fruit flies?

Hi, This is my first year in college. I've been buying a lot of fruit as it is relatively inexpensive, delicious, healthy, and takes no preparation time. I've also noticed some gnat-like insects buzzing around my fruit, for the firs time ever (never saw them at home). I've never seen them before. But, only around my fruit, and I do recall having read about fruit flies as food for baby pet tarantulas and the like, available in wingless form at petsmart, so making the connection I dare to call these pesky gnats fruit flies.

Are they only found around overripe/rotting fruit? If I eat my fruit fast enough, I won't see them...? Or vice versa, do these flies themselves cause fruit to go overripe and/or rotten? Which comes first, the chicken or the egg (overripe fruit or the flies)? Are they an issue to be concerned about?

thanks for your advice! -Bernard Arnest

Reply to
Bernard Arnest
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IIRC, adult fruit flies lay their eggs on the fruit's surface, and what you're seeing are the flies that hatch a few days after you buy your fruit. If you rinse fruit off with water (no soap needed) as soon as you bring them home from the store, that should remove the eggs and eliminate the problem.

Jacqueline

Reply to
japacah

They will lay eggs on your fruit and cause it to rot faster. Keep all fruit (except bannanas) in the refrigerator.

I make fruit fly traps that work REALLY well using an old wine bottle and a mix of orange juice with a little fruit wine in the bottom of the bottle. Add water to 3" or so. They fly in there and drown.

Cheers!

Reply to
OmManiPadmeOmelet

I hate fruit flies and this is the time of year for them. wash your fruit as soon as you bring it home and for the next month stay away from bananas ( they seem to be the worse for flies) and only buy what you can eat in a day or two.

They are just a nuisance and will be gone soon enough. try making a catcher for the ones you already have. take a small bottle put in a small piece of banana peel in, and cover with clear wrap with a small hole poked into the middle. they will fly in but can't get out.

Reply to
Lynn

Get rid of all the old beer bottles too... or just use one as a trap. Well, he is in college!

John!

Reply to
GA Pinhead

Bottle traps for fruit flies work very, very well!

Reply to
OmManiPadmeOmelet

They sound like vinegar flies. They are attracted by decaying fruit, but then stay around for the season. They are harmless. You can try getting rid of them using the hoover. They usually hang out on the ceiling, or under a ledge, etc., so hoover them up where ever you see them roosting. They are probably Drosophila. Do they have big red eyes? ISTM that their most alluring attractant is ripe banana or rotting apple or plum.

But as I said, they are harmless and don't affect the fresh fruit. I'd say they probably breed in discarded or decaying peel, so don't keep it around.

Reply to
John Savage

Do you know the detial information about Navel Orange?

It will be supprise to you.

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Reply to
heganyu

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