Get Rid of Fruit Flies Naturally

As if I were living in a bad horror movie, they come. Every summer we’re invaded. By fruit flies.


Gross little buggers.


I HATE fruit flies, and they live FOREVER. Ok, maybe not forever, but almost. I also hate spraying insecticide around my house, so what is one to do?

How to get rid of fruit flies naturally

Tip 1: Wash your produce
Wash everything, even your bananas, as soon as you get home. I know it’s a pain in the neck, but it’ll help. If the produce is soakable consider soaking it in a tub of water with 1/4 cup baking soda dissolved in it.



Tip 2: Refrigerate your produce
There is one store that always, always seems to be the start of our fruit fly problem. I try not to buy produce there but sometimes I can’t help it. To help stave off the infestation I like to refrigerate all of our produce for 48 hours. Unfortunately there are some things that just can’t be refrigerated, in the height of an infestation stay away from these things.



Tip 3: Remove/clean their breeding grounds
Fruit flies, like all disgusting beasts of Hell, like to breed in dark, moist environments where they have access to organic matter in which they lay their eggs. I told you they were gross little buggers.


Take your trash out, all of it, at least once a day. Rinse the bins out with hot water. Pour a small box of baking soda down your shower and sink drains followed by white vinegar. This will help to rinse out any organic matter that they’re breeding in. If you have a garbage disposal make sure you continue to run water through it for at least 40 seconds after turning it off, and clean it with baking soda & vinegar daily.


I recently discovered, much to my disgust, that the fruit flies were making babies in the bucket I use to store my daughter’s dirty cloth diapers in. I almost threw up, the poop doesn’t bother me but the fly larvae does. Gross. I washed all of the diapers twice in super hot water with detergent, the diaper bin was rinsed out and left in the hot sun to dry, then rinse out again.



Tip 4: Trap the suckers
It never fails, I pour a glass of wine and in the 5 seconds it takes me to put the wine back in the fridge, BAM! Three flies floating in my wine. Ick.

Any pungent, sweet liquid makes a decent fruit fly trap. The commercial fruit fly traps use apple cider vinegar but I’ve found that rice vinegar, red wine vinegar, and a sweet red wine work much better. Some people add a drop or two of liquid soap, the theory is that the soap breaks the surface tension of the liquid up and drowns the flies, but I’ve never found that necessary. The drunk flies in my Shiraz seem to do a pretty good job of drowning themselves.

DIE! DIE! DIE you little fruit flies!