We eat many fruits and vegetables and I like to keep them in big bowls on the counter. Some fruits are there because they’re ripening, others are there because that’s the temperature they like best. I want my counter to look like this.
Big bowls of fruit on my counter (taken last summer)
I began this summer that way. Putting big bowls of produce out. Then one day I noticed a couple fruit flies hanging around. Within minutes, there were thousands of fruit flies around. Okay, slight exaggeration. It was more like within a few days there were a hundred of them. I was at a loss as to what to do.
A couple weeks went by and those darned things kept multiplying! I tried one of those sticky fly things. Nope. They knew that fruit was better. Then I realized that I could keep our precious produce out where I liked it by preventing the fruit flies from getting to it. I covered each bowl with a towel. The towels had to be large enough to prevent any openings through which the flies would have access to the fruit. It worked! Too bad the bowls are not as pretty anymore.
The towels are covering a platter full of bananas, a bowl of organic and local heirloom tomatoes, two bowls of natural pears from our doctor, and another bowl of organic pears from Azure Standard.
After a couple more weeks, all the pesky fruit flies died. Of starvation. Yes. I’m sorry if I’m shocking you. I’m not normally a fan of long, drawn-out deaths. But those fruit flies deserved it. They were in My Kitchen and hanging around My Food.
A friend told me what her mom does to get rid of fruit flies. You see, they really like vinegar. I’m not sure if they like all vinegars, but I have noticed for sure that they love apple cider and balsamic vinegar. She puts a bit of vinegar in a little plastic bag, probably sandwich bag size, and lays it on the counter. She props the bag open so the flies can get to the vinegar, but the bag has to be closed enough so the flies can’t get out. They drown in the vinegar. She tosses the bag and starts a new one when it gets too gross.
So there you have it. If you’re suffering from fruit flies, here are two natural methods for getting rid of them.
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I have a friend who had the same problem and she made the loveliest little covers for her bowls. The covers look like the plastic versions you can buy that look like shower caps in many sizes, that have elastic around the opening for a tight fit … but, she made hers out of whimsical fabric and it looks great and she keeps the fruit flies out.
How cool! I want to make some of those. Your friend is so creative to come up with that! -Wardee
Thanks for the great tip! I have had exactly the same problem this summer.
Hi there,
I found an amazing solution. Take a small and clean glass container, put a piece of apple or banana in it, cover the glass with kitchen plastic wrap and poke some holes in it. Small holes so that they can get through. Put the trap in a place where these flies like to fly around. You’ll see, they get in and don’t get out again. After a couple of days you can just go outside and set them free. That’s it.
Thanks for the idea! -Wardee
Similar to the above, we found that poking some small holes in the lid of a jar, and filling the jar with apple cider vinegar, traps many fruit flies. We use this every summer as the flies appear annually. I will couple this method with the towel method above and see if this gets rid of them entirely!