Got Fruit Flies?

Invasion of the fruit flies

Have you ever had the displeasure of experiencing an all-out warfare with the fruit fly?  One morning you wake up to a bunch of little fruit flies in your kitchen.  You spend hours cleaning the house and killing these little pests.  The following morning you wake to twice as many flies.  Each day it's the same result. You just can't understand why or how they are multiplying so fast.  You've just cleaned the whole house from top to bottom, front to back,inside out, upside down, and backwards.  There's no food left out anywhere, or so you think.  Yet, there you are with thousands of these flies ruling your house. 

For the next 2 weeks you walked around the house in a cloud of fruit flies swatting at every one you can reach. They're everywhere.  Every time you open the refrigerator, they're in the crisper drawers, on the rubber seals of the doors, just everywhere!  You kill so many flies that the floors are speckled with them and you have to sweep a couple times in one day.  Somewhere, unbeknownst to you, there may be larvae hiding and hatching at an alarming rate.

The life span of a fruit fly can be several weeks.  In order to get rid of them for good, here are some great tips to rid your house of the pesky fruit fly.

• CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN!  Make sure your house is clean.  Even when you think it's clean there might be an area in your home that you least expect to find spoiled food that can harbor fruit fly larvae. 
• Keep a lid on your garbage can.  And never, never, never throw food trash in your wastepaper baskets.
• Keep all food put away.  For now, store your fruit in your fridge.  Keep crumb spills cleaned up and wipe any food spills immediately.
• Clean your fridge inside and out with a bleach solution.  Don't forget to wipe the rubber seals on the fridge and freezer doors.
• Keep things dry!  Fruit flies are attracted to moisture.  Don't leave wet washcloths or sponges soaking wet.  Make sure they are wrung out well.  And, wash them often.
• Clean your drains well.  A bleach solution down the drain works well.

You can still fight these pests while you sleep.  Here's how:

1. Put a small amount of apple cider vinegar (not white vinegar) into a small glass or bowl.
2. Add a couple of drops of dish detergent and swirl to dissolve the soap. 
3. Place this in the area of the infestation and leave overnight. You can use several around the house: one for the kitchen , one for the dining room, and one for the living room, etc.  Place the one for the kitchen on top of your stove, especially if it's a gas stove.  The heat from the stove warms the liquid and infuses it into the air. 
4. Go to sleep.
5. In the morning, discard the contents of each glass or bowl in the toilet and flush.  Clean dishes thoroughly.
6. Repeat these steps for several days. 

It's that simple.  Okay, so it's not a very attractive thing to see in the morning.  But, would you rather wake up to a glass full of dead fruit flies or inhale them on your way to the kitchen?