Got Fruit Flies?!

I’ve recently had the displeasure of experiencing my first all-out warfare with the fruit fly.  One morning I awoke to a bunch of little fruit flies in my kitchen.  I spent hours cleaning the house and killing these little pests.  The following morning I awoke to twice as many flies.  Each day it was the same result.  I couldn’t understand why or how they were multiplying so fast.  I had just cleaned the whole house from top to bottom, front to back,inside out, upside down, and backwards.  There was no food left out anywhere, or so I thought!  Yet, here I was with thousands of these flies ruling my house. 

For the next 2 weeks I walked around my house in a cloud of fruit flies swatting at every one that I could reach. They were everywhere.  Every time I opened my fridge, they were there in the crisper drawers, on the rubber seals of the doors, just everywhere!  I killed so many that the floors were speckled with them and I had to sweep a couple times in one day.   Now, this may seem a little bit over the top.  But, if you realize how quickly these things multiply, you’d understand.  Somewhere, unbeknownst to me, there was larvae hiding and hatching at an alarming rate.

One day, I had had enough.  I moved every piece of large furniture and appliance in my house.  Okay, I had a little help with that one.  Finally, behind the hutch in the kitchen, I found the culprit.  The space behind the hutch isn’t a very big gap but, it’s just large enough for a small potato to act as a womb for fruit fly larvae.

Once I had all of that cleaned up, I thought that the flies would just die off.  But, unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.  The life span of a fruit fly can be several weeks.  Therefore, I had to learn another way to get rid of them now that the house was really clean with no surprises.  I have pet birds and didn’t want to use any sprays that might be harmful to my pets.  So, here are some great tips that helped me a lot.

• CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN!  Make sure your house is clean.  Even when you think it’s clean there might be an area in your home that you least expect to find spoiled food that can harbor fruit fly larvae.  (As I have already shown)
• Keep a lid on your garbage can.  And never, never, never throw food trash in your wastepaper baskets. (That’s a big rule in my  house for my kids)
• Keep all food put away.  For now, store your fruit in your fridge.  Keep crumb spills cleaned up and wipe any food spills immediately.
• Clean your fridge inside and out with a bleach solution.  Don’t forget to wipe the rubber seals on the fridge and freezer doors.
• Keep things dry!  Fruit flies are attracted to moisture.  Don’t leave wet washcloths or sponges soaked.  Make sure they are wrung out well.  And, wash them often.
• Clean your drains well.  A bleach solution down the drain works well.

You can still fight these pests while you sleep.  Ya, right , you say?  This is how I did it:

1. Put a small amount of apple cider vinegar(not white vinegar) into a small glass or bowl.
2. Add a couple of drops of dish detergent and swirl to dissolve the soap. 
3. Place this in the area of the infestation and leave overnight.  I used three different glasses for my home: one for the kitchen , one for the dining room, and one for the living room.  I placed the one for the kitchen on top of my gas stove.  The heat from the stove warms the liquid and infuses it into the air. 
4. Go to sleep.
5. In the morning, discard the contents of each glass or bowl in the toilet and flush.  Clean dishes thoroughly.
6. Repeat these steps for several days. 

It’s that simple.  Okay, so it’s not a very attractive thing to see in the morning.  But, I’d rather wake up to a glass full of dead fruit flies than inhaling them on my way to the kitchen.