If you’re a homeowner, there’s a good chance that you’ve seen this pest. A fruit fly infestation is one of the most common you’ll have throughout your homeowning life. It’s brought indoors on mostly fruits and vegetables. And it’s the subject of our article today!
Fruit Fly Infestation: Overview
Like I said above, the fruit fly is a small pest. They’re about one tenth to one fifth of an inch long. These flies have red eyes, yellowish bodies, and black rings around their abdomens. But don’t let their size fool you. This is one of the most annoying pests to get rid of. You also may have heard of them by a few other names. These include vinegar flies, pomace flies, and wine flies.
This pest is nearly impossible to keep out of homes. You may do your best to clean, but they still get in. They fly indoors when you’re coming or going, and hitch rides home on fruits and veggies you buy at the store. They’re small enough to even slide through the screening on your windows and can smell the food out anywhere in your house. And, if left untreated, a fruit fly infestation can pose potential health risks. Fruit flies are known to fly around and pick up bacteria that they then deposit onto fresh foods.
They’re particularly drawn to manure and other feces that can contain bacteria such as E. coli. They then carry the bacteria with them. Additionally, after mating, female fruit flies inject batches of eggs into fresh fruit. This contaminates the fruit. Getting rid of them requires patience and persistance, but we’ll go over a few basic and smart tips to keep them from breeding and exploding in population around your home. This deals with the fruit fly infestation at its source.
Fly Prevention Tips
To start with, keep your home clean. This is obviously a no brainer, but it’s easy to slip up for even a few days and end up with a really bad infestation on your hands. The minute you see the fruit flies, it’s time to toss any product that hasn’t been refrigerated. And that doesn’t mean just toss it in the kitchen can either. Take any trash either to an outdoor compost or garbage bin, and make sure it’s a good distance from your house. And clean up any residual fruit juices left behind.
After that, make sure to take any scraps of food outside. If you compost kitchen scraps and find you have fruit flies buzzing about, it’s time to clean out the compost bin. Until you get the infestation under control, you’ll need to take produce scraps directly to your outdoor compost pile. Empty any indoor compost containers and give them a good scrubbing, too.
And this may surprise you, but fruit fly infestations can extend to old sponges. They can breed in any sour or old sponges, mops, and dishrags. If you haven’t changed those in the last few months, refill and replace all of them- and dispose of any that are old and rotting.
Clean your dishes!
This sort of extends to the paragraph above, but I can’t say enough about how important it is to keep a clean sink. If you have a dirty sink, even if it’s empty, anything can infest that. Roaches love the moisture and free food, and obviously, so do fruit flies. Don’t wait until the end of the day to wash your dishes, especially if they have residue from things like jelly or wine. At the very least, give the dishes a good rinse to remove any food or beverage remnants. When you scrape leftovers into the garbage, be sure to take the trash outside promptly. If you have a dishwasher, rinse food particles from your dishes and run the load as soon as you can.
Fruit Fly Infestation: Final thoughts
If you get this pest in your home, try not to panic. It’s something that most people will go through at least once. They’re small, sneaky, and get into places you wouldn’t expect. You can do things like setting vinegar traps in proper areas, or using store bought traps, but once you get your place cleaned up and slop free, they run out of breeding sites. And without anywhere to breed, they slowly die off.
But if you somehow end up with a long standing fruit fly infestation, don’t hesitate to contact a pest control specialist. And when you do, make sure they’re one that uses natural methods of control. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, but it’s long since been common knowledge that chemical pesticides can be massively harmful to your home and family’s health.
