Yesterday I gave my son a bowl of fruit. After he had had his fill, he set the bowl down like most kids do and ran off. Not too long after that I went to pick it up and noticed little gnats on the fruit! I was shocked. Where did these things come from? I can only imagine they must have hitched a ride in the carton of strawberries but had instantly been attracted back to the open fruit. I can assure you I keep a clean house. The whole thing was disgusting.
My babysitter was over and she said she had been told that equal parts water, equal parts vinegar and a squirt of dish soap would kill fruit flies.
What the heck, so I tried it.
This is about 10 minutes after I put the bowl down in the same area as the old fruit bowl.
Then I moved it to the kitchen and after a few hours, this is what happened:
For some reason the flies are attracted to the water and then eventually land and get stuck there. Its safe since its made from household items rather than pesticides. I am just going to leave the bowl on the window sill a few days to finish any extras off.
I hope this tip helps out your kitchen and thank you to my babysitter for this one!
~Trisha
Marianne says
I don’t need to kill them because they don’t go on our fruits anymore. Why ? Because we put 2 or 3 wine corks in the fruit basket. I don’t why or how it works but even when summer guets really hot we had no more fruit flyes since we do this.
Julie says
White Vinegar or Apple Cider?
Nolie says
Trisha…. I love you. EVERY year we get these stupid things and could never figure out how to get rid of them.
Brandy says
That is awesome. I had to share!
Ned says
what an excellent tip! I can’t think of a person who wouldn’t benefit from knowing this.. I hate those little flies that appear from nowhere on my bananas..
Kathleen says
Genius! I will definitely be giving this a try this summer when we are camping. Don’t want them buzzing around our food!
Jen-Eighty MPH Mom says
Awesome idea! Did I ever tell you about the time my house was infested with these fruit flies and I couldn’t figure out where they were coming from? Yeah, well my son had been with his grandma and she sent him home with a banana in a plastic grocery bag. He stuck it in his room and forgot about it. GAG. I thought I would go nuts trying to get rid of them!
Robin Gagnon {Mom Foodie} says
Last year I had a terrible fruit fly problem… later found out it was due to an apple my daughter had “hidden”. I used containers with watered down wine & fruit juice covered with plastic wrap with holes poked in it to make traps. It worked, but I like this idea better… next time I’ll try it.
Janice says
do they ever go away and they bite me..I caught atleast 100 of them andit was from a potato …
Valerie C. says
I’m going to try this. Thanks!
Nichol says
I had an awful time with fruit flies last year, not sure why. I sure hope I don’t have to deal with it again this year, but I did use something similar to this that didn’t work too well. I’ll definitely try this if those buggers come back.
Janice says
does the cold kill them to when winter comes
SCM (SocialCafe Magazine) says
We do this all the time too, it’s the acidic smell that attracts them like most fruits have especially when ripe =)
Lucero says
OMG does this ever work. The past couple of years I’ve been doing this and I’ve had the best success with this method.
Heather M says
We tend to get a lot of fruit flies every year and I do this and it works miracles!