Modesto Pest Control Blog: How Do Fruit Flies Form?

Have you ever wondered why your kitchen suddenly seemed to have become a sanctuary for fruit flies? Read on and discover what experts from AAI Pest Control, a leading pest control company in Modesto, have to say about how Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies) start calling your house “home, sweet home”.

Fruit Flies and Fermenting Fruit

Fruit flies are designed and live with the sole objective of finding fermenting fruit. Although they are small, fruit flies have the ability to detect vegetables and fruits (overripe or rotting ones) from a significant distance away.

The moment you place a bowl of fruit anywhere other than inside a fridge, you can bet that a few fruit flies will be searching frantically for a way to enter your home, Modesto pest control companies say.
Because fruit flies are so small, they can enter your home through the insect screens you installed in your windows and doors. The insects can also enter through the tiniest crevices in the exterior of your home.

It is also common for fruit flies to hitch a ride on the fruits and vegetables that you pick from your garden or buy at a grocery store. These insects lay their eggs on the surface of fermenting or ripe fruit and vegetables. It is therefore likely that any ripe fruit you carry into your house may already have fruit fly eggs or larvae in it.

How a Fruit Fly or Two Becomes an Infestation

Fruit flies are famous for having a very brief life cycle. It takes just eight days for a fruit fly egg to go through the entire life cycle and become an adult capable of reproducing in just eight days.
This means that the one overripe fruit which you leave on the kitchen counter can be the springboard from which a fruit fly swarm develops in just one week. AAI Pest Control technicians and applicators also reveal that these insects are very persistent once they get into your home.

While the female fruit fly may only live for a maximum of 30 days, its footprint in your home isn’t easily dealt with since the fly will lay about 500 eggs during its lifetime. Just imagine the explosion in the number of fruit flies if each week a new generation starts reproducing.

You also need to note that getting rid of the fruit or vegetable which attracted the fruit flies into your home will not mark the end of your problem. The fruit flies can still lay their eggs on the biofilm (slime layer) inside any slow drains inside your home. The fruit flies will, therefore, remain visible in your home long after you discarded the fruits which initiated the presence of the insects.

How to End a Fruit Fly Infestation

Pest control in Tracy CA cannot be done by swatting the fruit flies. You will keep missing them and you are likely to have sore body parts at the end of that futile attempt to kill the fruit flies. A better method should start with you identifying and getting rid of any fruits or vegetables which are rotting. Next, clean the slow-moving drains with a mild detergent so that any food sources inside the drains are eliminated.
You can then get a jar and place a ripe fruit inside that jar. Roll a paper funnel and place it at the top of the jar after pouring some apple cider vinegar inside the jar having the fruit. The smell from the jar will attract all the fruit flies nearby and they will get in. The funnel will prevent them from getting out and you will be able to get rid of the trapped flies after a few hours.

Call AAI Pest Control for help in case the home remedy above fails to yield the desired results. Our experts will conduct a thorough inspection of your property in order to identify all the hidden places where these pests are breeding. An appropriate treatment plan can then be implemented so that the problem is dealt with conclusively.