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Even with a clean kitchen, fruit flies are persistent little creatures that seem to appear as soon as you drop an orange peel in the trash. They’re smaller than house flies that tend to gather around carrion and trash outside, and, also unlike house flies, fruit flies never come alone. These tiny tyrants always seem to come in multiples, making it difficult to thwart them once they’ve invaded your kitchen. Thankfully, there are some strategies to exterminate fruit flies without any harsh chemicals.
You can put together a fruit fly trap using a tomato and a Mason jar with water in it. Cut the tomato and squeeze the seeds into the water, let the mix sit for a week, and then poke some holes into the Mason jar lid or purchase a MasonTop trap cap on Amazon. One YouTuber, @The_IndoorGardener, has put together a tutorial showing her success with this method.
There are a few reasons why this hack might be so effective. Fruit flies are attracted to rotten fruits, and leaving tomato juice in water for a week leads to it fermenting and developing a gelatinous film at the top. The tomato seed juice lures the fruit flies, and the white fungus likely serves as a way to reduce surface tension and prevent the flies from escaping.
Preventing fruit fly infestations with all-natural solutions
To prevent fruit flies from partying in your kitchen, you have to deprive them of their fuel: fermented plant matter. Unclog your sink drain with baking soda and vinegar, and then run the garbage disposal with water, ice, and kosher salt to cleanse the area and dispel any odors that could attract flies. The sooner you do this after putting any fruit peels down the drain, the better. Remember to take out the trash after cooking, and don’t let any rotten produce stick around for more than a day.
Certain natural oils and plants repel fruit flies from hanging around as well. Mint has a strong menthol smell that insects don’t appreciate, masking the scent of rotting fruits by flooding the flies’ senses. Plant mint alongside your home garden or place an essential oil diffuser with peppermint near doors and windows where fruit flies might enter.
Not only are fruit flies invasive to your kitchen, but they’re also invasive to North American habitats. They have the potential to ruin crops and compete with native species for natural resources, throwing the ecosystem out of balance if overpopulated. Spiders and frogs are happy to eat fruit flies, so keep your porch and yard pesticide-free and allow wildlife to take care of the problem before it starts. Do yourself a favor by helping to prevent and exterminate fruit flies.
