How to safely and effectively get rid of fruit flies in an apartment?

The fruit fly is a small, harmless insect, but it is always unpleasant to find one in the house. She is attracted by the smell of spoiled fruits and nectar in the flowers of indoor plants. In the warm season, Drosophila can fly into a living room from the street if you simply spray an air freshener with a berry or fruit scent in the room. How to get rid of fruit flies in an apartment? What products should you use?

Where do fruit flies come from in the house?

There are several ways for a fly to enter an apartment:

1. The insect chooses soft, slightly or severely spoiled fruits as a place for laying eggs, since their peel is easier to bite through. Since both the fly itself and its eggs are small in size, it is almost impossible to notice that a vegetable or fruit is infected.
2. Fly larvae and eggs can appear in the house along with soil for indoor plants.
3. Open windows without mosquito nets or open doors are another way for an insect to get into the apartment. Midges fly to the smell of fruits, indoor flowers or spoiled food.

Reasons for appearance

First of all, it is necessary to understand the reasons for the appearance of midges, since this will help to detect and eliminate the sources that attract them to the apartment.

The following factors contribute to the appearance of such insects:

1. The presence of unkempt indoor plants.
2. Rare cleaning of the premises, accumulation of garbage.
3. High humidity , which creates a microclimate favorable for midges.
4. Migration of insects from neighboring apartments.
5. Improper storage of fruits, vegetables or berries at home.
6. Malfunction of the sewer system or other communications, leaking pipes.
7. Preservation of empty packaging and containers that previously contained food products.

Where to look for fruit fly larvae in an apartment?

To get rid of these small insects, it is not enough to simply destroy the adult individuals - fruit flies reproduce actively, the female is capable of laying about 20 eggs at a time, and in 2 months (this is the lifespan of an adult insect) she can produce up to 2000 eggs. Insects hatch in the early morning, and already 8 hours after this, the female is ready to reproduce. If you do not start fighting Drosophila in time, it will easily fill the entire house.

The most common habitats of midges:

1. A trash can or a bowl of food for a pet is where optimal conditions are created for the laying of eggs and the accumulation of adult insects, because there is no shortage of food in such a place.
2. Pots with indoor flowers. Wet soil and fallen leaves that are beginning to rot are also attractive to insects.
3. Storage areas for vegetables and fruits. If there are several fruits in a container, one of them may begin to deteriorate before the others, and flies will definitely smell it.

Differences between fruit flies and other midges

Midges are unpleasant neighbors that cause a lot of inconvenience to humans

Drosophila belong to the category of dipterous fruit flies. The number of their varieties reaches 2000. The size is 1–3 mm. The insect has an oval body of dark yellow or brown color, 6–8 legs and 2 wings.

Orange and black midges are sometimes found, but this is a fairly rare occurrence.

Drosophila differ from other species of midges in their habitat, degree of danger, reproduction rate and gastronomic preferences. These insects are the most harmless to humans. But their presence causes some troubles:

1. They spoil food supplies. Moreover, this can be either a large warehouse or a small cellar. If fruit flies take up residence in large food storage facilities, the products will become unusable, resulting in significant losses.
2. They cause no less harm in private cellars and basements, where bags of sugar, flour, boxes of potatoes or tomatoes are stored. Drosophila can damage fruits that have not yet been collected.
3. The neighborhood with these midges cannot be called pleasant. They can get into your eyes, nose, mouth, and also contaminate curtains and wallpaper.

How to deal with fruit fly?

Having noticed the appearance of uninvited guests in the house, you need to carefully inspect the apartment and find all the spoiled food: fruit forgotten on the table, sour leftover food in the trash can, pet food in a bowl that has spoiled in the heat. If tea leaves are used as a fertilizer for indoor flowers, you also need to inspect the pots with soil.

All detected possible sources of Drosophila must be disposed of immediately by sending them to the trash. Containers for storing fruits and vegetables should be thoroughly washed to remove larvae and eggs invisible to the eye from the surfaces.

Flowers need to be transplanted into pots with fresh soil. If some of the leaves or flowers of the plant begin to rot, they are removed. The indoor plants themselves are watered often, but little by little - waterlogged soil attracts midges.

