Summer means ripe tomatoes, tall glasses of lemonade and, yes, fruit flies. The pesky pests are the last thing you want buzzing in front of your face — especially when you're prepping dinner or having friends around for a weekend soiree.
Fruit flies reproduce at an astonishing rate: According to pest control company Orkin, female fruit flies lay hundreds of eggs in a very short time, commonly on moist foods like overripe fruit and vegetables. Then, within 24 to 30 hours, those eggs hatch into larvae, or maggots, that feed on the food source on which they were laid. Within about a week those larvae become sexually active and not more than two days later, start the cycle over again — leaving you with
Fortunately, there are simple and effective ways to get rid of fruit flies indoors fast — maybe not in under five minutes, but certainly in overnight — using fruit fly traps that you can DIY at home. All it takes to stop these irksome insects in their tracks is some strategic cleaning and a few household supplies.
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Fruit flies are attracted to ripe, rotting or decayed fruit and produce, as well as fermented goods like beer, liquor and wine, say the pros at Orkin. They also like to buzz around trash cans and garbage disposals if enough food is present. And, unfortunately, considering their reproductive prowess, two tiny fruit flies will quickly multiply into an infestation that can feel almost impossible to control.
If you see little black bugs flying around your kitchen, you first want to make sure you identify the critters correctly. Fruit flies usually appear light or dark brown in color with red eyes. Double-check that your pests in question aren't drain flies, which lurk around drains or garbage disposals, or fungus gnats, which prefer overwatered houseplants. For those bugs, check out our guides on how to get rid of gnats and how to make a homemade fly trap.
Start by deep cleaning your kitchen and throwing out any rotten food. To cut off fruit flies from their food source and prevent them from entering your home, take these preventive measures to avoid a future fruit fly infestation:
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Then, you'll want to find a way to trap the existing fruit flies in your kitchen, fast. Our experts have found that a DIY fruit fly trap is a quick and effective solution. What's more, these homemade fruit fly traps can be fashioned from supplies you likely have on hand in your pantry. If you want to skip the DIY route, you can buy premade fruit fly traps, too. Here are the best ways to kill fruit flies, according to pest experts:
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For this DIY fruit fly trap, sweet apple cider vinegar (ACV) is more effective than white vinegar. They can't resist the scent of vinegar, and they won't be able to exit once they're inside! For an even better chance at success, make several of these traps and place them around your kitchen. Here's how to do it yourself:
Fruit & Drain Flies
The smell of rotting produce will help entice the fruit flies into the mixture, but the cone part of this fruit fly trap makes it difficult for them to get out. Here's how to do it yourself:
If you find your fruit flies impervious to your plastic wrap or paper cone traps, try adding three drops of dish soap to a bowl of vinegar and leave it uncovered. The soap cuts the surface tension of the vinegar so the flies will sink and drown.
The experts in the Good Housekeeping Institute were excited to see this product cross their desks, especially senior chemist Sabina Wizemann, who found that it worked better in her home than other DIY remedies she's tried. The premade mixture uses the active ingredients sodium lauryl sulfate (a surfactant used in soaps) and malic acid (found in fruit) and comes in a stand-up jar. All you have to do is open the top, set it on your counter and "watch the cycle of life unfold."
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Like vinegar, fruit flies love the smell of wine. Try leaving out an open bottle with a little leftover liquid — the skinny neck will keep the flies trapped. The Old Farmer's Almanac also recommends using stale beer to attract fruit flies to a DIY trap. Add a couple of drops of dish soap to either for surer success.
If you notice fruit flies in your drain, you might be looking for an instant fix — like pouring bleach down the drain. But experts say this isn’t the most effective solution. Doing so might kill some larvae, but it will not kill enough of the eggs or larvae to eliminate the problem. That's because bleach passes down the drain too quickly to do a thorough job.
✔️ Always run cold water before turning on the disposal or grinding food, and for a few seconds after the grinding stops. The water flow will help food move all the way through the pipes after it leaves the disposal.
The Original Fruit Fly Trap, 1 Unit
✔️ Every week or so, with the disposal and faucet both turned off, toss in a bunch of ice cubes, a tablespoon of baking soda, a few thin lemon slices and a teaspoon of bleach. Turn the disposal on without running water until you hear the grinding stop. Then, with the motor still running, flush the machine with cold water for about a minute.
Overseeing all things home for and HouseBeautiful.com, Lauren swoons over midcentury design and employs tough-love approach to decluttering (just throw it away, ladies). She loves anything neon coral, puts bacon on her veggie burgers, and would follow Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to the end of the earth.
Caroline is a writer and editor with almost a decade of experience. From 2015 to 2019, she held various editorial positions at
How To Get Rid Of Fruit Flies
, including as health editor, covering nutrition, fitness, wellness, and other lifestyle news. She's a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism and dreams of the day Northwestern will go back to the Rose Bowl.
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I love painting my nails, but I hate having to remove it later. Especially glitter-based and darker polishes - they're so tough to get off! I always ended up picking at the last bit of polish and damaging my nails, so I knew I needed to try something else.
After a lot of googling, I found a few solid options and tested them out. I found the winning method on gingerbreadmanne and it was so fast and easy to do I just can't get over it. :D
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Also: this is incredibly useful if you have psoriasis like I do - my thumb nails have fairly large horizontal ridges that tend to trap polish between them, and this makes removing it much easier!
If this method doesn't work for the polish you're wearing, there's another option. Try scoochmaroo's "how to remove a gel manicure" instructable for more info.
Tear the strip into smaller pieces - you can get quite a few out of one ball! You really just want pieces large enough so that you can cover your whole nail.
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Pour some nail polish remover into the cap and dip a strip into it. You want the strip saturated but not dripping wet.
Push the wet strip down onto a nail firmly so it will stay in place and repeat for the rest of them.
Once it's been a couple minutes, remove the strips but pushing them off the ends of your nails. Apply pressure at the nail bed and push the cotton toward the tip. The polish should come off pretty easy!
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If the cotton sticks, chances are you didn't use enough remover. Dab more polish remover onto the cotton and let it sit a little longer.
As you can see, this method took off almost all of the glitter polish - and I was using two coats! Hooray! It took only another minute or so to remove the rest.
My nails also looked loads better than they do normally - no peeling or places where I scrubbed too hard or picked. :D
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