic, taped in a cylinder or funnel-shape, attached to your vacuum hose. Also you may dip a couple pieces of paper towel or cotton swab in jelly or cider vinegar and then securely tape them inside the tube and attract flies, when you see some in the tube turn on the vac.
4 Dispose of the dust, and such, outside or get rid of the inner bag.
Soap Method
1 Whip up some soap suds with dish soap.
2 Let them sit in a bowl on your counter. The flies will land in the suds and die. Use a little fruit or juice to help attract them.
Any small container with a teaspoon of cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons of water & a drop of two of dish soap will attract & drown them. To kill off the rest of the population, try pouring a cup or two of warm/hot vinegar (can be diluted with half water) down your kitchen & bathroom drains. This worked for an unusually pesky population.
If you have a gas stove with a constant pilot light, place the trap on the warm part of the stove top. This will help spread the smell of the vinegar.
If vinegar does not work, try soy sauce.
Make sure you choose the right type of vinegar. White vinegar does not work. Malt vinegar and red wine work, just not as well as cider. Beer sometimes works, too. Balsamic vinegar also works well. Wine works extremely well, and a wine bottle with an inch or so left can be used without an additional funnel.
You can forgo the funnel if you put a small bit of dish washing detergent in the cup with the vinegar and stir. The fruit flies are still attracted to the vinegar smell, and the detergent traps them. The detergent actually reduces the surface tension of the liquid allowing the flies to more readily sink and drown.
Another simple suggestion is to use a vacuum cleaner with a hose attachment. The fruit flies cannot escape the suction and will die in the process of being sucked in. This is especially helpful when you get a very large "surprise" infestation.
Fruity smelling dish washing liquids (lemon, etc.) also attract fruit flies.
It seems like dark bowls/mugs (black) worked better at attracting the flies to the vinegar.
Bourbon also works. Leave the top off of a mostly empty bottle and the bottle will act as a funnel trap.
Fruit flies breed and live in warm moist places such as a garbage disposal and/or drains in the sink. Cleaning and hot water on a regular basis will combat these possibilities. You can also pour ice down the drain overnight.
Hang a few of those old flypaper rolls over the area of infestation. Ugly, but effective. These are extremely poisonous though; use with caution and keep out of reach of children.
And get rid of all your exposed fruit. Once ripened, bananas can be stored in the refrigerator.
The accumulated scum inside your sink drain is a breeding ground for fruit flies. Use a cheap bottle brush and a hot water rinse to clean out the drain every week or so. The bottle brush must be small enough to fit past the strainer grid. Also, never stick your hand into a garbage disposal.
Tip for bartenders that constantly fight this. Cover liquor bottles that have a pour spout on them with a small sheet of cellophane. Clean bottles below the spout with an ammonia based cleaner, every other day. Wipe bar down at the end of the night with same cleaner.
Fruit flies sense quick movement. Approach them very slowly with a moist paper towel on bathroom mirrors, cabinets, etc. and you'll get them every time.
Leave an empty bottle of beer open and unattended, they will fly in. recap and throw away.
Clorox cleaning spray. Wipe down surfaces and dead flies afterwards. Also, ventilate the room you're spraying; the smell can be somewhat overwhelming.
If using fresh fruit in your trap, be sure to remove and thoroughly clean it every day - the fruit will give way to larvae surprisingly quickly. Vinegars and wines don't allow larvae to survive.
After cleaning a drain or getting rid of old fruit, peppermint extract will drive them away. If you take part of a paper towel and twist it into a wick, place one end into the peppermint extract, leaving part of it on the outside. Tip the bottle to wet the wick. Set the bottle of peppermint extract on the counter or by the area that was infested. They will be gone. This works great at home, but also works in bars near the drains.
Use a fine mist bottle to spray mobs of flies and they will drop to the surface below. Because their wings are damp, they can not fly so you can easily squash them without them getting away.
If you don't have cider vinegar, wine or beer you can add a drop of honey to 1" seasoned rice vinegar along with the drop of detergent, at the bottom of a plastic soda bottle. The flies seem to like it.
If you use the freezer method, be aware that some flies may survive the process for up to a day.
Windex is an instant killer of most small bugs. If you find a patch of fruit flies in an area you are willing to get wet, give them a few quick sprays of Windex and watch them suffer.
Some may think air freshener will chase fruit flies away, but it can actually attract them even more. Anything which has a sweet smell, such as lemon or orange scented air freshener, will attract fruit flies.
