How to Kill Fruit Flies with White Vinegar?

Among the most bothersome of the unwanted pests in homes are probably fruit flies. Regardless of the season or the cleanliness of your house, they also appear to be present all the time. This will make you wonder how to kill fruit flies.

Fruit flies have a small, reddish-brown appearance. They will most likely be flying around your kitchen, maybe in the vicinity of the fruit bowl. Fruit and vegetables usually carry fruit flies in from the grocery store, though they can enter through open windows. 

They lay their eggs on sugary surfaces and decaying produce. They also get into fruit at the grocery store through any surface nicks or cuts.

Their preoccupation with rotting or overripe fruit gave rise to their moniker. We can find them in and around trash cans when they’re not circling your fruit bowl.

Though they are minuscule, they are very much annoying. The whole idea is to be a step ahead of this pest to ensure that they never find their way into your house.

Also, there are measures of regaining control over them in case they manage to find the weak spots.

What are Fruit Flies, and What Causes Fruit Flies in the House

The fruit flies are very tiny in size; have red eyes and a reddish-brown color. We found fruit flies in the kitchen because we attract them to apples that are wet or getting rotten.

First of all, avoid tempting fruit flies by keeping a constant eye on any fruits and vegetables you keep out on the counter to eat.

Being able to raise a young one at the age of two, if you happen to see one or even two around it won’t hurt striving urgently to resolve the issue.

How to Make a White Vinegar Fruit Fly Trap

Building a fruit fly trap using white vinegar is far too easy. For the process, you will require only plastic wrap and white vinegar in combination with a clear bowl or jar.

1. To start with shake your bowl and add two inches of white vinegar to it.

2. The next step is to put a piece of plastic wrap with all sides pressed down carefully, ensuring that its edges do not rise.

3. When the plastic wrap is in position, poke a few pin-sized holes at its top edge with the toothpick or any other thing small enough.

Assuming that the opening in your jar could be easily done, you might come up with a paper funnel should the type of jar you are using require some.

4. After being done with producing a white vinegar fruit fly trap, place this trap onto the kitchen sink while allowing gravity to enforce against it or find another location in which you saw the flies.

5. In the course of several days in the following, you will see that there are more than enough fruit flies caught by your trap.

However, the fruit fly will not have a problem getting into and drowning from it if you have covered your white vinegar with plastic wrap.

How to Trap and Kill Fruit Flies

Aside from using vinegar to trap fruit flies, there are more ways you can trap and kill fruit flies. They are listed below;

1. Milk and Sugar Mix

Your great-grandparents likely employed this trick. Heat a glass of milk with a cup of sugar and a quarter-cup of ground pepper in a saucepan.

Transfer the blend into a bowl and set it aside on the countertop. The tiny creatures adore the fermentation of sugar.

2. Paper Cone, Vinegar, and Old Fruit Trap

The aroma of decaying food draws into the mixture of fruit flies, but we impede them from leaving by the fruit fly trap’s cone-shaped design. How to accomplish it on your own:

• Put some very ripe fruit chunks in a jar with a small amount of vinegar.
• The cone-shaped paper should be rolled out and inserted into the jar with the narrow end facing downward. After using it, you can recycle or compost the homemade funnel.
• A notion: Use a plastic bottle cap that has been cut open to create a small opening (cone) that the flies can pass through. To trap them, place the ripe fruit and vinegar at the bottom.

3. Vinegar and Dish Soap Trap

If your paper cone or plastic wrap traps aren’t working for you, try putting three drops of dish soap in a bowl of vinegar and keeping it uncovered. Dish soap lowers the vinegar’s surface tension, causing the flies to sink and drown.

4. Aunt Fannie’s FlyPunch

Product analysts at the Good Housekeeping Institute, particularly senior chemist Sabina Wizemann, were thrilled to see this product arrive on their desks. 

She discovered that it performed better at home than other do-it-yourself remedies she had attempted. 

The pre-made mixture comes in a stand-up jar and contains the active ingredients malic acid, which is found in fruit, and sodium lauryl sulfate, a surfactant used in soaps. To use it, simply open the lid and place it on your counter.

5. Old Wine or Beer Trap

Fruit flies have a close relation with the winery smell. Leave the flies stuck onto the bottle by leaving a loose lid cap with some leftover liquid outside the house.

Stale beer is a second method that is advised by The Old Farmer’s Almanac for mate a homemade trap for fruit flies. To achieve better results, increase the amount of dish or dishwashing soap so that to around two to five drops.

6. Alcohol Spray

Get or buy some alcohol in a spray bottle and take a fast shot at every insect around your house. Do not, hence, press fruit with (a lot of) alcohol into, it because this could result in decay and attract fruit flies.

7. Ripe Fruit Trap

One of the best do-it-yourself traps is this one, especially if you have extra fresh ingredients.

• Transfer some very ripe fruits or vegetables that you have lying around into a jar or cup with a tiny bit of vinegar added.
• Roll up a piece of paper into a cone shape.
• With the wide side up and the narrow side down, place it in the cup.

Enjoy watching as the flies are drawn to the decaying produce and become trapped because of the cone.

8. Use a Carnivorous Plant

Get a carnivorous sundew plant, if you can. These plants are well-liked by gardeners because they catch and devour fruit flies on their sticky leaves. The plants offer a continuous solution to your fruit fly problem in this way.

9. Use Essential Oils

We have found Basil to reduce fruit fly attacks. Consider keeping a basil plant close to your fruit bowl or sprinkling basil leaves directly on fruit as raw basil plants may contain a repellent compound. 

Since fruit flies dislike strong smells, consider putting cedar balls on your counter where you store fruit or soaking a sponge in lavender oil.

Where Do Fruit Flies Come From?

It could be worse in terms of pests. Fruit flies are bothersome even though they don’t accomplish anything. They usually take over your kitchen in a swarm. It’s critical to comprehend the causes of fruit flies’ initial appearance to effectively eradicate them:

1. They enter through open windows in the warmer months, drawn in by the aroma of ripe fruit.

2. Those flying pests find food waste in compost and trash bins irresistible.

3. Fruit fly maggots have many ideal places to breed, and ripe bananas and damaged apples are just two examples.

4. Unintentionally, carrying fruit flies home with your produce—in their larval state, having grown at the supermarket—is a frequent occurrence.

With a two-week development cycle and up to 400 eggs laid by laying females, the population can grow out of control very fast.

How to Avoid Fruit Flies

While using white vinegar to eradicate fruit flies is a fairly easy method, stopping an infestation before it begins is far simpler. To help reduce the risk, you can take the following easy steps:

1. Fruits that need to be consumed or processed in time should be eaten or processed immediately; otherwise, leave them in the open.

2. To delay apples, lemons, tomatoes, and plums from spoiling, watching that video will give useful tips.

3. Perhaps you have a bunch of bananas and do not know what to do with them you could consider freezing them for future use at the time you need them to make deliciously yummy banana cream. Instead, stick them onto skewers and grill them. Slightly slice them and bake them.

4. Refrigerate them if they are over-ripe or damaged, or use them to make relish vegan lemon bars, homemade applesauce, or vegan apple pie.

5. For all the summer’s peak months, don’t forget to take out your garbage and compost more often.

6. Keep open wine bottles, glasses, or fruit juice out for a minimum time exposure.

7. To keep the insects from entering your room, install the screens on your windows.

8. Figs and apricots ripen faster as they are stored at the same time as other fruits.

Finally, by using the points we have listed above, you won’t even require our vinegar fruit fly trap. Make sure the produce you purchase is free of any cracks or nicks where fruit flies could be hidden to avoid fruit flies.