Do you have tiny little flies buzzing around your kitchen, bird cage or sink?  Then you probably have a fruit fly problem.  Nothing is more annoying then walking into a room and having a swarm of these little guys take flight!  You will know them by their red eyes and tiny size.

Fruit flies breed on organic matter – anything moist, wet or decaying.  If the flies are in your kitchen, they are most likely buzzing and breeding around fruit, tiny bits of food under appliances or even stuck to table legs.  They will breed on decaying food in your drain, and sometimes breed on houseplants as well.  The only true way to get rid of these little guys is to remove their breeding source.  Take every bit of fruit out of your kitchen, dump the trash, wash your trashcan, clean your table legs, look under the toaster or any other place there may be organic matter.  If the flies are in your drain, pour hot water and household cleaner down the drain, cover it with tape and leave it overnight.  You may have to keep the tape on each night to prevent re-infestation of your drain.

If you have birds, you probably have old fruit and vegetable pieces on the floor, the wall and cage corners.  Wash everything down as best you can using warm water and a rag.  Remove all organic matter in the cage and stick to seed and pellets.  When it is time for your bird to have fresh fruits and veggies, offer them for ½ an hour.  After this time, remove the food bowl so there won’t be a source for the fruit flies to breed in.  Be sure to take any dropped pieces out of the cage as well.  Feel free to offer your bird fresh food as many times a day as you want, removing it after 15 to 30 minutes.  If the fruit fly infestation is not resolved after a few days, you may wish to feed your bird dried fruits and veggies for two days to be sure there is no place for fruit flies to breed.

You can purchase fruit fly sprays and traps on the internet.  Never use anything that can possibly be toxic to your pets.  A home remedy that works well for fruit flies is a mixture of water, vinegar, grapes and sugar.  Take a tall glass and add about ¼ cup of water.  To the water, add a splash of vinegar, a few sliced grapes and a spoonful of sugar.  Then take a piece of paper and fold it into a cone shape.  Cut the point of the cone across so the hole in the bottom is a bit larger and less pointy.  Place the cone into the glass so the hole is above the water mixture.  Attach the cone to the cup with tape or a paperclip, and place the cup near your fruit flies.  The fruit flies will go into the cone, down the hole and get trapped inside.  When you are ready to remove the cup, walk to it slowly with a plastic grocery bag in hand.  Quickly cover the cup with the bag and take it outside immediately.  Any flies that may be sitting on the cup are removed in this manner as well as the flies trapped inside.

We discovered yet another type of fruit fly trap purely by accident - quite the unfortunate accident.  After a special dinner there was about two inches of red wine left in a wine bottle.  The bottle remained unopened on the table overnight.  The next day it was corked.  You can guess what happened next.  Someone poured the wine into a glass, took a sip and found themselves with a mouthful of fruit flies.  Apparently, the fruit flies flew into the bottle, were unable to get out and drowned.  This was the most efficient fruit fly trap we've seen - and the fruit flies probably didn't mind either!

Using one of these homemade fruit fly traps, along with removal of the fruit fly breeding source, should stop the fruit fly infestation within a few days.

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