Those little flies that seem to come along with your produce can make you crazy. You put a tomato or two on the counter and in the next days a cloud of tiny black flies is floating around your kitchen. These little nuisances are so small, they’re almost impossible to swat away or spray to death. Where do they come from anyway and how can you get rid of them?

It’s not like a fruit fly is as bad as a termite; pest control agents rarely get panicked calls from homeowner because they think they’ve seen a fruit fly. They won’t sting you and they won’t destroy your house. They’re not the biggest pest control problem on the block. But they are just so very, very annoying! We can’t get rid of fruit flies fast enough!

Fruit flies have a supremely simple DNA sequence. (Science has had it on the books since 1998!) They only have 4 pairs of chromosomes but this basic pattern includes one stellar sense of smell and some serious flying ability. They can detect your ripening tomato from miles away and have been known to fly up to six miles to get it. Considering how short their lives are, that’s a long way to go for dinner!

It’s not just overripe fruit and veggies that fruit flies will feast and breed upon. They like anything that’s wet and decaying. The little bit of liquid at the bottom of the recycling bin will sustain a group of fruit flies for a while. Most of what your garbage can contain is good eating for fruit flies. Even the wet matter that sticks on the inside of your drains is good enough.

While finding them a little something to eat is pretty easy, getting rid of fruit flies is harder. They breed rapidly and prolifically so even if you kill the adults, within hours you could have another generation hatch. Spraying them means spraying your fresh produce and contaminating it with pesticides.

The best method for getting rid of fruit flies is often the simplest: cut off their food. If you starve them out, they’ll sniff out a meal somewhere else. They feed and breed in pretty much the same places so getting rid of the food also cuts off the life cycle.

This doesn’t mean you can’t have fresh produce in your home. It just means you need to be cautious with it. Toss anything that’s overripe and store the rest in the fridge till the problem is resolved. Then take the trash out right away. Scrub out the can and the recycling bins while they’re empty. Move your compost pile well away from any doors or windows. If this isn’t working, then give Slug-A-Bug, your Brevard County Pest Control service, a call to talk about how you can eliminate these annoying pests and keep your sanity.