When you come home from the grocery store with a bunch of bananas or a bag of fresh Georgia peaches, you could be bringing more home than just the fruit, you may be inadvertently bringing fruit flies into your home. You probably know from experience that fruit flies will be buzzing around the fruit and vegetable section in the supermarket; while they are there they are laying thousands of eggs which within a short time mature from larvae to adult fruit flies. How do you prevent fruit flies?
You can start by not buying any fruit and vegetables, but that is not a real option. To prevent fruit flies and still have a bowl of fresh fruit there are other ways that are not all that difficult.
When you arrive home wash the fruit and vegetables outside. It’s a good idea to construct a small table that is convenient to a water source where the cleaning can easily be accomplished. If you find that you use a wash tub then you should wash them again once they are in the house. If the fruit is unripe or hard then leaving it out is fine, if the fruit is already approaching maximum ripeness then it is best to refrigerate it.
Many vegetables need trimming when you arrive from the market, celery leaves need cutting off as does the exterior of cabbage and cauliflower. Grapes are often gone through to remove those that may already be rotten. All of this organic matter must be disposed of outside the house or frozen. If you do not have a compost heap and you dispose of everything during the regular garbage collection then freezing is best.
Your drains, both in the kitchen and the bathrooms should be cleaned periodically with simple bleach. To prevent fruit flies you must understand that any bacteria are attractive to them and when it’s accompanied with dampness, its home sweet home.
If they do appear, and that’s exactly what they do, it’s almost a “now you see it now you don’t situation” but in the reverse, then take action. First remove the attraction, if it overripe fruit either eat it, refrigerate it or dispose of it but whatever you do, get it away from the fruit flies. You will never prevent fruit flies if you give them what they need. Once you have removed the attraction you can make a simple trap from a couple of empty jars with about an inch of apple cider vinegar in each. Cover the top with cling film and punch a few holes in the film. Set the traps near where the spoiled fruit was and they will be attracted by the smell of the apple cider, they will crawl in to eat and drown. Once the infestation has been removed the vinegar can be disposed of by simply casting it in the garden.
