What’s that thing flying in your face? Or hovering around your kitchen sink? It could be pesky gnats or fruit flies—yuck! Where do fruit flies come from? How do you get rid of them? Learn how to create homemade traps for these tiny pests, then use a few easy tips to prevent them from coming back with a vengeance!
Where do fruit flies come from?
Fruit flies can easily get into your apartment when you open a door or window, but they only breed in areas that have moisture and fermentation. Despite their name, fruit flies aren’t just attracted to ripening fruit or veggies. They can also breed inside your garbage disposal, inside wet mops, or even in your trash can—they’ll find empty bottles with traces of liquid inside. Ugh!
How do you get rid of fruit flies?
So, what can you do if your kitchen is crawling with tiny fruit flies? To save your sanity, you’ll need a homemade trap to get rid of them, and FAST.
Make your fruit fly trap
- Grab a jar or glass, and pour in some cider vinegar, wine, or orange juice—just enough to cover the bottom.
- Add a drop of dish soap.
- Seal the top of your jar or glass with plastic wrap.
- Use a needle to poke tiny holes in the wrap. This way, those annoying little fruit flies will fly in when they’re attracted to the liquid, but the plastic wrap keeps them from escaping into your apartment again.
Keep fruit flies from returning
Once you get rid of the fruit flies that were already in your apartment, it’s time to do some work to prevent them from coming back.
- Keep things clean: A thorough apartment cleaning and some routine maintenance (like washing your wet cleaning rags!) can make them less likely to take up residence in your apartment. Keep your apartment kitchen spic-and-span by wiping up crumbs each time you use the kitchen, and be sure to do some deeper cleaning once a week or so to make sure you’ve taken care of any hidden spills or dropped food.
- Hang fruit fly strips outside: To take it a step further, hang a few sticky “fruit fly strips” (easily purchased from Amazon) outside your apartment to trap those tiny nuisances before they even get in the door.
- Grow basil plants: Fruit flies are repelled by basil, so you could even keep a small basil plant inside your apartment as another safeguard.
Move apartments, move on!
If you’re tired of having to get rid of household pests all the time, maybe it’s time to consider moving apartments. Those swarms of fruit flies can be kept at bay with a few simple tricks, but why put up with them longer than you need to? Start searching for your new, fruit-fly free apartment on ApartmentSearch.com today!
