This will get rid of fruit flies from your kitchen

My editor asked me to find a way to get rid of fruit flies that really worked, and here’s what I discovered.

In the Taste Test Kitchen we love testing everything, from the latest food-related gadgets to new tricks and hacks to solve any kitchen dilemma.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been experiencing one of these dilemmas – in the form of fruit flies that descended on my kitchen en masse. They particularly loved the bananas in my fruit bowl, but that’s not all – they were congregating in my sink, on flowers in a vase, in my dishwasher drain, even around my kids’ toothpaste in the bathroom! They had to go.

Fruit flies: what are they?

Fruit flies are the tiny, annoying (and fruit-loving) bugs which appear in your kitchen, especially during the warmer months when it’s humid. Although they don’t pose much of a threat to our fruit at home (apart from when they eat the apples you bought three days before), their effects on the fresh fruit and veg industry are substantial. According to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, “fruit flies are one of the world’s most destructive horticultural pests and pose a risk to most commercial fruit and vegetable crops”.

The experts at the National Fruit Fly Council (yes, that’s a thing) said that the problem doesn’t really lie with the fruit flies themselves, but their babies: “The adult female fruit fly lays eggs in the flesh of ripening and ripe fruits and vegetables,” they said. “Once the eggs hatch, the larvae begin to feed within the fruit, causing it to rot and drop to the ground.”

Some simple household ingredients can be the solution to an annoying problem.

How to get rid of fruit flies in your kitchen

As I watched the fruit flies take over my house, I remembered that a wise food editor once told me a nifty hack for trapping them. Her miracle mixture consisted of apple cider vinegar, warm water and dishwashing detergent. Yes, three kitchen staples are all we used to sort out the hundreds of fruit flies which decided to call our benchtop their home. We simply mixed them in a shallow bowl and waited for the magic to happen. Which it absolutely did.

Does the fruit fly trap hack work?

I was blown away at how effective this concoction was, but was confused by how it actually works. Naturally, I took to Google and unearthed the science behind the fruit fly hack. According to Prevention, “the flies will be attracted to the vinegar and the dish soap will cause them to sink so they can’t escape”. Since they can’t get out … well, we all know what happens to them.

How to make a fruit fly trap

Ingredients

4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

4 tablespoons warm water

1/2 teaspoon dishwashing detergent

(Note, the actual quantities don’t matter – what’s important is that you have equal quantities of vinegar and water … and a comparatively small amount of detergent.)

Method

Step 1: Mix the vinegar and water in a small bowl and add the dishwashing detergent. There’s no need to mix that in.

Step 2: Leave the bowl in the area where you get most fruit flies, (eg. near the fruit bowl).

You’ll see the flies gradually collect in your ‘trap’. Change the mixture at least once a day.

You won't need a degree in food science to get rid of fruit flies with this trick.

Other ways to reduce fruit flies in your kitchen

There are more ways to sort out the fruit fly infestation in your home, if you’re not keen on the game-changing vinegar hack.

Spray and wipe your benchtop regularly. The sweet residue sometimes left behind after cooking and prepping is what attracts fruit flies, so make sure it’s clean!

Keep your sink and drain clean! Any scraps lingering in your sink could be the reason for your unwanted guests.

Empty your rubbish bin often, especially in summer. Any food that hangs around for too long is the perfect magnet for fruit flies.

Remove any fruit that spoils easily from your fruit bowl. Bananas go brown in the fridge and you don’t want fruit flies to find their way into your pantry, so I peeled and halved all my bananas, popped them into a sandwich bag and into the freezer. They were then ready for me to use in smoothies and baking (they keep like this for ages!). Stone fruit is probably best kept in the fridge.

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