Vegan Flies
Call them what you will; vegan flies, vinegar flies, wine flies, pomace flies or plain old fruit flies, these pesky fly linger around fruit, be it ripe, overripe and rotting fruit. The fruit fly species are considered a domestic species and a general pest. Fruits flies are attracted by the yeast or other fungi from fermenting fruits, vegetables or moist decaying organic matter. The larvae feed on the yeast and other microbes in the fermenting materials. Fruit flies cause insect contamination of fruit and fruit products by depositing bacteria and it may cause gastrointestinal discomfort and diarrhea if consumed. A fruit fly deposits its saliva onto food and then sucks up the solution leaving behind bacteria. Fruit flies find their way inside the home by the odours of ripe fruit or along with produce. The average lifespan of a fruit fly is a little over a month. Fruit flies lay eggs in damaged skin of fruit or in other moist, fermenting organic matter.
Tips to keep fruit flies out of your house:
- Keep ripe fruits and vegetables in the refrigerator or a paper bag
- Use lids on your kitchen garbage
- If fruit flies are in your drain, clean with a stiff brush, and then pour boiling water down along the sides of the drain to kill the eggs or use a bacterial drain cleaner.
- Set out vinegar based fruit fly traps, I have some for sale
- https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fruit-flies-randy-bilesky?published=t
- http://www.delta-optimist.com/opinion/blogs/blog-vegan-flies-1.2238881
