Where do fruit flies come from? Do they come from bananas? How do you kill a fruit fly you can't catch?

I hate that I'll buy bananas for my son, and they'll last forever, but all the sudden near the day when you have to eat that banana or start making bread, we'll see fruit flies everywhere. Then by the time we bring new bananas into the home, there are already fruit flies and the bananas we have get all spotty and decompose faster than the other ones by almost half!!! It's wasting bananas! I hate those little flies!!!

Where do fruit flies come from? Do they come from bananas? How do you kill a fruit fly you can't catch?
Trap the fruit flies in a jar like this:



Take any jar and put some bait in the bottom: a little bit of banana, some vinegar, a a thin layer of wine or beer ... all of those work.



Roll a piece of paper into a funnel shape keeping the point of the funnel really small - just barely bigger than a fruit fly.



Tape the funnel into the mouth of the jar leaving no way to get in or out but the hole in the funnel. The flies go in but can't figure out how to get out. This really works!



Sometimes I have gone after them with the dust buster. That works, too.
Reply:The fruit that we buy has bug eggs in them from being grown outside...and when the fruit sits around for a while, or its too warm the eggs hatch and results in fruit flies....maybe you could set a fly insect bomb off in the kitchen..you can get them from walmart... I'd try to keep my bananas in a storage container
Reply:Everyone thinks I am nuts--I read this in the paper and it is true--put your bananas in the refridge. and they turn black but the fruit is still good as opposed to letting it rot on the counter--I do it and it is great they don't rot and they don't get riper.
Reply:The fruit fly trap described by several above is definitely very effective.



I've found that cheap red wine (which is basically just rotten fruit juice) works the best as a bait.



Reducing their food sources also greatly limits their numbers. Keep fruit in bags or bins. Also check for other things they might be going for. My Mom had a huge problem with fruit flies until I figured out she had a little bin where she was keeping scraps intended for the compost pile - and the fruit flies were loving it. Once we got rid of the compost bin, the problem disappeared.
Reply:The fruit flies lay their eggs just under the top layer of the skin of the fruit, bananas included.



You should put all fruit except bananas in the fridge. Bananas should be kept on the counter, but keep them in a plastic bag. It cuts down on the whole breeding cycle.



Keep a fly swatter handy and chase them down with that, you'll have much more success killing them that way. If the swatter is out of reach, use your hands, but don't swat too fast. The rush of air as your hands come together can push the little buggers out from between your hands.



If they're totally out of control, get some fly strips and hang them for a couple of days. Then just stay on top of them after you get them down to a just a few.



GL, I know how frustrating they are, drive me nuts too. The only thing that really works is keeping their food sources to NIL!
Reply:Where they come from:

Those little speckled spots, when the banana is ripe, are areas of eggs that hatch those flies.





How to catch those fruit flies:

Get a tall drinking glass with small bit of vinegar at the bottom. Now make a paper cone out of paper and tape. Make sure that the point of the cone is open like a funnel.



Place the cone into the glass so that the pointed end is facing down, but not touching the vinegar. Make sure that the opposite end is larger than the mouth of the glass.



The flies will fly into the glass, but are too stupid to figure out how to get out.