Despite the fact that fruit flies do not bite or suck blood, their buzzing presence can be quite annoying, and they have the potential to spread diseases through contact with food. You may have noticed that if you have aromatic fruits like bananas at home, fruit flies come uninvited and are hard to get rid of. However, a celebrity chef on social media claims that fruit flies are not actually attracted to fruits. He has shared a foolproof method on how to “forever” keep fruit flies out of your home.
A Korean-American chef named Chan Woo Kim, known as Chef Fatty on social media, resides in the United States and shares cooking and food science tips with his hundreds of thousands of followers. In a recent video, he demonstrated three simple steps to completely eliminate fruit flies, which are not as complicated as one might think.
At the beginning of the video, he states, “Why do fruit flies always come back no matter what traps you set or fruits you dispose of? Let me teach you how to get rid of fruit flies once and for all.”
According to him, fruit flies are one of the worst pests in the kitchen. Interestingly, fruit flies are not attracted to fruits themselves but seek out the yeast produced from fermenting fruits. The main source of fermentation in your home is not actually fruits but the sticky residues in your drains.
He explains, “In fact, a female fruit fly can lay up to 500 eggs, which will hatch in about a week.” This implies that to effectively eliminate fruit flies, you need to clean areas in your home that you might not have previously considered.
Kim proposes three steps to get rid of fruit flies:
Firstly, deprive fruit flies of food sources to prevent them from laying eggs in your home. He suggests covering fruits placed on kitchen countertops or tables with mesh to prevent fruit flies from getting close and laying eggs. He also emphasizes the importance of keeping sink and sponge clean as fruit flies do lay eggs in sponges.
Secondly, set traps to capture them. Mix apple cider vinegar, beer, and a small amount of ripe banana flesh in a cup to attract fruit flies with the fermenting scent. Add a little dish soap to trap them in the solution.
Next, rub a ripe banana on plastic wrap, cover the cup (with the banana-scented side facing down to enhance the aroma), poke small holes with a pen on the plastic wrap, and leave it for a few days to see the effectiveness. The video shows fruit flies indeed getting caught in the solution.
The third step is to clean the drains. Pay attention not only to kitchen drains but also to all drains in the household, including those in bathrooms and showers. Kim recommends using enzyme cleaners, which break down organic grime, stains, and odors at a molecular level using natural proteins and bacteria.
In contrast to traditional cleaners that only mask odors, enzyme cleaners work to break down the sources of organic stains and odors, such as grease and dirt. However, the process of enzyme cleaners is relatively slow, so it is advisable to let them sit overnight before further cleaning.
By following these three steps, you can potentially completely eradicate all fruit flies. To prevent their reappearance, maintain cleanliness in your home and avoid any fermentation occurrences.
Gardening expert Deborah Looi previously offered some methods to repel fruit flies, including the use of apple cider vinegar. Simply mix apple cider vinegar with water, pour it into a spray bottle, and spray it in areas where fruit flies frequent. However, as mentioned by Kim, unless the fermentation sources that attract fruit flies are eliminated, the expelled fruit flies may return.