How To Kill Fruit Flies

Learning how to kill fruit flies is actually pretty easy.  

These small yet bothersome pests are easily lured into a variety of traps that you can make yourself using some common household ingredients.

During the warm summer months, fruit flies seem to appear out of nowhere and before you know it, you're dealing with an infestation of these harmless yet annoying insects.

In a lot of homes, there's usually a bowl on the counter filled with bananas, apples, peaches or other fruits for kids and guests to snack on throughout the day.

While a bowl of fruit may be convenient for us to enjoy, it's also a free and welcoming dinner plate for fruit flies.

Fruit flies can become a huge problem inside your home because they reproduce at a very fast rate, going from an egg to an adult in about 8-10 days.

They love to hang out and reproduce in damp or moist areas such as the drain in your kitchen sink, garbage disposals or even that banana you've been meaning to throw away that's starting to decompose.

Here's the good news, with just a little bit of effort and a few household materials you can get rid of these annoying little flies and reclaim your kitchen once again!

Simply follow this guide and before you know it, that cloud of fruit flies around your kitchen will be a thing of the past.

How To Kill Fruit Flies

About 10 years ago as a new homeowner, I found myself overwhelmed with fruit flies.

In fact, it was nearly impossible to enjoy an evening glass of wine because the flies would constantly land inside the glass faster than I could enjoy the drink.  

Now that's pretty gross, so I made it my goal to learn how to kill fruit flies!

At the time, I didn't really know too much about fruit flies so I set out on a mission to get rid of fruit flies using any homemade trap or remedy possible.

Fortunately, I found a great remedy for fruit flies and several homemade fruit fly traps that worked really well.

I also tried a few that didn't work out and either didn't catch a lot of flies or even worse, created a breeding habitat that was an unsightly disaster.

One of the easiest ways to control a fruit fly infestation is to make a homemade trap.

There's a lot of different traps that work really well.  

This link will give you step by step instructions for making two of the best homemade fruit fly traps.

A good fruit fly repellant can also keep an unwanted infestation under control.

Non chemical sprays such as a homemade lemongrass spray can do wonders with repelling fruit flies and other pests, plus your house will smell great in the process.  

Since lemongrass is an essential oil, it won't kill the fruit flies but it will help control them.

To learn more, read this article that explains our thoughts on the best fruit fly repellant to use around your home.

Fruit flies are attracted to organic material and a compost bin creates the perfect environment for them to breed.  

Since composting is a great way to reuse kitchen and garden scraps, don't let a few fruit flies discourage you from having a compost bin.

If you're interested in composting, it's important to keep a 3 to 1 ratio.

Basically, 1 part of "greens" which is the nitrogen organic material such as fruits and vegetables to 3 parts of "browns" which is the carbon material like dried leaves, paper shreds or dried grass.   

To learn more, read this article that describes how to control fruit flies in compost.

How To Kill Fruit Flies - Overall

If you begin to notice a few fruit flies around your home, get an early start on controlling them before they're out of control.

Learning how to kill fruit flies doesn't have to be hard.

While there's a lot of preventative measures you can take to stop an infestation before it starts, such as storing fruits in a sealed container or keeping your sink drains cleaned with boiling water or bleach, eventually fruit flies will appear and when they do, you'll be ready!