A potted plant can be rid of fruit flies by allowing it the dirt to dry completely between waterings. This kills most of the larvae; the adults don't live long and will soon be gone. Take extra care to check soil for dryness and rewater promptly with plants with stiff leaves because these do not wilt as a warning that they are too dry before dying. Also, there are some insecticides safe to use on plants that are, or will be brought, inside.
skipjoe
6dogs4us
Best answer!
1 Remove the food sources attracting the flies. Fruit flies have a life-cycle of 10 days giving them plenty of time to punish you for leaving moist, fermenting, organic material in which they may lay eggs. Most fly trap ideas only serve to illustrate the flies' progress in taking over your home, and some will themselves provide a breeding ground. Sanitation is the only effective resolution! Address these frequent problem spots:
Launder the dishrags, or at least wash them thoroughly with soap, rinse them well and wring them dry before hanging them up. Don't leave them in the sink.
2 Keep your house clean, and throw away rotting fruit. Store trash in a covered bin.
Do not toss food garbage into waste-paper baskets.
Cover your fruit bowl or store fruit you wish to keep in the refrigerator. Also, raisins, dates and prunes are favorite attractants.
Use or discard all overripe fruit.
Clean opened containers of fruit juice, fermented or vinegar products, for example ketchup, Sriracha sauce, or cooking wine. Seal them well. Keep these in the refrigerator if possible.
Wipe up crumbs and spills from your cabinets, counter and floor.
Take out all trash, do not re-use the plastic liner garbage bags.
Clean the seals of your refrigerator door, the top and under the fridge, especially clean the evaporation pan if it has one.
Clean under and around your dishwasher and stove.
Dump mop water, clean the pail, launder the mop rag.
Remove damp lint from the laundry room.
Take out your compost and keep your collection bin covered and food additions to your pile buried beneath yard waste.
Do not use manure or lake water for fertilizer near the house.
Use screens for your doors and windows.
Put a household fan near the most vulnerable areas (fruit bowl) and keep it blowing across the fruit. The flies cannot land in a cross wind. If doing this then put any bottle trap etc away from the fruit as it won't work either.
Put new soft fruit in a brown bag, this helps it ripen but also keeps the fruit flies away from the easiest targets. They will have more difficulty with harder skinned fruit that you can leave out.
Catch and release method
1 Drop a piece of rotten fruit into a large, clean jar such as a Mason jar.
2 Place the jar near the greatest concentration of flies, i.e., if they're hanging around the fruit bowl, put the jar in the fruit bowl.
3 Put a paper cone with a small hole in the bottom in the mouth of the jar. It should have the pointed end pointed downward. The fruit flies will enter the cone through the large end by the mouth of the bottle and find their way through the hole into the bottle. They will not be able to get out.
4 Release them outside when you have several, if you like.
Make a bowl trap
1 Put a piece of old skinless fruit and some wine, or some balsamic vinegar in a bowl (think like the flies: what do you want for dinner?). A mixture of white wine and coriander seeds works very, very well. Cover the bowl tightly (no wrinkles) with plastic wrap.
Poke many small holes in the plastic with a fork. The fruit flies go in and can't get out (if the holes are too big they will fly back out). Then you can release them outside.
Make a plastic zip lock bag trap
1 Place a few slices of an apple inside a zip lock bag
2 Leave an inch open to allow pests to enter. The little pests will soon be on and surrounding the apple.
3 Zip the bag closed and release them outside.
Vacuum Cleaner Method
1 Use your favorite vacuum cleaner: Fruit flies tend to congregate in certain areas, so if your vacuum is powerful and has a good filter (hepa or otherwise) you can easily suck up lots of them and send them packing.
2 Remove the floor cleaning attachment and suck the flies from shaft. Many vacuums come with extender attachments to reach those hard to get spaces.
3 Jazz the vacuum cleaner hose method using a tapped on clear soda bottle, or try a piece of clear plastic, taped in a cylinder or funnel-shape, attached to your vacuum hose. Also you may dip a couple pieces of paper towel or cotton swab in jelly or cider vinegar and then securely tape them inside the tube and attract flies, when you see some in the tube turn on the vac.
4 Dispose of the dust, and such, outside or get rid of the inner bag.
Soap Method
1 Whip up some soap suds with dish soap.
2 Let them sit in a bowl on your counter. The flies will land in the suds and die. Use a little fruit or juice to help attract them.
