How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies (EASY, CHEAP, SAFE & CLEAN)

How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies. Read on and you will find the CHEAPEST, SAFEST, CLEANEST, method of getting rid of common household fruit flies. Back in 1987 I was doing a lot of traveling, and not spending a lot of time at home. On one occasion during the simmer I was away for two weeks. When I returned from my travels, my entire dining room was infested with fruit flies (I left some miscellaneous fruit on the kitchen table in a glass fruit bowl). So I went to the hardware store and bought some aerosol spray that was advertised to kill all types of household flies. I sprayed it on the clouds of fruit flies, it immediately worked for the most part, but there were a lot of downfalls to this method: (1) The fruit flies would fall out of the sky to the ground and furniture which then I had to clean up “yuck”. (2) My home smelled like bug killer. (3) The Warning on the can said that to be very cautious not to use around, kids, pets, or elderly people. It also said to use in a well ventilated area. BUT THE WORSE PART OF THIS WAS!! The aerosol spray bug killer did not get them all. New eggs hatched when I went out of town again, the next week many NEW fruit flies were in my house. Well here is the good part, I stopped by the store to pick up some snacks and beer. I ate some snacks and drank a little beer before going to bed. I figured I would deal with the fruit flies in the morning. When I woke up, the flies were gone. I noticed that the half full beer bottle that I left out on the kitchen counter had scores of dead fruit flies floating on the surface. The beer that I picked up was Mickey's Malt Liquor in the little green bottles. Read the steps below on how it all works ;-)

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Mickey's Malt Liquor Beer (in the green bottle)
• A common cereal bowl, a saucer or a dinner plate.

1. Mickey's Open the Mickey's Malt Liquor Beer. Have a sip, it’s good!! ;-)
2. Mickey's Pour some of the Beer in to the dish of your choice and place it near the fruit flies. Regular size cereal bowls filled half full seem to work best.
3. Fruit Flies Gather the dish the next day, it will be full of dead fruit flies.
4. Fruit Fly Some Facts about fruit flies. The life cycle in summer is approximately 7 to 8 days, with adults laying about 700 to 800 eggs in a 20 to 30 day life span . Populations build up as temperatures become warmer. Ideal temperatures for development of this insect are in the low 80s F. The flies do not lay eggs at temperatures below 54 F or above 91 F.

Tips & Warnings

• Although I have tried other Malt Liquor’s, use Mickey's Malt Liquor Beer (in the green bottle) for the very best results.
• Strategically set out the mini beer reservoirs in multiple places for best results (top of refrigerator, middle of the kitchen table, top of microwave, fire place mantel, etc.
• refresh the beer every morning for the best results. Plus if the new fruit flies see too many other dead ones already in the beer bath, it might scare them away ;-)
• When the beer is cool and fresh it seems to attract more fruit flies faster. Warm stale beer does not seem to be as effective.
• Make sure you leave the beer baths out for a few days in order to get all of the new fruit flies that have not hatched yet.
• Remember were you placed your beer baths so that you don’t forget and spill them.
• IMPORTANT WARNING: Wake sure to eliminate all other water sources (standing water in sinks, pans, plan pots, etc.). With no other water source the Fruit flies are forced to drink from the beer baths.