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How do I get rid of fruit flies?
I have a swarm of fruit flies in my kitchen and I don't know how to get rid of them! I tried putting out a cup of cider vinegar yesterday..... the flies are buzzing around it but won't actually go into the vinegar.
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Maybe give some free advice about: Cleaning?
A fruit particularly known for bringing fruit fly eggs into your home is the banana. I've read that the stems of the banana is where fruit flies lay their eggs. Grocery stores are cooler than ones home so once you bring bananas home, either cut off all stem to just about where the fruit would start or cover that part in plastic and tape in place.
The one idea on how to get rid of them is good. I never created a contraption. All I did was leave a couple pieces of fruit or melon rinds on a flat plate that I could easily cup and upside down smaller plastic bowl over to trap them. I'd only have to wait minutes before the fruit was covered with swarms of fruit flies, then sneak slowly up to it with bowl in hand and once close enough, quickly slam bowl down trapping them and carry them outside. I've used the housefly pest strips and only caught houseflys with it, no fruit flies. They only like going after fruit or fruit juices.
Another thing to keep in mind is trash:
If you have and fruit peelings and unwanted fruit bits, do not throw into your regular kitchen garbage can. I know a family who came up with a good solution to this. They had a large crock jar on their counter top where anything moist, wet, fruit or veggie related, even coffee grounds, went in. It has the lid ringed by metal with a part which when lifted up, releases the rubber seal on edges and opens top of the crockery jar and if snapped down in place, locks it so tight no air can get in and no flies either. They took the contents of jar out to a compost pile at the back of their yard. Or for apartments, you'd have to remember to empty the contents into a kitchen trash bag of its own and immediately tie knots in the plastic to seal contents in and put it out for trash pick up.
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you can also get an empty soda bottle cut a few small wholes around the top and then put vinegar inside the bottle and close the cap. This will draw them in ad once their in, they dont know how to get out. Leave them around for a few days.
Also Nats and flies love dark moist warm places to hide and breed under or IN, so clean all the spots and there could be water, check the window screens to see if theres gaps where their getting inside at and tape those up or buy a new screen for that window. if you bring the old one, home depot can make you a new one thats they same size.
A fan pointing on medium to high and pointing in that direction will aid in this because they cant fly too well if theres to much wind moving through the area.
It can be tough to get rid of them but if you give it a few days and try to make sure theres no wet dark areas in the kitchen and its open air flow in there then they'll eventually die off. Do you have a trash disposal?? put some vinegar in there too and cover the opening for a while with something that air tight so they cant sneak through like a rubber can opener or a lid. Then get to the store and buy some garbage disposal cleaner.
also check your sink drains and your trash can. (there could be a hole ripped in your trash cans bag that your not aware of and nats like to breed in between there too. The take the trash and properly clean out the trash can before putting a new bag in.
good luck ; )
i get them too sometimes and it can be a real pain!
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My best possible advice is this:
Put your cup of vinegar in your oven and leave the oven door wide open. Make sure it's an oven safe cup. Leave for a few hours, and then when you come back, close the oven door and turn the oven up to 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. No more flies.
Of course, you also have to make sure the rest of your kitchen is clean and that there are no other food options available for them.
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