Any small container with a teaspoon of cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons of water & a drop of two of dish soap will attract & drown them. To kill off the rest of the population, try pouring a cup or two of warm/hot vinegar (can be diluted with half water) down your kitchen & bathroom drains. This worked for an unusually pesky population.
If you have a gas stove with a constant pilot light, place the trap on the warm part of the stove top. This will help spread the smell of the vinegar.
If vinegar does not work, try soy sauce.
Make sure you choose the right type of vinegar. White vinegar does not work. Malt vinegar and red wine work, just not as well as cider. Beer sometimes works, too. Balsamic vinegar also works well. Wine works extremely well, and a wine bottle with an inch or so left can be used without an additional funnel.
You can forgo the funnel if you put a small bit of dish washing detergent in the cup with the vinegar and stir. The fruit flies are still attracted to the vinegar smell, and the detergent traps them. The detergent actually reduces the surface tension of the liquid allowing the flies to more readily sink and drown.
Another simple suggestion is to use a vacuum cleaner with a hose attachment. The fruit flies cannot escape the suction and will die in the process of being sucked in. This is especially helpful when you get a very large "surprise" infestation.
Fruity smelling dish washing liquids (lemon, etc.) also attract fruit flies.
It seems like dark bowls/mugs (black) worked better at attracting the flies to the vinegar.
Bourbon also works. Leave the top off of a mostly empty bottle and the bottle will act as a funnel trap.
Fruit flies breed and live in warm moist places such as a garbage disposal and/or drains in the sink. Cleaning and hot water on a regular basis will combat these possibilities. You can also pour ice down the drain overnight.
Hang a few of those old flypaper rolls over the area of infestation. Ugly, but effective. These are extremely poisonous though; use with caution and keep out of reach of children.
And get rid of all your exposed fruit. Once ripened, bananas can be stored in the refrigerator.
The accumulated scum inside your sink drain is a breeding ground for fruit flies. Use a cheap bottle brush and a hot water rinse to clean out the drain every week or so. The bottle brush must be small enough to fit past the strainer grid. Also, never stick your hand into a garbage disposal.
Tip for bartenders that constantly fight this. Cover liquor bottles that have a pour spout on them with a small sheet of cellophane. Clean bottles below the spout with an ammonia based cleaner, every other day. Wipe bar down at the end of the night with same cleaner.
Fruit flies sense quick movement. Approach them very slowly with a moist paper towel on bathroom mirrors, cabinets, etc. and you'll get them every time.
Leave an empty bottle of beer open and unattended, they will fly in. recap and throw away.
Clorox cleaning spray. Wipe down surfaces and dead flies afterwards. Also, ventilate the room you're spraying; the smell can be somewhat overwhelming.
If using fresh fruit in your trap, be sure to remove and thoroughly clean it every day - the fruit will give way to larvae surprisingly quickly. Vinegars and wines don't allow larvae to survive.
After cleaning a drain or getting rid of old fruit, peppermint extract will drive them away. If you take part of a paper towel and twist it into a wick, place one end into the peppermint extract, leaving part of it on the outside. Tip the bottle to wet the wick. Set the bottle of peppermint extract on the counter or by the area that was infested. They will be gone. This works great at home, but also works in bars near the drains.
Use a fine mist bottle to spray mobs of flies and they will drop to the surface below. Because their wings are damp, they can not fly so you can easily squash them without them getting away.
If you don't have cider vinegar, wine or beer you can add a drop of honey to 1" seasoned rice vinegar along with the drop of detergent, at the bottom of a plastic soda bottle. The flies seem to like it.
If you use the freezer method, be aware that some flies may survive the process for up to a day.
Windex is an instant killer of most small bugs. If you find a patch of fruit flies in an area you are willing to get wet, give them a few quick sprays of Windex and watch them suffer.
Some may think air freshener will chase fruit flies away, but it can actually attract them even more. Anything which has a sweet smell, such as lemon or orange scented air freshener, will attract fruit flies.
A potted plant can be rid of fruit flies by allowing it the dirt to dry completely between waterings. This kills most of the larvae; the adults don't live long and will soon be gone. Take extra care to check soil for dryness and rewater promptly with plants with stiff leaves because these do not wilt as a warning that they are too dry before dying. Also, there are some insecticides safe to use on plants that are, or will be brought, inside.