We use fruit flies to study human medical conditions. So we do our best to keep our flies alive. But most people are not as happy to see fruit flies in their kitchen as we are to see them in the lab. Below are some non-toxic and easy ways to get them out of your kitchen, or at least reduce their numbers.

Where do they come from?
Fruit flies have a keen sense of smell and are attracted by anything fermenting (not just fruit). They eat the sugars and vinegar produced by natural yeasts on fruits and vegetables, bread, beer, cider, wine, bread etc. So if your kitchen smells better than your neighbors (to them) they will invade your house in a flash. Occasionally, fruit flies can also be brought in as eggs (almost microscopic) on the skins of imported or local fruit or on vegetables.

How do I get rid of them?
This list is not exhaustive but may provide some ideas.

1) Remove all fruit fly food sources: i.e. refrigerate fruit and vegetables (the fridge is too cold for fruit flies), keep any indoor compost bins as clean as possible, completely dry, or put outside until the infestation dies down.

2) Set up fruit fly traps. These are simple traps shown below. They consist of an attractant like vinegar or cider in a container with saran wrap with a few holes or a simple funnel made from rolled paper to stop the flies from getting back out. While these trap the flies, they wont kill them. You can either shake the trap periodically to drown them, release them outside or add a drop of dish detergent to the vinegar so that they drown.

3)Another variant (not shown) is to use a bowl without plastic wrap but to mix vinegar and dish detergent in equal amounts.