Fruit flies

Fruit flies breed in fermenting fruit, bins and drains. Remove what they breed in and a trap catches the rest.

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Size
Tiny
Colour
Tan with red eyes
Lives
Fruit bowls, bins, drains
Breeds
Fast, in warm months

How to tell

Red eyes

Small tan flies with red eyes, slow fliers.

Around fruit

They hover over ripe fruit, bins and recycling.

Not drain flies

Drain flies are fuzzy and moth-like, and sit on bathroom walls.

A fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster.
A fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. Photo: Justin Williams, CC BY 4.0, via iNaturalist

Signs you have them

  • Flies over the fruit bowl or the bin.
  • Flies around the sink or a drain.
  • Overripe fruit or spills under appliances.
  • Recycling with sticky bottles and cans.

The plan

  1. 1

    Remove the source

    Overripe fruit, old bin bags, sticky recycling.

  2. 2

    Clean the drains

    Scrub inside the drain with a brush to clear the slime they breed in.

  3. 3

    Trap the rest

    A vinegar trap catches the adults left.

  4. 4

    Fruit in the fridge

    For a week, so new flies have nowhere to lay eggs.

Solutions for fruit flies

Shoo does not sell these yet. They are standard products sold by other shops; follow the label on the one you buy.

Other household bugs

Ants Mosquitoes Spiders The whole bug guide

What people worry about

My kitchen is spotless. Why do I have fruit flies?

They breed in tiny amounts of fermenting matter, often in a drain, a bin seal or the recycling. It is not a sign of a dirty kitchen.

My vinegar trap isn't working. What now?

Add a drop of washing up liquid and make the holes small, but remember a trap only catches adults. Find and remove what they breed in.

Are these fruit flies or something else?

Fruit flies have red eyes and hover round food. Fuzzy, moth-like flies near drains are drain flies, and flies round houseplants are usually fungus gnats.

Will bleach down the drain kill them?

Bleach runs past the slime they breed in. Scrub the drain with a brush and use an enzyme or foaming drain cleaner.

They came back as soon as I bought fruit. Why?

Fruit can carry eggs from the shop. Keep fruit in the fridge for a week while the last adults are trapped.

Questions people ask

Why do I have fruit flies when my kitchen is spotless? Because fruit flies need very little to breed: a film in a drain, a bin seal, a sticky bottle in the recycling, one forgotten potato. Read My vinegar fruit fly trap isn't working. What else can I do? A trap only catches adults. Read Fruit flies or drain flies: how do I tell? Watch where they land. Read Why doesn't bleach get rid of drain flies? Drain flies breed in the slime that coats the inside of the pipe, and bleach pours straight past it. Read