How to Stop Invasion of Fruit Flies

Experiencing an invasion of fruit flies in your kitchen? Find out how to determine where they are coming from and what you can do about them.

LESLIE: Lorna in Rhode Island is dealing with an invasion of fruit flies at home. Tell us what’s going on.

LORNA: Fruit flies. They seem to be invading the kitchen and I’m thinking they’re heading for the garbage-disposal area but I’m not really sure.

LESLIE: I mean are they coming up out of the garbage disposal?

LORNA: No, they don’t seem to be.

LESLIE: Generally, if you think this invasion of fruit flies is coming to the sink or from the sink, sometimes people will actually put some tape over that drain and just seal that off to see if they are coming from there. This way, if they’re getting stuck on the underside, you know they’re coming up from the drain and then that would be a different approach.

LORNA: Oh, OK.

TOM: Yeah, you could do that during the day, say, when you go out for the day. Just cover the drain temporarily with the tape and keep an eye on the invasion of fruit flies.

LORNA: Great …

TOM: And the other thing that you could do is you could – if that’s the case, then you could put some bleach down that drain or maybe some OxiClean or something like that and then cover the top of it. That tends to really sort of gas any that are sort of laying in there.

LORNA: Oh, OK. So straight bleach or mixed with water or …?

TOM: No, you could just put some straight bleach down there. Or you could use OxiClean, the powdered bleach.

LORNA: OK. Alright. Yeah. Great. Well, thank you.