How To Get Rid Of Fruit Flies

I love the summer months. Going to the farmers market to get some nice fresh produce and even trying my hand at growing my own in the backyard. I love this time of year as the food is the best! However, what I hate about this is those darn fruit flies!

They swarm all over your fresh and tasty food and are annoying! Plus there is no way I am eating anything, no matter how fresh it is if fruit flies have been having a party on it.

Thankfully, my grandma is one of these people who has a “remedy” for everything and she has given me more than a few ways to get rid of fruit flies and I want to share some of the practical ones with you, as well as a couple of my own.

A Fruit & Paper Cone Trap

Using a standard old jar, pour a little bit of vinegar in the bottom and a fresh piece of fruit. Next up, get a piece of paper and roll it into a cone. You want the narrow end to be in the bottom. The fruit flies will be able to get in, but not get out. End of the day, you can just “dispose” of them by how you see fit!

A Death Trap Of Milk, Sugar, And Pepper

This is one of my grandmas and it does work, but it is also a lot of work and kind of a waste of good food and milk if you ask me! Anyway, take a pint of milk, around 4 ounces of fresh sugar and a couple of ounces of ground pepper.

Put it all in a saucepan and let it simmer for ten minutes. Pour it into a shallow dish and the fruit flies will come to it, try and drink it and drown. I can tell you this does work, but it can be a little pricey if you have to keep doing it every day or so!

Apple Cider Vinegar

Some people swear that regular vinegar does the trick, but if you really want to trap those pesky fruit flies, unfiltered apple cider vinegar is what you need to use.

Take the top of the bottle, you want the bottle to be at least half full as the more apple cider vinegar that is in there, the more alluring it is. Use some plastic wrap and cover the top of the bottle. Put a tiny little hole in it so the fruit flies can get in and wrap a rubber band around the neck, securing the wrap in place.

Those little jerks will enter, but not be able to get out! Having one of these near your produce or on your window is a great way to keep them away from the good stuff. This will also work if you use a bowl covered in plastic wrap.

Vinegar & Dish Soap

This one here may seem a bit dark, but if you are like me and sick of fruit flies ruining your food, you are willing to cross over to the dark side. Fruit flies cannot resist vinegar, so put some vinegar in a bowl and then add some drops of dish soap.

You do not want to put in too much, 3 to 5 drops are more than enough. Leave the bowl uncovered, the fruit flies will be drawn to it and thanks to the dish soap, they will sink and they will not bother you anymore.

Fly Strips

These were my go-to for a while. If fruit flies are what are driving you nuts, make sure you get the ones that are actually designed to allure fruit flies.

These are cheap, they work and it shows those fruit flies that you are not someone who messes around when it comes to protecting their fruit. While there are some “name” brand fly strips. I would suggest checking out your local dollar stores and so on for cheap ones.

Aunt Fannie’s Fly Punch!

I had never heard of Aunt Fannie before, but she sounds like the kind of lady that would get on well with my grandma. This is a product you can buy online or in a store and it is designed with one thing in mind….. for fruit flies to drop and hit the floor. “count the bodies” is literally one of the advertising slogans of this stuff! 

It may seem a little pricey, but I can tell you without a doubt this stuff works and like the fly strips it is handy if you do not want to have to make a fruit fly poison cocktail yourself.

Fly Spray (Alcohol)

If your lungs can handle bug spray that you can buy at your local Walmart go for it. For me though, that stuff makes me feel sick, but there are some “home remedy” fly sprays that you can make which are very effective. Get some rubbing alcohol, at the very least 70 percent. Pour it in a misting bottle and blast away!

They will fall to the ground where you can finish them off, sweep them up and leave the bodies on the porch as a reminder to any other fruit flies…… or you can just put them in the garbage.

Fly Spray (Water)

The rubbing alcohol can really kill them, but the truth is a spray bottle with just water in it is going to make the fruit flies fall to the ground when they are blasted as their wings cannot let them fly when they are wet.

Read More: How to get rid of carpet beetles

When they are on the ground you can kill them and dispose of the bodies! Also, you may be surprised to know this, but Windex pretty much kills fruit flies instantly, but I am not sure I would want to waste my Windex on a bunch of punk fruit flies!

Kill The Eggs!

You may be wondering where the heck do they keep on coming from? If you have a bit of an “infestation” where you kill a load and then they are back the next day, they are clearly breeding. Look in the drain and check your food very carefully as fruit flies breed where there is a food source.

The most common place for them to lay eggs is the garbage can. Make sure that you are cleaning the actual garbage can when you take out the trash as old food is something they look for when they are wanting to lay their eggs.

Crush the eggs, drown the eggs, use a flamethrower on the eggs… ok maybe not a flamethrower, but drowning them and squashing them is fully effective.

Resources

Orkin.comThoughtco.comGoodHouseKeeping.com