Fruit flies are one type of common household bug that seems to appear out of nowhere, wreaking havoc on your home. If you’re curious as to where fruit flies come from, they normally lay eggs in decaying organic matter or on the surface of overripe fruits, which is where they get their name. From there, they can enter your home and reproduce incredibly quickly, feeding on the fruits and vegetables in your kitchen.
If you’re interested in learning more about where fruit flies come from, how they live, and what attracts them, keep reading to find out more. And if you have a fruit fly infestation, browse our top picks for pest control services below.
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How Do Fruit Flies Get into My House?
Many fruit flies come in through cracks in your walls or pre-laid eggs inside of a piece of fruit from the grocery store. Since fruit flies can follow the scent of decaying produce from far away, most of these insects fly into your home in search of food and shelter.
What Attracts Fruit Flies?
Fruits, veggies, wine, and fermented, decaying organic matter are the primary sources of nutrition for the fruit fly. If you have any of these in your home, they’ll seek out these food sources from miles away using their antennae. Unlike other insects, fruit flies are attracted to the scent of vinegar as well, which is why some people call them vinegar flies, pomace flies, banana flies, sour flies, vinegar gnats, and lesser fruit flies.
Because they’re attracted to rotting food, you can often find fruit flies in kitchen trash cans, outdoor garbage cans, pantries, old fruit bowls, cabinets, recycling bins, and gardens. These areas are prime breeding grounds for fruit flies and flies in general.
Take a quick look at what Zoo Montana has to say about the attraction fruit flies have for wine, vinegar, and other fermented fruit beverages in the video below.
Fruit Fly Lifespan
From egg to adulthood, the entire life cycle of a fruit fly is about a month and a half. First, adult female fruit flies mate and lay clusters of eggs. Then, the eggs hatch, and the larvae feed on the fruits and vegetables around them to store up energy for a few days before they migrate to a dark and dry place to enter the pupae stage.
After about a week in the pupae stage, the larvae emerge as adult flies, growing wings and six legs each. Then, they’ll return to your fruits and vegetables to feed. After that, the females begin to lay eggs, starting the life cycle all over once more.
Where Do Fruit Flies Lay Eggs?
Fruit flies normally lay eggs in the meat of decaying organic matter or on the surface of overripe or rotting fruits. The juices in the fruit or organic matter serve as an energy source for the fruit flies, and they slurp it up through a mouthpiece to feed.
It’s almost impossible to be able to see fruit fly eggs, which means that there’s a good chance that you could be accidentally ingesting them each time you eat a fruit.
Where Are Fruit Flies During Cold Months?
Some people assume that fruit flies die off in the cold, and unhatched eggs freeze in preservation until the following spring. While this is false, it’s not too far off from the truth.
Fruit flies undergo a process called diapause, which is essentially the insect’s version of hibernation. Alternatively, fruit flies may try to make their way into homes during the winter to survive year-round, though this is less common.
Are Fruit Flies Dangerous?
The common fruit fly won’t bite you, and they don’t feed on blood like ticks or mosquitoes, so they’re more annoying than they are dangerous. Fruit flies can’t spread diseases, but they can spread bacteria, meaning they could spread germs like salmonella, E. coli, and listeria.
Eating fruit flies themselves is not dangerous, but if they carry bacteria to fruit and you eat the infected fruit, it could lead to food poisoning.
Fruit Flies, Drain Flies, and Gnats: What’s the Difference?
Just because an insect looks like a fruit fly doesn’t mean it is one, so it’s important to identify the type of insects in your home before proceeding. However, you don’t have to be an entomologist to learn the differences between these insects. Consult the table below for a guide on the differences between fruit flies, drain flies, and gnats.
Drain flies have smaller, more compact bodies and wings which span out like a moth. Their main identifier is the patch of fur on their heads, which you can see with your naked eye if you look closely enough.
While drain flies will hover around rotting vegetation in a pinch, they’re more interested in dank, damp spots like sewers, animal waste, and — you guessed it — drains. If you want to learn more about how to get rid of drain flies, check out our informative guide.
Fruit flies and gnats have a few similarities, but their differences are stark.
For instance, some gnats will bite humans and pets. This isn’t true of every type of gnat, however, it’s one of the main disparities between the two insects. Fruit flies lack the ability to bite anything, let alone a human.
Also, these insects have completely different body types. Gnats are smaller than fruit flies and have black bodies that look like shrunken mosquitoes. Fruit flies have the body of a small fly and are fully brown with red eyes.
How To Remove Fruit Flies
If you want to know how to get rid of fruit flies in your home, you can start by removing any rotting, old, or partially eaten produce you may have. Since these are magnets for fruit flies, you should eliminate their source of food. However, you can’t get rid of all the food in your house, so there are a few other options you can try.
You could try a DIY pest control method like an apple cider vinegar trap, a paper cone and fruit trap, a vinegar and dish-soap trap, or other types of fruit fly traps to lure in fruit flies with food and then trap them. You could also try different types of chemical bug sprays and essential oils to drive the fruit flies away.
However, the most effective way to exterminate fruit flies is to hire professional pest control companies like Terminix. If you have a major fruit fly infestation and none of the other methods have worked, these professionals can handle your fly problem efficiently.
For more information on how much it costs to exterminate flies, check out our informative guide.
The Bottom Line About Fruit Flies
While it may seem daunting to consider how to keep flies away, you should take proper precautions to make sure you don’t end up with an infestation. These bugs may seem innocent enough, but once they start to spread, they become a real nuisance.
If you’re looking for professional pest control help, use the tool below to get estimates from local professionals:
Frequently Asked Questions
Can fruit flies enter through window screens?
Small fruit flies may be small enough to fit through window screens, but it depends on the size of the fly and the density of the screen. If you want to keep fruit flies out, it’s best to keep your entire window closed.
Do fruit flies spontaneously generate from rotten fruit?
Fruit flies don’t spontaneously generate, but it can feel like they do. If you unknowingly buy a piece of fruit that has fruit fly eggs in it, they could hatch as larvae and feed on the fruit as it decays, making it seem like they appeared out of thin air.
Why do I have fruit flies even though I don't have any fruit?
Fruit flies aren’t just attracted to fruit. They’re also attracted to vegetables, wine, vinegar, and any kind of decaying organic materials or fermentation.
How quickly do fruit flies reproduce?
Fruit flies reproduce extremely rapidly. Female fruit flies lay around 400 eggs in one cycle, about five at a time, which hatch into larvae after only 12 hours. The larvae then turn into adult fruit flies within nine to ten days.
