Kill Fruit Flies – Now!

Kill Fruit Flies – Now!

Fruit flies got their namesake for their fondness of fruits; most especially, decaying, abandoned fruits and vegetables. They can indeed become nuisance pests and particularly difficult to co-exist.

Therefore, here are some tips on how to kill fruit flies when you have grown quite tired of their shenanigans.

Some Modern Help

Electric Fly Swatters or Fly Catchers can easily fry the fruit out of those flies. Nothing screams “kill fruit flies” like a silver machine charged with electricity and buzzing with small explosions every time a wayward fly passes through its wires.

In the case of flycatchers, you can plug them near your storage bins or wet pantry stows. If you want some hand action, pick up a fly swatter and practice some mean tennis swings while toasting fruit flies to smithereens.

Some Chemical Help

You can hire someone to smoke the fruit flies out of your house or leave them dead on the floor. Be ready for some lingering smells from the chemicals though as some professional fly-busters use strong concoctions depending on the level of infestation.

If you want to do some homemade pesticides, malt vinegar is your friend. It can get difficult though because you need to boil the vinegar for it to emit a fly-repelling smell. Just keep a close eye on your boiling vinegar though because if it dries up and starts burning then you need to buy a new pan.

Some Screening Help

Mesh screens are pretty easy to come by in your local store or hardware-so buy enough to cover all the windows at home. Sure, it won’t kill the flies but it can prevent them from coming in your abode.

Then deal with the ones already inside your house. If you don’t like the two already mentioned then the following might be more to your liking.

Some Sucking Help

Yes, it’s a vacuum cleaner. A cheap cylinder vacuum cleaner (usually costs $39 or more) with a plastic pipe and high wattage. Do the fly hunting at night or in early morning when flies are sleeping or at their most sluggish (yes, they get tired of all the flying).

With the machine roaring in your hands, approach the flies head on and point the nozzle at them. At about 6 inches away, stop and turn the nozzle towards the fly and proceed gently.

At two or three inches away, the fly will actually enjoy the draft and will preen itself. Let it do that for 10 to 20 seconds before advancing for the kill.

If unsuccessful, there is a small chance you’ll be able to catch the fly mid-flight. But, you can go ahead and harass the fly some more until it gets tired and settles on a wall-then back to step one.

Needless to say, there is a vendetta for a certain fly in this case to go to so much trouble. Heck, it became personal when he landed on your Bacon Cheese Burger before you had a bite of it.

Some Luring Help

You only need a piece of rotting fruit inside a resealable plastic bag poked with holes in it big enough for flies to get inside it. Hang it on a tree far away from your house and the rest of the neighbors.

Instead of going inside your house, they will be lured to the plastic bag. Once the bag is full of dead and decaying flies get a long stick (you don’t want to bare hand this) and gingerly place the bag o’ flies into the nearest dumpster.

Fruit flies frequent decaying food so your best armor against them is a vigilant sanitation habit. Keep the counters clean and free of leftovers. Don’t let your trash overstay inside the house and never let anything that will decay idle by.

Keeping clean is still the best prevention before you resort to the cures outlined above. Fruit flies may be just 1/8 of an inch in size but they can cause major havoc.

Pest professionals have learned that there are no small insects, just big damages over time. So one more thing you can do to stop a growing home infestation is to nip it at the bud. Kill them fruit flies-now!

Donna J. Seymour