How you can kill fruit flies and their lookalikes

In warmer weather, the main season is just around the corner, which unfortunately also means that fruit flies are not far away either. But before you blast out the apple cider vinegar and dish soap –or the wormwood– Make sure it is actually fruit flies and not a scam.

The four main types of flying pests you are likely to encounter in your home are fruit flies, mushroom flies, phorid flies, and drainage flies. It is very important to know what type of flies or mosquitoes have settled next to you because it will tell you what kind of garbage they will eat and lay eggs in. Once you’ve found and got rid of their crude little buffet slash love, Shack, you can use bait traps to catch and kill the adults.

Although these insects look quite similar when they fly through the air, their physical differences are obvious up close. Your first task is to catch a fly without completely crushing it so that you can figure out what you are dealing with. Here are the identifying characteristics and preferred breeding sites for each type.

Fruit flies: Brown with huge, distinctive red eyes

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Obviously, fruit flies love fruit. If your kitchen suddenly becomes overcrowded, there’s a good chance you have a decaying orange at the bottom of a bowl of fruit or something. Find it, throw it away, clean the bowl, and you should be set. Almost everything DIY fruit fly traps Work great so pick one that you have the ingredients for and give it a swirl.

If your dead fly traps are lousy, but your infestation is not getting better, then you either missed a piece of rotting fruit or you are not dealing with fruit flies at all.

Mushroom Mosquitoes: Black with long legs and tiny little heads

It is very easy to confuse mushroom mosquitoes with fruit flies. Since they breed in damp soil, overwatered houseplants are the most common culprits. If you make it a habit Let the top few inches of soil dry out completely The problem will eventually resolve itself between waterings.

However, this may not work fast enough for people with a lot of plants. To fix the problem immediately, remove the top 2 to 3 inches of soil and replace it with fresh, dry soil. If the problem persists, The old farmer’s almanac recommends the use of mosquito dunksThese are useful bacterial solutions that kill larvae (and are completely harmless to humans and pets).

Correctly identifying mushroom mosquitoes is the hard part. killing the adults is no big deal. You’re not quite as into apple cider vinegar as fruit flies, i.e. homemade or store-bought sticky traps can prove to be more effective.

Phorid flies: light brown with black spots, large black eyes and a “humped” chest

Wow, these things are gross. Phorid flies are also called humpback flies (because of their characteristic “humpback” thoracic shape), scuttle flies (because they tend to scurry over surfaces instead of flying around), or sewage flies (for reasons that should not come as a surprise). According to the Penn State University Extension, These flies love rotting potatoes and onions, but also sewage that usually lays its eggs in the film that lines the pipes. Their larvae are very difficult to kill. So if all of a sudden a bunch of these guys are crawling around on your sink or kitchen counter and you don’t have a bag of rotten tubers, call a pest control professional right away. (While you’re at it, give a plumber a call. Phorid flies can indicate damage to sewer pipes in or near your home.)

Drain flies: Basically only moths

I don’t think anyone has ever mistaken a drain fly for a fruit fly, but you should know how to handle it anyway. Like phorid flies, drainage flies lay their eggs in pipes; in contrast to phorid flies, You can safely deal with an infestation yourself. Bob Vila has an in-depth tutorial on how to identify and remove a drain from drain flies on his website. The basic steps are to tape off the drains at night to see which traps are flying, then snake the affected pipes, clear the U-traps, and cap off with an enzyme cleaner to remove any larvae.

The good news is that with the exception of the phorid flies, none of these pests are dangerous to humans. (Phorid flies don’t bite, but their fondness for raw sewage means they can theoretically spread disease-causing bacteria to food or surfaces – this is rare, but not impossible.) When the first waves of disgust and disgust are over, grab a few Minutes to figure out what you’re up against and get to work.