Source: Google www.domyownpestcontrol.com No, you don't want this at home! |
Fruit flies! Who doesn't know them? The little disgusting winged rascals that are infesting your kitchen and made you cry of shame when they appear in the soup of your special guest during what would have been a very romantic lunch...
The main issue with them is that they appear when you expect less and don't want to leave you any time soon. With a high rate of reproduction - 500 eggs at a time - get ready for the fight as soon as possible. Thus, the sooner you fight them, the better for your home sanity.
As usual, preventive steps can help a lot and here are some hints about what you can do before your private space is invaded by little nasty black flies:
- Check your fruit counters as often as possible. Avocados, onions and potatoes are the main source of flies. In general, any fruits or vegetables left outside the fridge for a long time might create flies so keep checking their counter as often as possible.
- Keep your house clean. It might be difficult if you have a steady job and a family and you also want some days out. But, try also to have at least 10 minutes the day for a basic cleaning of the kitchen especially. We are living in the modern world and everything can be done fast, thanks to advanced mops and cleaning substances. If you have a regular cleaning lady, things are getting much simpler.
- Damp and unclean sinks also encourage the multiplication of flies.
The flies are in! Many of them! What to do?
Here are a couple of ideas about what to do - except to leave your house for a long time - when you are about to cope with many many flies around your home - and especially food:
- If you haven't done yet, do a radical cleaning of the house: those lost dirty corners, the spots of juice, the old bottles and glasses of red sweet wine, the mountains of laundry that you simply forgot about to get rid of weeks ago. Clean the recycle bins, sinks and rooms of the children. Check the bags and get rid of the old bottles. You might need some extra hours of work, but this is the price to pay when you don't do too much prevention work in the kitchen...I went through that too...
- Keep all the fruits and vegetables - and food in general - covered and preferably in the fridge. Don't leave any juice and glasses with liquids unattended, especially during the night.~
- Wash all the dishes immediately. The more you leave them in the sink, the more the flies will be delighted. And you don't want to please them, isn't it?
- Take your trash daily.
- Change the mops, dishrags and sponges. The dirt accumulated is a medium of multiplication for the little beasts.
- There are a lot of products on the market that can help you to kill them in numbers, and each country do have its own. Peppermint extract and aerosol insecticides are the most frequent. Ask your local drugstore specialist about the best ones.
- You can also produce your own lemon grass spray, based on lemon grass essential oil and hot water, by using spray bottle to dispense it.
- The most frequent remedy mentioned is the vinegar trap: Add at cup of vinegar apple - preferably heated - in a bowl. They will not resist the call and it is the end of them. Some also add a ripped fruit in a jar, covered by a paper cone through which the flies will hurry up to go one by one to their death.
- Another trap recipe might include: sugar, honey syrup and a rotting fruit. It seems it will attract them similarly with the other traps.
Now, time to get back in the kitchen and fight the flies for good! Good luck with that!