Getting Rid of Fruit Flies and Fungus Gnats
By Vanesa Richins
Sometimes you might find tiny insects flying around your kitchen or houseplants.
There are two main culprits to consider - fruit flies and fungus gnats.
Most of us are familiar with fruit flies.
These pesky tiny nuisances always seem to appear when you have fruit in the kitchen for more than a day or two. They have a very short life span, so they reproduce quickly until a small cloud forms.
I had always heard that one way to get rid of fruit flies was to use vinegar. I tried balsamic vinegar with little success. On the last round, though, I bought a bottle of apple cider vinegar, which I put into a bowl. The fruit flies were soon drawn into the bowl, where they promptly drowned.
I’ve heard of traps that are a little more intricate - jars with small holes poked in the lid, filled with vinegar and honey. Some use bottles covered in plastic wrap. No matter what method, I would highly recommend apple cider vinegar.
There’s another reason you could have tiny insects in the house, though. There are fungus gnats, who love to live in the damp soil of houseplants.
You can kill them individually, but unless you take care of the wet soil, they are likely to return. The easiest way is to put a layer of play sand on top of the houseplant soil. Sand has larger particles, so water flows through it easier and dries out faster. The fungus gnats won’t want to live on the dry soil, so they’ll disappear.
I’ve also tried pouring cold chamomile tea on the soil in an effort to get rid of the fungus gnats. The jury is still out on the success of that one, though.
What do you do when you have fruit flies and fungus gnats?