Traditional methods

To clear your apartment of midges, you can build your own traps:

1. Since one of the Drosophila's favorite treats is banana, it can be used as bait. Peel the fruit and place it in a plastic bag or plastic bottle. Using a toothpick, make several holes in polyethylene or plastic. Leave the trap near the midge habitat. Over the next 2 days, a significant portion of the midges will fly inside, but they will not be able to get out.
2. Just as much as bananas, the fruit fly Drosophila loves honey, fruit juice or apple cider vinegar. The trap is made like this: take a deep container, pour one of the listed liquids into it, and cover it with a bag or cling film. Make holes with a toothpick. Insects attracted by the smell will climb into the trap.
3. Another possible option is to use a glass jar. A piece of banana, orange or any spoiled fruit is placed at the bottom. A cone is made from a sheet of paper with a small hole at the top. Turning it over, insert the blank into the neck of the bottle. The midges will easily get inside the jar, but they will not be able to fly back out.
4. Beer, water diluted with sugar and yeast are poured into a disposable glass and left close to the accumulation of insects. Hearing a tempting smell, the midges will fly towards it and drown.

In addition to traps, you can use other means.

Smoking

The crushed hard camphor is placed in an old frying pan (one that you don’t mind throwing away) and put on fire. As soon as the frying pan is hot and steam starts to flow, the container is carried throughout all rooms of the apartment. The resulting smoke is not dangerous for humans, but midges will not tolerate it.

Poison for midges

A couple of recipes for poisonous treats for insects:

1. ½ cup of milk is mixed with 40 g of sugar and the same amount of ground black pepper. Soak a paper napkin or a piece of toilet paper in the liquid and place it on a plate next to the midges. After a while there will be no insects left.
2. 10 g of honey is combined with 1 g of saccharin, and a napkin is moistened with this mixture. Place it on the windowsill.

Vacuum cleaner

The place where midges have accumulated is treated with a vacuum cleaner. A running unit will draw in insects, trapping them in a dust bag. The container must be emptied outside the apartment.

Cold

Drosophila are very sensitive to temperature; hypothermia is detrimental to them. If they attacked the apartment in winter, it is enough to simply leave the window in the kitchen open when leaving the house. After a few hours, all the flies will die.

This way you can destroy adult insects, but if there are larvae left somewhere, then after a while the insects will appear again. To prevent this from happening, it is recommended to thoroughly wash the pet’s trash can and bowl, and water the soil in flower pots with a manganese solution.

Potassium permanganate or matches

This method is suitable if there are flies on the plant. Prepare a weak solution of manganese and treat flowers with it twice a month.

You can also use regular matches: stick them head down into the ground in the pot. The sulfur from the match will destroy the larvae.

Geranium

Fruit flies cannot tolerate the smell of geraniums. If there are midges in the kitchen, you need to get rid of the spoiled fruit and place a pot with this plant on the windowsill of the room.

Garlic

Midges do not like the smell of garlic, so placing the crushed head near the Drosophila habitat helps. After a few hours there will be no insects.

Orange and clove

A stick of spice is stuck into the orange peel and placed next to the place where midges gather.

Store products

How to get rid of fruit flies if you don’t have time to bother with building traps or preparing poisonous compounds? You can use ready-made traps or preparations.

Manufacturers offer a choice of:

1. Repellents. Tapes impregnated with chemical compounds, from which vapors that poison insects emanate. Such products cannot be called completely safe for humans - the room in which the tape is located must be ventilated.
2. Sprays. Special liquids containing fatty acids, falling on larvae and insects, destroy them. They are not dangerous to humans.
3. Zappers. Modern devices that affect insects with electricity. The only drawback of some models is their high power consumption.
4. Traps. Factory-made traps do not contain poison; most of them use a substance that attracts insects, and the midge that flies into the trap dies of hunger, unable to get out. You can even install such devices in the kitchen without fear that they will harm a person or animal.

Choosing a ready-made trap for fruit gnats

If you don't want to deal with sweet and sticky liquids, or keep rotting fruit in a glass jar in your home, then you should pay attention to branded fruit fly traps.

BOYSCOUT HELP glue trap for fruit flies

BOYSCOUT HELP trap certainly cannot be accused of the fact that, in addition to fruit flies, it can also attract beneficial insects - butterflies and moths will not fall into it. The trap is designed specifically for “fruit insects” - it is even designed in the shape of a ripe apple. I would have bitten him! In all respects, BOYSCOUT HELP resembles BEAPCO. The “apple” also closes hermetically, smells pleasant and stays “alive” for 30 days. It has the same problems and the same advantages. And only the formula of the attractant changes here - it’s just tinted apple cider vinegar.

But these are not all options - fruit flies can be eliminated using sticky traps . But not the usual yellow sticky tapes that we are so accustomed to, but special sticky sheets, which come with an effective bait liquid (usually the same vinegar mixed with other ingredients). Pay attention to the German “Aeroxon” fruit fly trap. There are apples and oranges on the sticky sheets for a reason - this can additionally attract the attention of fruit gnats!

Price: from 70 rub.

