Fruit flies: how to deal with fruit flies in an apartment

What is the harm of the fruit fly and is there any benefit from it?

Drosophila do not bite, are not blood-sucking and disease carriers. In general, they are harmless. But, twisted in a swarm over a rotting fruit or houseplant, they flicker before our eyes and create special discomfort.

The harm from flies in one: if you eat spoiled fruit infected with larvae, you can get an intestinal upset.

Fruit flies are so small that they would go unnoticed by humans, if not their annoying lifestyle. It is also possible to understand that they really started in the apartment when spoilage appears, areas of rotting on fruits and vegetables. If the products began to rot, then the female insect must have laid eggs in them or larvae have already appeared.

How to deal with midges in an apartment using folk methods?

Our distant ancestors knew how to get the midges out of the apartment. They left behind many recipes for getting rid of them on their own.

They do not pose any danger to human health and allow you to get rid of the gnat for a long time, and sometimes even forever.

Homemade midge trap

The easiest way is to use an ordinary glass jar. This tool is especially effective in the kitchen.

1. Take a container, and then put a spoiled vegetable or fruit in it.
2. Cover the neck tightly with foil or polyethylene.
3. Leave holes in them.
4. The jar is kept on the table all night.
5. In the morning, boiling water is poured into it, and then thrown away or its contents are flushed into the toilet.
6. If necessary, these actions are resumed the next night.

Beer bottle

It has been found that alcoholic beverages based on sweets, fruits or hops strongly attract gnats. Therefore, a standard store container becomes no less effective after beer has been drunk from it. It allows you to get rid of wine midges.

An empty bottle of wine, beer or liquor is placed at the places of accumulation of insects.

After a while, from the inside, she will be covered with parasites. After the bottle is hermetically closed, taken out in the trash.

Detergent recipe

Another great way to get rid of the gnat permanently is to use a special type of bait. It is based on the fact that such insects have always been attracted by fruiting apple trees. Fruit flies are especially attracted to her.

A similar trap is constructed based on the appropriate vinegar. It is poured into a bottle with a volume of at least 0.5 liters, to the required volume, it is supplemented with water at room temperature and a little of any detergent is added.

The parasites will quickly strike the strong apple smell, and then get stuck in the lather.

Formalin recipe

Another proven folk method is becoming no less effective.

A plate is placed on a room or kitchen table. 20 g of formalin, half a glass of sugar syrup and a glass of milk are poured there. Food products attract midges, and the poison quickly destroys them, acting through the digestive tract.

How to get rid of midges in the kitchen in 3 steps

By themselves, these small midges do not pose a threat to humans, but a larva accidentally swallowed along with food can cause an infection of the digestive tract. Fertility of fruit flies is extremely high: one female gives from 200 to 1,500 and more eggs. Insects can live in the kitchen for two months, which means that the risk of earning myiasis increases.

Drosophila eggs can enter the house on the fur of cats and dogs, with food or on shoes. The food base for midges is rotting organic matter.

This can be rotten fruit, an unfinished glass of wine, spilled milk, waste in the trash can, a piece of meat that gets into the crack during cooking, wet soil of indoor plants. You can expand the list endlessly. Midges even feast on pet food.

Drosophila in houseplants

Quite often, fruit flies curl around flower pots, they are attracted by rotting leaves and damp soil.Sometimes the reason for the spread of midges is the soil contaminated in the store, if there are such doubts, the soil must be kept in the oven before use.

The plant is not recommended to be poured, fallen flowers and leaves must be thrown away. A match will also help to reduce the number of insects, which must be stuck into the soil with a painted end. If midges are found in a pot of flowers, it is also recommended to water the plant with an insecticide harmless to it, the action of the drug is primarily aimed at destroying midges and their larvae.

Dichlorvos is considered the most extreme measure of getting rid of midges; it is not recommended to stay indoors during the disinfection period.

Penetration routes

To understand where the fruit flies come from in the house, it becomes clear from their name - a fruit fly. They get into the dwelling with vegetables and fruits. Enterprising flies still in the beds and during storage managed to lay eggs on their surface. When the process of decay begins, this serves as a signal for their development. Before you have time to look back, clouds of annoying insects will fill not only the kitchen, but the whole house. Another likely place is pots of houseplants. The highly moistened soil promotes the rapid development of flies. Attracted by the smell of rotten fruit, flies, due to their size, easily penetrate the mosquito nets into the apartment. Some individuals carry out predatory actions from ventilation openings. Another problem area is a cage, feeder, pet toilet, or an open aquarium with fish.

