How do I deal with flies in the kitchen?
Identify which fly you have — the source is different for each, and finding it is the whole solution.
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Time
- 30 min
- Read
- 2 min
- Safety
- caution
Short answer
Find the breeding source and the flies stop. Fruit flies breed in ripening fruit and drains; drain flies in the drain itself; house flies come from outside or from something decaying. Killing the adults changes nothing.
A persistent fly problem always has a source somewhere. Spraying deals with the ones you can see while the next generation develops, which is why it feels like it never ends.
Safety
Step by step
- Work out which fly it is.Tiny and hovering around fruit: fruit flies. Small, fuzzy, sitting on walls near the sink: drain flies. Larger and fast: house flies. Each breeds somewhere different.
- For fruit flies, remove the food source.Ripe or overripe fruit, the fruit bowl, potatoes and onions in a cupboard, spills under appliances, the recycling. They breed in fermenting matter and it does not take much.
- Check the drains and the plughole.Both fruit flies and drain flies breed in the organic film inside drains. Pour boiling water, then a drain cleaner or bicarbonate and vinegar, and brush the plughole itself.
- Check the bin thoroughly.Including under the liner and around the rim. A small amount of leaked liquid at the bottom of a bin sustains a fly population indefinitely.
- Make a trap for the adults.A glass of cider vinegar with a drop of washing-up liquid, covered with pierced cling film. It removes the visible population while you deal with the source.
- For house flies, look for something decaying.Outdoor bins by an open window, a dead animal under floorboards or in a loft, uncovered compost. House flies come in from outside or from something dead.
- Cover and refrigerate food.Fruit in the fridge rather than a bowl during a fruit fly problem. It breaks the cycle within days.
- Fit fly screens if they come from outside.Windows and doors, particularly in summer and particularly near bins. More effective and pleasanter than spraying.
Tips
- A fruit fly problem usually clears within a week once the source goes. If it does not, you have missed a source — check drains, under appliances and the recycling bin.
- Empty and rinse recycling before it goes in the bin. A single juice carton sustains a population.
- Fly papers and traps tell you where the concentration is, which helps locate the source.
Questions people ask
Where do kitchen fruit flies come from?
They breed in fermenting organic matter — overripe fruit, drains, spills under appliances and the recycling. Remove the source and they stop within a week.
Why do flies keep coming back after I spray?
Spraying kills adults but not the eggs and larvae at the source. Find and remove what they are breeding in.