Nobody likes the idea of having uninvited bugs in the house. Whether they are crawling cockroaches or creepy spiders, household pests can cause serious damage. However, fruit flies are the worst when it comes to annoyance. These critters can pop up out of nowhere while you are sitting in the living room or cooking breakfast.
The exasperating part is that it can become difficult to get rid of them. However, with a little planning, you can easily clear your house from fruit flies. The first step to this is knowing how you got them in the first place.
Everything You Need to Know About Fruit Flies
Here is what you need to know to keep fruit flies away from your house.
Where do fruit flies come from?
One clear indication of how you get fruit flies is the unclean places of your home. These pests hate clean surfaces and mostly dwell on rotten food. If you have ripe or decaying fruit around your house, your house is the ideal place for a fruit fly infestation.
What attracts fruit flies?
Aside from rotten fruits, fruit flies also have a thing for fermented substances like wine, liquor, or beer. These pests usually settle in trash cans and garbage disposals. You can also find them breeding in drains and mop buckets.
Signs of a fruit fly infestation in your house
The most visible sign of a fruit fly infestation is the appearance of these insects. You can see them flying around trash cans and in your kitchen. If you have beer/liquor bottles stored somewhere, do not forget to check your storage.
What do fruit flies look like?
Fruit flies are small and appear brown or tan in colour. They have a black abdomen which is gray underneath with tan thorax. Mostly, fruit flies have red eyes, but they can differ, as some have black or brownish eyes. The adult fruit flies are usually 3 to 4 mm long.
Fruits fly larvae look like worms and are 0.25 to 0.375 inch long. Unlike the adult fly, a larva appears white with dark colored mouth hooks.
How long do fruit flies live?
The lifecycle of fruit flies is small as the larvae quickly develop into adults. In less than a week, a larva can grow into an adult fruit fly. Usually, adult fruit flies only live for up to a month (30 days). However, the bigger problem is how rapidly they breed and multiply.
Once a female fruit fly begins reproducing, it can lay around 500 eggs. The eggs that females lay can hatch in less than 24 to 30 hours. This, in turn, makes it problematic for homeowners to control the house flies.
Are fruit flies harmful?
In case you have questions like “do fruit flies bite?” The answer is no, fruits flies cannot bite you like a horsefly. However, they can put you and your family in harm’s way in other ways.
Fruits flies have a hairy body that catches harmful germs and bacteria. So, wherever they land, they can spread E. coli and other bacteria and cause hygienic diseases.
In some cases they have been known to cause irritation of the skin, causing a rash or a cluster of red bumps.
How do you get rid of fruit flies?
Keeping fruit flies out of your house is easy by following preventive measures. If you already have an infestation, you can get rid of fruit flies using traps.
How to keep fruit flies away?
Cleanliness is the right way forward if you want to keep fruit flies away. All you need to do is follow some basic steps. You can easily keep them at bay by destroying their feeding and breeding points.
Step 1: Keep your trash cans outside.
Step 2: Cover trash cans with tight-fitting lids
Step 3: Wash and disinfect your trash cans regularly.
Step 4: Inspect your drains and keep them clean.
Step 5: Fix drippy fixtures and repair leaky pipes.
Also, inspect your fruit and vegetables when you bring them home. A good way to eliminate any chances of fruit fly infestation is to keep the fruits in the refrigerator. If you have a garden, pick up ripe vegetables and fallen fruits.
How to get rid of fruit fly infestation?
You can attempt to get rid of fruit fly infestation by using DIY methods. Here are some traps that can help you catch fruit flies with little effort.
- Place apple cider vinegar inside the plastic wrap.
- Put vinegar and old fruit inside a paper cone.
- Place vinegar and dish soap in a bowl to drown fruit flies.
- Use an almost-empty bottle of liquor, beer, or old wine as a trap.
In case you are not into DIY methods, contact a good pest control service. Professional pest control service providers can help you get rid of fruit flies once and for all. They can not only catch them but will also demolish their breeding colonies and eggs. Vanquish Pest Control can help you get rid of fruit flies from your commercial property and house. We develop and follow a customized treatment plan to address the fruit fly infestation. Our strategy includes traps, bio-remediation, and other useful methods that are not only fruitful but are also covered by a six-month guarantee.