An open aquarium can attract gnats

How to get rid of wine gnats

You need to start fighting the midges as soon as you find them in the house in order to avoid their further reproduction. For this you need:

1. find sources of breeding and get rid of them;
2. clean the kitchen of all spoiled food and plant residues;
3. check the condition of rags for washing floors and dishes;
4. check if the water supply is clogged and remove the clogging, if any;
5. pour the drain with a special agent or cover it with soda, and then extinguish it with vinegar to eliminate food residues that Drosophila love so much;
6. if there are not many midges, you can simply collect them with a vacuum cleaner;
7. having got rid of spoiled food stocks, carefully wipe the shelves in the cabinets with soapy water, and then with vinegar;
8. in the case when midges started in domestic plants, it is necessary to reduce watering and spill the soil with a weak solution of potassium permanganate, or insecticides specially produced for the soil ("Thunder", "Fitoverm", "Karbofos"), if this does not help, then the contaminated land must be completely change;
9. garlic, lavender, citrus fruits will help expel insects from the house, their pungent smell repels insects;
10. Drosophila can be smoked for this, it is necessary to pour the crushed camphor into the pan and put it on the stove, when steam appears, carry the dishes through all the rooms. This procedure is safe for humans and pets.
11. in the fight against midges, predatory plants will help, which digest insects that have fallen into their traps. They are easy to care for, they are harmless to humans, but they cope effectively with fruit flies and other insects. In addition, it is quite interesting to observe the process of hunting a plant and catching prey;
12. if it is cold enough outside, then you can simply cool the room thoroughly by opening the windows and all kitchen cabinets, fruit flies are sensitive to temperature and will die from hypothermia;
13. use house traps.

Homemade Wine Fly Traps

One of the most effective ways to combat midges is to use homemade traps, which can be prepared in the following ways:

• Pour juice, compote or pieces of fruit into a glass jar, make a paper funnel with a small hole at the end and insert into the jar, carefully gluing the joints with tape.Attracted by the smell, midges easily penetrate into the can, but they will not be able to crawl out.
• Place slices of fragrant fruit in a bag that has no holes on the walls and bottom and leave it overnight. The next morning, quickly close it with flying flies and throw it away.
• You can also catch fruit flies by placing saucers with syrup or juice, a mixture of sugar and yeast in places of accumulation. Insects will gather over the saucers and drown in the bait.
• Take a plastic cup and put a piece of fruit in it. Cover the glass with cling film and make small holes in it. The midges will penetrate, but they will not be able to get back, and they can be thrown out along with the trap.
• You can use sticky fly tape by hanging it up and spreading it out near insect sites.

Getting rid of fruit gnats is not very difficult. And for this it is not at all necessary to use toxic substances - the simplest methods described in the article turn out to be the most effective. After the fruit flies leave your home, do not forget about preventive measures.

Traditional methods

Over the years, people have also figured out how to deal with fruit flies. Fighting with these methods is not difficult, but at the same time very effective.

Recipes:

• the leaves of fern, elderberry and tansy should be spread throughout all rooms, midges will fly away due to an unpleasant smell for them; Tansy is prohibited for use with weak cerebral vessels, it can cause headaches in patients.
• kerosene, turpentine - it is recommended to add to water when cleaning floors or windows;
• tomato seedlings, eucalyptus, geranium - flies will fly away due to an unpleasant smell;
• laurel oil - it is recommended to use it for rubbing window frames and jambs.

Drosophila is an insect that, under favorable conditions, is capable of rapid reproduction and development. About how long fruit flies live and what their life cycle is - read on our website.

Reasons for the appearance

The fruit fly most often flies around the apartment with the onset of heat. The abundance of food, favorable living conditions allow fruit flies to actively reproduce, the number of insects increases dramatically.

Penetration routes:

• with vegetables and fruits from the supermarket or from the garden (inside peaches, apples, cucumbers, the larvae enter the dwelling);
• through open windows;
• with soil taken at a summer cottage for planting indoor plants;
• on animal fur. With frequent rotting of food in a cat or dog bowl, Drosophila larvae receive enough food and multiply quickly.

