How do you get rid of fruit flies?

[Southpaw]

Somehow my kitchen has been infested with them. Yuk!

[Thumper/inOkla.]

I take a small plastic tub, like for coolwhip, or country crock buttery spread, {my husband is hooked on the stuff} put a banana peel, or other fruit and some cider vinegar, just a little bit, and seal it then punch a small fruitfly sized hole with a small nail. Pushing from the out side, to the inside makes a slight funnnel shape, and heating the nail helps too, they crawl in and rarely find the way out. Then wash it outside or toss and make a new one as needed.

[Little Quacker in OR]

Firstly, determine that they are indeed "Fruit Flies"...they could also be a typ e of gnat that breeds in water...house plant pots, drain traps etc. If they are fruit flies, once the fruit is removed they will disappear too. If not, you have another problem. There was a good discussion on this sometime back. you might check the archives and see what was advised. Good luck with 'em...LQ

[gobug]

As a professional exterminator, I have some advice. Good fly control does not require any pesticide. Just eliminate the breeding site. Fruit flies have bright red eyes visible to the naked eye. Little quacker had the correct answer. If its a fruit fly, find the fruit and discard it. It also could be breeding in aluminum cans if you store unrinsed empties inside. No pesticide is required. They do, you can, make traps that contain vinegar or other attractants, but you are just collecting them and not eliminating the breeding site.
Fungus gnats are close to the same size as fruit flies. They will breed in a variety of places. First, look for the overwatered house plant. They like brackish water. You'll know you have the right plant if you can see the bugs crawling on the dirt or on the pot. Houseplant remedies include discarding, repotting, and spraying the surface of the pot and soil with a quality residual pesticide. Home depot sells a product called Home Defense with the active ingredient being bifenthrin. This product will last about 6 months, especially on a surface like the plant pot.
I have heard of home made drenches that are supposed to kill those breeding in the rootball, but have never found a tried and true recipe. Other possible breeding sites include inside the garbage disposal, and a drain that hasn't been used in a long time, (so the p-trap is empty). Clean the disposal with a good disenfectant mix, add water to dry drains. I have also seen gnats reproduce in grass cuttings that build up under a lawnmower. gobug

[Gimpy_Magoo]

One year we had the worst fruit fly infestation anyone could imagine.
I mean horrible.

They started showing up around the middle of July. Millions of them.
all over the kitchen and even in the bathroom shower walls.
we spent weeks trying to eliminate the source. We couldnt find a single piece of left over fruit from our 4th of july party at all.

See for years we threw a huge 4th of July party. 200 people easy. anyway on the 3rd we always held a fruit cutting party for the "Spody" we drank during the party the following day.

We thought that some fruit got spilled behind a counter, under a counter, fridge - somewhere... but not a single thing could be found.

I almost called an exterminator. When I was wandering around the side of the house and I saw a familliar looking cooler.
I opened it and WHOH!!!!! billions and billions of fruit flies had found the left over spody. It reminded me of the scene in The Green Mile when all those fly'in bugs flew outta John Coffey's mouth. Seems someone "hid" the spody cooler behind the house instead of cleaning it out. Grrrr.

It amazed me that they could breed in all that booze. Much less find there way into a closed coleman cooler, but they did.

I spilled about a 1/4 gallon of bleach in the cooler, closed the lid and in about three days our fly problem was solved.

maybe look for some source outside your house??

Gimpy

If they are fruit flies.....

cider vinegar, beer, a quarter inch in a dish left on counter will catch some...put a drop of dish liquid in so the little bugs sink and drown

also a mason jar with a paper funnel works with cider vinegar, beer and dish soap.

a dish with a gallon storage bag (used ziplock). put dish with above stuff in the ziplock so you trap ones sitting on the edge. Sneak up on them and close bag with dish and take the whole thing out to freeze to death.

Find the source too if you can! And get rid of it!