Can anyone recommend a way to get rid of fruit flies without harmful chemicals?
Just seen this information yesterday:
1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar and two teaspoons of dish detergent. Leave it out overnight and it will attract all the fruit flies to it. They will drown.. Good luck
they multiply so fast. i did what the other poster suggested. they went down in numbers but i literary had to catch the rest and kill them myself. uh i hate those things. they usually come when i get a bag of onions. taught me a lesson to shake the bag when i get it at the store
The vinegar and soap really work but I needed it for several days because they start to lay eggs and keep multiplying!
Either apple cider vinegar or beer. I found the vinegar works better. But put some in a cup with saran wrap on it. Poke wholes (not too many and not too big)in the top. They will be attracted to the smell and crawl in. Good luck! Fruit flies are gross!
Remove the source. Nothing will work if you don't get rid of whatever they swarm on, like overripe fruit
Cider vinegar works, but a bottle with a little bit of wine in it works even better, and faster. Putting a little chunk of overripe fruit in with the vinegar and dish soap makes it more effective too.
DO you have houseplants near where you are seeing the flies? They may actually be fungus gnats. They live in plants and eventually eat away at the roots and kill them. Check out your plants and you'll be able to see the little flies in the dirt. I had a HUGE problem with this a while back. We tried everything, vinegar and all, and nothing worked. But then I found this stuff called "Knockout Gnats" It's all natural, no chemicals, so it is totally safe. Got it on a website called gardensalive.com That's the only place I found it, and the bottle cost $20, but you only need a few teaspoons per gallon of water and it really works. Hope this helps!
I dont know but bannans alwys bring fruit flies for me
This is a sure fire way to get rid of fruit flies. I have been doing it for years and it never fails. It is a fruit fly trap.
First, take a small water bottle (Poland Spring) put a few peices of fruit like strawberries, oranges, banana peels and banana inside the bottle. You might need to shove them in.
Next, take a peice of paper and roll it into a cone shape. Make sure the small part of the cone is pretty small, but not too tiny. Put the cone, small end first, into the water bottle.
Then, put scotch tape around the top of the bottle neck and on the cone to seal the bottle. Trim the top if the paper is really long, but leave at least three to four inches of paper outside of the bottle.
Place your traps right in the area where you have the most fruit flies. Leave them there for a few days and watch. They will fill up within a day or a day and a half with fruit flies.
Fruit flies can fly down the cone, but cannot fly up. They are simply not too bright.
I usually leave my traps out for about three days and then I fold and tape up the top and throw them out. I always make new ones immediately though just in case there are few stragglers flying around.
Make sure that you also clean all surfaces in the room where the fruit flies are most prevalent. with a strong cleaner and maybe even clean out your garbage can.
Here is a link to these directions that I found when I googled homemade fruit fly traps. http://animalrights.about.com/od/wildlife/ss/HomemadeFruitFlyTrap.htm
I am not trying to be humane about this, but these traps really work.
Someone else recommended using a jar, like a baby food or jam jar and putting fruit inside it as well. Then place cling wrap over the top tightly and poke some small holes, with a pin in the cling wrap. This will also trap the flies. I haven't tried that one yet because the paper in the water bottle works so well.
Good luck and happy trapping.
I get the same problem, particularly in the fall months. I created my own fruit fly catcher... take an old jelly-type jar, get a piece of thick paper and shape it into a cone shape. Tape it into the top of the jelly jar, but first put a small cut piece of fruit into the bottom of the jar with a small sprinkling of sugar (peach or strawberry work well for this). Place it near where you keep your fruit. What happens is the fruit flies find their way into the jar because of the fruit but they follow the lines of the jar to try to get out but they cannot because the cone is in the top of the jar and the opening of the cone is too small for them to find.... when you have alot of flies you can either let them out outside or wash them down the sink and start the process over again. This worked very well for me and once it got colder, they just seem to stop coming.
Pour a small amount of apple cider vinegar in a cup (maybe 1/4 of a cup), add a couple of drops of dish soap and leave the mixture where ever you are most plagued by fruit flies. Within days, the fruit flies will all be dead in the mixture. Works amazingly well!
Apple cider vinager in a glass with saran wrap over the top. Poke tiny holes in the saran wrap so that the flies can't get back out. It takes about a week or so, but it's a safe, natural way.
Leave a short, wide mouth glass out on the counter. Pour in a 1/3 to 1/2 of cheap red wine. It worked for me.
Good Luck, Irene
Robyn,
Along with the other mothers Apple Cider Vinegar.
I worked with fruit flies for 5 1/2 yrs in a research lab. This is what we use.
Take a small empty, clean jelly jar (or jar of this type)
Put 1/2 inch to 1 inch of Apple Cider vinegar into the jar.
Add a drop of liquid soap or a pea sized amount of powder dish soap to the vinegar.
Take a paper coffee filter and make it into a funnel shape.
Cut a hole in the bottom of the filter.
Open up the filter enough so that the hole is open
Tape the filter to the jelly jar and set it on your counter.
The flies will go in and can't get out. If you have a lot of flies (probably not as much as you think) change the trap every 3-4 days if it starts to look like a lot of flies are in there. And you can just dump it down the drain.
So yes everyone has always lied to you, you can catch more flies with vinegar then honey.
You might want to check your house plants if you don't have any fruit sitting out in the house. House plants get little tiny bugs that look like fruit flies. I forget what they are called; but if it is from the plants, you may have to take them outside to wash the roots and replace the dirt.
I had this problem a few months ago and saw all the same type of advice about using vinegar and homemade traps. I found that yes, these would catch flies, but they didn't do much to eliminate the problem overall. When the building's exterminator came, I asked him. He said the ONLY way is to remove the source... The traps do catch some of the flies, but some do manage to get out, and if that happens, you are only feeding them and keeping them around to multiply. So - his advice - don't leave ANY food out, check your plants (I didn't have any), and scrub your countertops. That's it. They will be gone in a few days. Good luck.
Hmm, I learned some interesting tips reading this.
I've also done the vinegar in a jar with water and dish soap. It wasn't apple cidar vinegar, though I can see where that might work better. And I left it on the counter out of the way for a few days so any eggs that would hatch would be drawn to that. If you've got bananas, then keep the jar close to it to help draw them near. My littlest one LOVES all kinds of fruit so we've always got it around. When the flies come, that trick works well to rid us of them.
Get rid of whatever is rotting in your house somewhere. Trust me, there is something you're not seeing. Especially with young children around.
Good, old-fashioned fly paper. You can get it at most hardware stores or stores that sell hardware. You also have to find out where they are coming from. I had them a few months ago and realized after awhile that there was a rotten onion at the very bottom of my onion bin and they were coming from there. Good luck!