A set of six compact transparent traps, tailored specifically for fruit flies, which costs from 700 rubles. If you believe the product description, each trap lasts for about a month. It is easy to calculate that one set in this case should be enough for 6 months of continuous use.

The traps also come with a non-toxic liquid chemical. So it can be replaced with wine or apple cider vinegar. The operating principle of BEAPCO combines the advantages of liquid and conical traps: flies fly into a plastic box through a cone-shaped hole, and there is no way back for them. They do not die from poisons - they simply remain trapped. But, unlike bulky “homemade” products, they can be placed throughout the apartment and not be afraid of leaks, overturning or bad odors.

If you believe user reviews, then by the fourth day of use, fruit flies literally fill the trap. One of the users writes: “I set 3 of these traps and after a day 2 of them were completely filled with fruit flies. You can’t even imagine how many there were... After 1-2 weeks, not a single one was flying. In general, it works."

True, a small group of users believe that the branded attractant acts worse than the natural ones. But they like the box itself. Diana writes: “In the first month we didn’t catch anything, although these midges were buzzing everywhere - the trap was empty. But when I poured vinegar into it, these little flyers began to fight over who would fly inside it first. So the container itself is cool.”

Some users complain that all such traps simply do not work. But maybe it’s not them, but the incorrect definition of the pest? After all, we wrote above that it is very easy to confuse different types of small insects in the house. If the flies are not attracted to the bait in the trap, it is possible that they are simply not fruit flies, but, for example, sewer or “mushroom” flies.

Let's find out what needs to be done if the flies turn out to be not fruit flies at all.

Preventive measures

It’s not difficult to prevent the appearance of fruit flies in your apartment; all you need to do is:

• keep clean;
• regularly (at least once a day) take out the bucket;
• wash dishes immediately after a meal;
• Throw away spoiled fruits immediately;
• Do not leave food in your pet’s bowl for a long time, remove it as soon as the animal eats.

If the midges have nothing to eat, they will not appear in the apartment.

Even if midges have infested your apartment, you should not immediately rush to the store for chemicals - you can get rid of them using traditional methods, without the use of toxic substances.

Prevention of occurrence

It is often much easier to prevent the possible appearance of uninvited guests than to waste energy on removing them.

In particular, the following preventive measures are recommended:

1. Store all products of plant origin exclusively in the refrigerator , do not leave the fruits on the kitchen table.
2. Carry out preventive inspections of sewer pipes to prevent them from leaking.
3. Monitor the sanitary situation in the apartment , empty the trash can in a timely manner.
4. Store cereals, flour and other similar products only in hermetically sealed jars.
5. Remove all accumulations of food waste particles from filters located under kitchen sinks.
6. Follow the rules for watering indoor plants , as well as periodically carry out preventive treatment with special means.
7. Regular washing of kitchen towels , floor rags and sponges.

Why are fruit flies dangerous?

Attitudes towards fruit flies range from complete disdain to unjustified fear. They are practically safe for humans: they do not bite and do not cause allergies. But the appearance of these insects in the house has several harmful consequences:

• Flies carry the remains of rotten fruit along with bacteria on their legs. Once in food, these bacteria multiply quickly, which leads to food spoilage. Rotten products accumulated in spoiled food can cause food poisoning.
• An annoying midge, flickering in front of the face, landing on the skin, crawling into the eyes and nose, can quickly drive even the most patient person to white heat. Since fruit flies do not feed on blood, humans are not particularly attracted to these insects. But with a strong infestation, the intrusiveness of fruit flies already turns into a problem.

The fruit fly is a popular subject for study in genetics. Thanks to her, many fundamental laws of nature were discovered. But outside the scientific laboratory, this insect does more harm than good.

Despite the relative harmlessness of Drosophila, you should not hesitate to start the fight. The more time passes from the moment the infestation is discovered, the greater the hordes of flies you will have to fight.

Types of midges at home

In nature, there are about 1.5 thousand species of different midges, but only a few of them can take root and reproduce in human habitation. In appearance they are not much different, but they lead different lifestyles.

Midges appearing in the house:

1. Drosophila . This type of insect feeds on rotten fruits and vegetables. Therefore, when setting traps, you need to take this feature of fruit flies into account. Drosophila are gray in color and their size is about 2-3 mm.
2. Sciarides . This species is also called the fungus gnat. Insects appear when moisture stagnates in the soil of indoor plants. They are brown or black in color, and their body length reaches 3-4 mm. The danger is posed by the larvae that feed on plant roots.
3. Aleurodids . A distinctive feature of this species is its white color, for which it received its second name - whitefly. Insects are a dangerous pest, since their larvae feed on the juice of indoor crops and, in the absence of timely measures, can spread quickly. You can detect them if you lightly touch the infected plant: as a result, a swarm of white flies flies up.