The risk of an invasion of annoying midges increases several times when the following factors are identified:

• poor home hygiene, mountains of dirty dishes in the sink;
• the habit of leaving leftover food in the plate, do not immediately wipe the table;
• old tea leaves left in the teapot also attract fruit flies, gives them a lot of food and a breeding zone;
• accumulation of bottles from under sweet soda, juice, remnants of wine and beer in containers not thrown away in time;
• excessive watering of indoor plants, water not only in the flowerpot, but also in the pan;
• addiction to traditional methods of plant fertilization, for example, watering with a dormant tea brew. Tea leaves rot, attract tiny insects;
• if the house is in perfect order, the kitchen shines with cleanliness, then the midge flies to the fruit, beautifully laid on a plate;
• the likelihood of an invasion of small flies increases if the hostess is used to keeping bunches of grapes, bananas or fragrant peaches outside the refrigerator;
• a bucket of garbage not taken out in time, rotten apple peel, potato peelings, tomato peel, sour borscht are the favorite food of fruit flies.

How to get rid of fruit fly

Usually people do not welcome the appearance of fruit flies in their homes and dream of getting rid of it as soon as possible.

Cooling

If an adult individual perfectly tolerates low temperatures and its life is extended for several weeks, then the larvae of fruit flies die in cold conditions.Therefore, it is recommended to keep those vegetables, fruits and berries that do not spoil in the cold in the refrigerator, in a special freshness zone. Fruits such as bananas, which go bad in cold places, are best avoided in large quantities, washed with cold water and eaten immediately so that they do not lie.

Store fruits and vegetables in the fresh zone - Drosophila eggs die there

Product revision

Some people naively believe that if you throw away all spoiled food, leave only fresh and good ones, then the flies will disappear by themselves. Perhaps, there will really be fewer of them, but this will not be long, because one female Drosophila is capable of laying up to 400 eggs at a time - and the next day you have a new "fresh" brood of flies.

Separate fresh fruits and vegetables from spoiled ones.

Aerosols

Drosophila flies are very sensitive to changing environmental conditions and to various chemicals, therefore, the most common aerosols used to destroy any other insects will be very effective against them: Raptor, Combat, Dichlorvos.

Before spraying the aerosol, remove all food and close windows and doors. Animals and children need to be moved to distant rooms. After processing, wash your hands thoroughly with soap and after the time specified in the instructions for the aerosol, open the window in the treated room for ventilation.

Drosophila flies are very sensitive to various chemicals and die from them.

Cleaning products

Sometimes Drosophila flies settle in shells. It is difficult to explain why this is happening, but you can get rid of them, and especially their larvae, with boiling water (pour boiling water over the sink) or with the help of shell cleaners such as Domestos, Mister Muscle and Mole.

If you do not wear gloves when using Mister Muscle, the skin deteriorates - what to say about small defenseless flies

Sticky tape trap

There are special adhesive tapes that have a specific smell that attracts insects. This smell is unpleasant for people, but it is not very harsh, so it is easy to get used to it. Hang up sticky tape where there are most flies. As the surface of the trap fills, it needs to be changed.

The hardest part about using sticky traps is not to get into them with your hair, hands or face. Firstly, the sticky composition is quite difficult to wash off. And secondly, it can cause irritation on the skin and destruction of the hair structure.

Sticky tapes will save you not only from fruit flies, but also from other annoying insects

Fumigator

Special devices - fumigators - are often used against insects. Plates with poisonous substances are installed in them or various insecticidal liquids are poured, after which the fumigator must be inserted into the electrical network and wait 2-2.5 hours until the flies die or fly away.

A simple fumigator will save you flies, mosquitoes and other insects

Predatory plants

Scientists have long known that some plants are predators and feed on various insects, which are lured to themselves with a sweet aroma. The insect sits on the flower, the petals or leaves slam shut, and the plant begins its meal. Some eat the whole victim, others suck the blood out of it, and "spit out" the skin. Any such predatory plant can be used at home to combat flies.

Carnivorous plants feed on a variety of insects, but are dangerous for pets

If you have an animal at home, especially a cat, it is better not to purchase predatory plants, because the pet may want to eat a bright and beautiful plant and get poisoned.

