How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies Naturally Without Chemicals (Traps)

In the summertime, fruit flies tend to infest fruits more. Notwithstanding, there are effective ways on how to get rid of fruit flies you can attempt to handle the infestation yourself.

In this article, we are discussing all the possible ways you could get rid of these pests and ensure your fruits are safe from infestation.

 

How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies with Traps

Summertime is when you can get these little irritating home invaders that decide to help themselves.

So here, we have are some effective tips on how you can keep them out of your sweet summer treats for good, starting with:

The funnel method

The funnel trick is a magic trap for fruit flies and is kind of a fun DIY project.

When carrying out all these tips, you’ll need to be prepared to awaken in your inner crafter.

• Start by grabbing a tall vase or jar to use as your base container.
• You’ll need to choose your fruit fly bait, fruit flies, go after anything sugaring. So you have a lot of options here, and most of them are probably lying around your kitchen.
• You can go with your overripe fruit.
• Slice up some squishy, peaches, pineapple, and bananas.
• Any super ripe or rotting fruit will work here.
• Fruit juice can serve as an alternative if you don’t have fruits or don’t want to use fruits.
• Honey, maple syrup any fruit juice or sugary soda, or even apple cider vinegar will work perfectly as bait.
• Whatever made you end up going with it, put it in your base container.
• You don’t need a lot, just enough to cover the bottom layer of your container. That’s about two fingers wide will do now.
• Roll a piece of paper to create a funnel shape and tape it. So that it keeps its form.
• Stick the narrow end through the top of your base container so that the funnel is resting in the opening.
• Make sure the tip of the Tunnel isn’t touching your bait.
• Finally, place your fruit fly trap near the infested area. Perhaps near your football garbage were sink and tada fall.

The fruit flies in your house will be no more. The trap is so simple and it works like a charm. The flies will fly down into the wide part of the funnel and follow the sweet rotting scent of the bait inside.

However, thanks to the funnel shape. They won’t be able to fly back out. Leave your trap out and by morning, you should have a whole family of fruit flies munching on the bait in your container.

If you still have persistent fruit flies and don’t seem to see any in the container the next morning, try a different way to take more drastic measures.

You can pour some lukewarm water into your container along with some dish soap. Let it sit for a while then swish it around, when you’re done. Dump the mixture out in your yard, rinse out your container. You can reuse it for more fruit fly traps.

 

Read also: How to Catch Fruit Flies

 

The Bowl Trap

Here’s a similar method, but with a little less crafting. All you need to do is

• Put the ripe fruit in the bottom of a medium or large bowl.
• Add in a sweet liquid as well, maybe soda or syrup again.
• You don’t have to fill it or anything. Just to layer about to finger stick on the bottom.
• Cover the bowl, as tightly as possible with plastic or saran wrap.
• Grab a fork and poke holes around the top of the wrap, leave it out overnight and you should see flies feeding on your bait in the morning.

This is the same idea as the funnel method were luring the fruit flies to a bait that they can get to.

While making it harder for them to escape, the flies will go into the holes you made with your fork, but they won’t be smart enough to get back out of the ball through those same holes.

If you don’t see any fruit flies in your trap in the morning, you might have made your holes too big.

Note: Even full-grown fruit flies are less than half a centimeter long. So you really don’t need big gaping holes to trap them. Try again with smaller ones and see how it goes.

 

Read also: Black Flies | Facts, Identification & How to Get Rid

 

Freezer Swap

To carry out this trap effectively, follow the procedures below:

• Take two medium-sized jars, and fill them with fruit rinds and peels.
• Cover the mouths of your jars with clear, stretchy plastic wrap.
• Press down in the middle of the plastic wrap with your finger, to create a funnel shape down inside the jars.
• Create a small hole, perhaps with a toothpick in the middle of the dense. This is where the fruit flies will come into the trap.
• When you notice fruit flies in one jar, put it in the freezer. This will freeze the Flies and their eggs.
• When you see flies in the other jar, swap it out for the one that’s been chilling in your freezer.
• Rotate the jars for a while like this until you have a fruit-fly-free kitchen.

 

Read also: How to Get Rid of Maggot in Trash Can | Step by Step

How to Prevent Fruit Flies from Returning to your Home

Well, knowing how to get rid of fruit flies will help handle the infestation keeping them away in the first place.

However, preventing these pests from returning to your home should be your aim. The best way to prevent fruit flies in the first place is to store your food properly.

You’re attracting fruit flies when you just place your sweet produce in a fruit bowl on the kitchen counter.

But once the fruit is ripe, it’ll last much longer when refrigerating. You can refrigerate apples and bananas right away, this will slow down their ripening process.

Even if your bananas are black on the outside, still try refrigerating them. This may save the sweet taste inside fruits like:

1. Mangoes,
2. Papayas,
3. Melon peaches,
4. Strawberry,
5. Pears,
6. Grapes, and
7. Avocados.

The fruit can be left out at room temperature to keep ripening. But once they’re fully ripe, they should go straight to the fridge so that they’ll stay good for a few more days.

 

Takeaway

Berries and grapes should be kept refrigerated and eaten the same day or not long after you bought them.

Citrus fruits, like oranges and grapefruit stop ripening after their pick. So, it is advised you take them as these will help prevent fruit flies.

We these tips, we believe you must have gotten the DIY methods on how to get rid of fruit flies. Do you have a method you’ll like us to add? Contact us or let me know down the comment.

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