Fighting methods

There are several known varieties of fruit flies, and the same methods are used to combat them.

First of all, you need to find the source of their spread and get rid of it, most often these are fruits or vegetables , as well as a bag of garbage .

If there is no effect within several days, it is necessary to use certain techniques:

1. clean the entire apartment;
2. get rid of leftover food, regularly wash pets' plates, wash the trash can, thoroughly wipe kitchen cabinets using an alkaline solution;
3. turn on the insect fumigator;
4. Spread the adhesive tape with fruit juice and use it for its intended purpose;
5. place the mosquito plate against the window; when heated, it will destroy pests;
6. collect insects with a vacuum cleaner from the source from the spread, immediately take the bag of garbage outside;
7. treat the sewer drains with chemicals, pour first soda into the drain, then vinegar, after the reaction is complete, turn on the water and clean the drain.

If you live near a garbage dump, you need to hang mesh on the windows, through which insects will not be able to enter the room.

Chemicals

If for some reason it was not possible to apply simple methods or the midges in the apartment took the position of occupiers, you can use chemicals. The range of them today is varied, so choosing a specific tool will not be difficult.

Aerosols

Aerosols and sprays are products that are toxic to insects and involve spraying. They are usually used to fight flies, wasps, and moths. But they are just as destructive for midges. These are “Dichlorvos” and “Neodichlorvos”, “Raptor” and other aerosols known to most of us.

Before using them, it is recommended to remove all products, remove poultry, fish, and pets from the premises. All household members should also go outside.

The aerosol is used to treat not just the air in the apartment, but also all the far corners and crevices. In this case, the windows and doors of the apartment must be tightly closed to create the conditions of a “gas chamber”.

After the specified exposure time, the premises are ventilated and wet cleaning is carried out, carefully sweeping away fallen midges from all horizontal surfaces and taking them outside. Otherwise, after a few hours the insects will “come to life” and you will have to repeat the procedure.

Repellents

This is a more humane method, aimed not at destroying midges, but at scaring them away: the midges simply leave their favorite place, alive and unharmed. There is no need to literally poison anyone.

In order for the repellent to be effective against insects, it is important to ensure a certain concentration (that is, close the room). Then, when ventilated, the midges will begin to actively leave the uncomfortable space.

Repellents come in a variety of forms:

• creams;
• lotions;
• ointments;
• pencils;
• emulsions;
• aerosols;
• igniting spirals;
• devices that constantly release an active substance (similar to car air fresheners).

It should be understood that pencil or cream shapes are not suitable for large spaces. Here you need aerosols, spirals or similar means that can create a high concentration of substances that repel midges.

To combat midges in an apartment, it is necessary to choose repellents with the safest composition. For rooms such as an attic, basement or garage, more toxic ones are also suitable.

Light traps for midges

With the help of these devices you can fight midges in a physical sense. The traps are ultraviolet radiation lamps with a damaging element in the form of an electric current discharge. That is, a midge, attracted by the light, stumbles upon its source and receives a fatal electrical discharge. Light traps are safe for humans, surrounding animals and plants.

True, such devices also have noticeable disadvantages. They can only be used at night, since during the day midges cannot be attracted by a local light source. In addition, with each discharge of current, a small characteristic crackling sound will be heard. And if there are a lot of insects, then the noise can be quite noticeable.

We recommend: How to rid an apartment of cockroaches using boric acid?

Fumigators

Another reliable way to remove midges from your apartment is to use fumigators. These are electrical devices whose heating element allows the evaporation of insecticides - substances that are harmful to insects.

Such devices are produced in two types:

• lamellar;
• liquid.

Fumigators are also safe for animals and humans, provided that the room where they are used is ventilated.

Fumigators are usually purchased to combat mosquitoes, but their range of action is much wider.

In plate fumigators, toxic substances are applied to plates that are inserted into a compartment on top of the device and are released when heated. One plate lasts for an average of 10 hours.

With liquid ones, accordingly, when heated, a liquid toxic to midges evaporates. It is attached in a special container to the device from below. This fumigator will last for about a month.

If you have a basement in your house, carefully monitor the integrity of the vegetables stored in it and promptly get rid of spoiled ones. Midges are especially common on rotten onions and carrots.

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:

• fern , elderberry and tansy in all rooms, midges will fly away due to the unpleasant smell for them;

Tansy is prohibited for use in case of weak cerebral vessels; it can cause headaches in patients.

• kerosene, turpentine - it is recommended to add to water when washing floors or windows;
• tomato seedlings , eucalyptus , geranium - flies will fly away due to the 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. Read about how long fruit flies live and what their life cycle is on our website.