Helpful Tips - How to Get Rid of Midges

We take out these tips from the comments under the article on the site - many of the tips are original and very interesting! So:

• If the midge starts up in flower pots, then you need to stick an ordinary match there, head down, disappear.
• Most often, flies appear due to rotten potatoes, onions - all spoiled root crops are a breeding ground for flies. The main thing is to remove the source. They will gradually disappear. Be patient.
• Once a week I do a total cleaning with ultraviolet light, and during the year I have an ultrasonic trap, and this is how we save ourselves.
• The problem with flies was solved simply: 1) I collected crawling and flying ones with a hand-held kitchen vacuum cleaner (fortunately, they do not fly fast). 2) at night in the place of their accumulation (I have a jar of tea mushrooms) turned on the mosquito lamp. The effect is amazing - almost no fly in the morning!
• Vacuum cleaners are great for catching, even on the fly!
• The flies can be placed in the freezer for a few minutes. They will die. Checked.
• I poured beer into the cake lid to cover the bottom a little, a lot gathered and almost all of them drowned.
• I have found that they are very fond of spoiled bananas. In the kitchen I put a crushed rotten banana in a bag. The problem has been resolved.
• Duct tape from flies, spread with red wine. And here they are right there.

My husband accidentally left the remnants of apple compote in a jar on the table, during the night they were filled with darkness, at first I closed them with a plastic lid and then thought for a long time how to kill them, you can't open it, throwing the jar in this form is also not the case, I decided to put it in the microwave and turned it on for a minute!

The end came to them all instantly! A glass jar should be placed in the microwave, closed with a plastic lid, do not be afraid, it will not explode, 40 seconds is enough at a power of 600 - 700.

Apple cider vinegar attracts flies and they fly into this jar, dishwashing detergent prevents them from crawling out of there. This fluid needs to be renewed once a week.

Getting rid of fruit flies is very easy. Buy fly or mosquito plates that are designed for the raptor. Install the plates to the window glass and the problem is solved! The sun heats up the plate and releases deadly poison for the flies.

I accidentally discovered a means of dealing with flies: I began to clean the roots of horseradish for a shitty snack, left the cleaning of horseradish in an open bag - all the flies instantly disappeared. Several days have passed - they have not returned.

How to get rid of fruit flies without using various remedies

Keeping the kitchen clean

A favorable environment for the life of fruit flies - rotten vegetables and fruits, plant residues, waste bins. To get rid of flies, it is necessary to eliminate the food source and breeding area.

How to destroy fruit flies in an apartment:

• Small insects are attracted by rotting vegetables and fruits. Even a small piece of pear or banana falling into the gap can become the reason for their appearance. When a source attracting flies is identified, it must be immediately eliminated.
• Keep pet dishes clean. After feeding, it should be washed thoroughly.
• Close the trash can tightly as odors from the bin will attract fruit flies. Dispose of garbage in a timely manner.
• Fruit flies don't like cold temperatures. In cool weather, windows should be opened to ventilate the home, in cold weather - additional cabinets. In such conditions, they will die of hypothermia.
• Check the condition of food in the refrigerator, discard spoiled immediately.
• Small flies can settle in houseplants. Effective ways with them: take containers with crops to another room, depriving them of food, cover the substrate with a layer of mulch, reduce the number of watering.
• To avoid the need to get rid of fruit flies, the kitchen should always be clean. After eating, you should immediately wash the dishes, and not accumulate them in the sink.

The fruit fly, or fly, can be found in any home. To prevent this, you need to keep your home clean. Remember, than to deal with fruit flies in an apartment, it is easier to prevent their appearance by observing preventive measures.

How to drive out fruit flies

The midge crawling on food does not cause appetite, and most, faced with such a nuisance, immediately rush to household chemicals stores for poison. But there are also less radical methods. Sometimes it is enough to deprive the fruit flies of food for the insects to choose an object that is more favorable for their habitat.

If the owners have gotten rid of the habit of leaving dirty dishes overnight, if the tables are cleanly wiped, if there are no rotten vegetables and fruits in the house, if the garbage is thrown out on time, and the plants are watered in moderation, but the midges do not want to leave the house, you can use the following measures:

• traps;
• folk methods;
• chemicals (as a last resort).

Traps

Most traps can be made in just a few minutes, and tools for them are always at hand. For example, a trap made from a plastic cup or a yogurt jar. You need to put a tea bag inside, pieces of rotten fruit, or pour some soda. Pull cling film or a bag on top, make many holes with a needle and put in a place where there are a lot of midges. After a few minutes, the insects will be inside the cup and all that remains is to throw it away. But this method also has its drawbacks. In addition to fruit flies, which will fly in, new individuals will appear, attracted by the smell of the bait.

