Get Rid of Fruit Flies Many fruit flies make themselves at home in moist and hidden areas, such as shower drains, sink drains, garbage disposals, toilets, and more. A great way to kill them is by pouring boiling white vinegar into those areas. You can also use boiling water!
Flies can be easily repelled with white vinegar, so much so that even the smell of boiling vinegar can be an easy-to-make DIY fly repellent on its own.
Does Vinegar, Dish Soap, Essential Oils Repel Flies? Vinegar attracts, not repels flies; however, a container with vinegar and dish soap will function as an attractant trap as the vinegar lures flies to enter the trap and the dish soap will cause the flies to sink and die.
A fast way of getting rid of fruit flies is by pouring boiling white vinegar or boiling water down your drains. Fruit flies like to live in moist and hidden locations, such as drains and garbage disposals.
Take a jar and fill it 1/2 or 1/3 full of apple cider vinegar. Next, gently mix in a few squirts dish soap (maybe a teaspoon amount) so there are no bubbles. Then, leave it on your counter overnight near where you see them. In the morning there will be drowned fruit flies in the bottom of it!
If you want to try a more natural method, try a solution of one part vinegar with three parts boiling water. This solution will kill the live maggots and will also remove the fly-attracting odors from your trash can, temporarily preventing them from laying eggs.
Experts swear by apple cider vinegar traps as the best way to get rid of fruit flies. You can also use white vinegar in a pinch.
I personally like using Apple Cider Vinegar for my gnat traps, however; regular white vinegar will work too!
Fruit flies especially think vinegar is good—particularly apple cider vinegar, says Hedges. But if you put a cup of apple cider vinegar out on your counter—a common trap tactic—you won't kill the pests. You will only make the problem worse, since fruit flies can actually breed in the cup.
Flies hate the smell of essential oils like lemon grass, peppermint, lavender and eucalyptus – put a few drops in a spray bottle and use around the house daily. They also hate the smell of camphor (a traditional moth deterrent) which you can buy online, cloves and cinnamon.
Baking Soda, Boiling Water & Vinegar
Combing, boiling water, vinegar and baking soda will kill drain flies, but will also help remove all the flies breeding ground which includes hair, grime and grease.
Natural Pest Management
Pour in 1/2 cup of salt and 1/2 cup of baking soda plus a cup of white vinegar. Allow it to work its magic overnight then flush the drain with hot or boiling water the next morning. This will sanitize the drain and kill the flies and their eggs.
Flies are repelled by vinegar, and the smell of boiling vinegar can make them leave. Pour some malt vinegar in a pot or pan, let it boil, and wait for the flies to desperately try to escape.
Vinegar (or acetic acid) is the ultimate product of the fermentation process in fruit, which is why fruit flies are attracted to vinegar odor. However, both low and high concentrations of vinegar odor leave flies indifferent (left).
This is a simple way to get rid of fruit flies immediately. Many fruit flies make themselves at home in moist and hidden areas, such as shower drains, sink drains, garbage disposals, toilets, and more. A great way to kill them is by pouring boiling white vinegar into those areas.
If you don't have vinegar on hand, a combination of red wine and dish soap can create a similar gnat trap. If your gnat infestation is particularly intense, you may want to set out a few bowls of this wine trap mixture around the house.
Just add a teaspoon of basic bread yeast and a teaspoon of sugar to a little water in your trap and the fruit flies will find their way in. While yeast is an effective bait, we have seen it take a bit longer than others to get going.
Malt vinegar is also effective at killing off maggots and their larvae. Many people also find that large quantities of salt kills maggots. Most of the maggots will go when the bin is emptied. Once emptied the bin can be cleaned out with disinfectant or bleach and plenty of water.
Flies will breed in any soured, decaying substance such as wet mops and accumulations of food particles behind or under kitchen equipment. Drains, which have a gelatinous growth of scum, can also support an infestation of vinegar flies.
water with a higher Surface tension, allows air to be trapped near the bugs body in the tiny hair like objects. So the bug can breath longer sometimes long enough to get out. So Windex has a better ability to drowned something that breaths through its body.