You can also make a trap out of a bag. It must be filled with "tasty" waste, and when there are enough insects inside, tie up and discard.

You can pour beer or soda into the bottom of a can or a cut-off wide plastic bottle. Roll a sheet of cardboard into a cone, insert the wide end inward, and cut the narrow one so that fruit flies can fly in through it. Everything! It remains to wait until the can is filled with midges and throw it away.

Folk remedies

This category of methods for controlling fruit flies most often consists in the use of odors that are unpleasant for the midge. Most effective:

• almost all essential oils. They just need to be poured into the aroma lamp and turned on for a while;
• heated camphor;
• needles;
• sagebrush;
• tansy.

Dried plants can be tied into bouquets and hung indoors, or you can set fire to and fumigate "attacked" rooms

Not all options are suitable for the kitchen. Here it is necessary to use odors that will not be absorbed into the food. Plain vinegar works well. You can pour it into lids or small jars and arrange them on tables and windowsills. You can make a solution with water and wipe the doors and shelves of the cabinets, use a spray bottle to process the glass.

The smell of horseradish will probably scare off the midges. The easiest way is to spread root pieces or leaves around the kitchen, but they dry out quickly and will need to be changed regularly. But if you grate the horseradish root, put it in a jar with a hermetically sealed lid, then if necessary, you can open it for a few minutes and put it in a place where fruit flies accumulate. This means will last for several months.

You can make your own poison against fruit flies. Any of the following recipes will work:

• Mix 200 ml of milk with a spoonful of sugar and ground pepper;
• make a mixture of honey, water and sugar, taken in equal parts;
• mix a spoonful of black bread crumbs, a pinch of soda and sugar, dissolve in 100 ml of milk.

Soak gauze or cotton cloth with any of the solutions, put in a saucer, put in a place where midges accumulate.

Chemicals

A lot of household chemicals can be bought in stores. But not all of them are advisable to use in the fight against fruit flies. For example, dichlorvos

This is a very powerful drug that requires extreme care and may harm house plants and animals. But if you need to get rid of Drosophila flies in one day, this particular remedy will do.

Before you process the room, you should take out all food from it, remove the plants, drive out cats and dogs, rearrange the cages with parrots and other animals.Then put on a protective mask, close the windows (there is dichlorvos, which can only be used with the windows open - read the information on the package), and spray all surfaces. Afterwards, ventilate well.

But the electrofumigator is completely safe. Plates or liquid for him are also suitable against mosquitoes, but it is better if they are universal, which are able to fight other insects.

The Raptor trap is popular. It exudes an aroma that attracts midges, and that, having arrived, adheres to a special tape.

Suitable for control of fruit flies and regular sticky tape from flies. Insects quickly stick to it

Only when buying, pay attention to the information on the package. There are special ribbons, the aroma of which attracts this midge

Prophylaxis

Fruit flies are miniature insects with rapid reproduction. Midges are taken in the apartment from power sources, trash cans, home flowers, furniture. Getting rid of midges in your home can be tricky. Prevention is the best measure of control:

• to keep the house, apartment clean, to carry out general cleaning more often;
• do not store fruits on the table in vases for a long time, because midges can hover over them in a few hours;
• process kitchen sinks, plums with proven chemicals;
• regularly take out trash bins, close them with lids, rinse thoroughly with soapy water;
• discard spoiled fruits in a timely manner, prevent them from rotting;
• do not leave dirty dishes with food debris in the sink;
• reduce watering of indoor flowers and cover the top layer of the earth with dry mulch if the midge begins to fly out of the pots;
• regularly check containers with fruits and vegetables, throw away wet potatoes and spoiled onions without pity.

Drosophila reproduce rapidly and increase in numbers. If the focus of their distribution is not eliminated in time near moldy putrefactive products and trash bins, then in a day, whole hordes may appear. The midges are hiding, scattering throughout the apartment. At the same time, they are very small, not always noticeable. It is difficult to deal with them. The main thing is to prevent the large-scale appearance of pests. This means that it is worthwhile to carry out preventive measures more often, keep the room clean, do not leave food for a long time at room temperature.

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