If you have ever been to a picnic or a barbecue, you may have noticed a small swarm of fruit flies hovering over a bowl of macaroni salad. Not only are these fruit flies annoying but also they bring germs and bacteria to the party. A good tip for when you are having an outdoor party is to hang a bug zapper. A small one that plugs in is perfect; you can get these in your local Home Depot.

Another helpful outdoor tip is make sure that you have secure lids on all of your food. If the food is tightly covered there is no room for these flies to get into the food. Make sure that your garbage is nowhere near your food. Not only do fruit flies like to linger over food but they like garbage as well.

If you let these flies stay around long enough they are going to lay their eggs, the problem is that you may not find where in time. Since fruit flies generally are found outdoors, there is little else you can do to get rid of them. But indoors can be a potential breeding ground as well. Fruit Flies only last for about 10 days, in that time they can lay their eggs and you will have a whole new problem. So it is just an important to keep the flies out of home too.

Make sure that all garbage is thrown out, every night wash out your kitchen garbage can. Make sure that there is nothing left over in these cans that will attract a fruit fly. Use a disinfectant spray or use soap and water. If you have children make sure that they don’t have any dishes in their rooms, sometimes they forget about a dish or a cup and fruit flies will be attracted to left over items left on a plate. So a good tip to remember is collect all cups, glasses and dishes at night.

If you have pets, the open food bowl is an attraction to fruit flies. The dry food is generally ok but try to keep a minimum amount in there. Rinse out water bowls, because there is nothing a fruit fly loves more than stagnant water. If you serve your pet moist food from a can, make sure that the dish is cleaned out after they are done. If you generally clean up and keep food secure, you don’t have to worry about fruit flies.

You may not think that Fruit Flies pose a health risk but they are insects and all insects pose a health risk if they hang around long enough. Fruit Flies generally hang around because there is food lying around. Fruit Flies have a life cycle of about 10 days and it doesn’t seem like much time to do any damage but they can.

Fruit flies like regular flies breed bacteria. Anything they hang around long enough is going to become infected. For example, if you are having a party and you leave an open bowl of chips on a table outside, the fruit flies are going to come. As they land on the chips they are leaving behind bacteria and who knows what else. That is why it is important that when you have an event outdoors that the food is kept sealed until you are ready to eat it.

In addition to leaving open bowls of food out, fruit flies are attracted to garbage cans. Have you ever gone to throw your trash in the outside bins and you open the cover and there are what seems like hundreds of flies. They breed around garbage. The problem with that is when they are done with the garbage they could get into your home and infest your food.

The health risk involved is that you can get really sick. There have been severe cases of sickness from fruit flies but there are no life threatening cases as far as we know of. The idea is to keep food covered at all times, not just outside but inside your home as well. Summertime is a holiday for Fruit Flies; they can fit through screens or fly in when you have the door open.

Never leave plates of leftover food left out; it only takes a matter of seconds for the flies to find it. If you see a plate of food with a lot of fruit flies around it, don’t eat it. The germs and bacteria are microscopic so you won’t be able to see anything. To avoid getting yourself sick and others follow the safety precautions.

Try to drink your drink in a timely fashion, sweet drinks like soda, milkshakes and even teas with sugar are magnets. Make sure that you throw out your kitchen garbage and any other garbage cans you may have in the house, every night. Keep your outside garbage cans lids on tightly. Never spray bug spray near food, it may keep away the flies but you can get sick from the spray.

Want to know more about fruit flies?

Then check out these quality sites!

Fruit Fly information and pest control:

• University Of Kentucky’s entomology dept
• IPM of Alaska - General info
• Happy D Ranch - General info
• Fruit Fly Solutions – Fruit fly elimination

Fruit fly experiments and studies:

• Fruit flies speak up - Fruit fly experiments
• Model Organisms - Fruit flies as model organisms
• Fruit flies curing cancer?
• Berkeley Drosophila Genome Project

So you’ve got tons clumsy little fruit flies buzzing around your house, eh? Well I’ve been there too so don’t worry, while it’s not always easy to get rid of the little buggers – it is possible and it can be quick too if you’re thorough. 3 Steps:.

Step 1: Identify the feeding and breeding grounds. Fruit flies will breed almost anywhere there is standing liquid or moist organic materials. They have been known to hide out in garbage disposals, trash cans, dishwashers, old forgotten sacks of potato’s, hidden beverage spills, and any type of fruit or vegetable that has been left out. It’s very important to locate every place that can support their larvae, if they can breed there, they will!

Step 2: Eliminate feeding and breeding grounds. Clean it up, get it out! Clean drains by pouring 1 cup of ammonia down them and letting it sit, repeat as necessary. Throw out old sponges, search your cabinets for potatoes and toss those black bananas! Clean your trash cans, look under and behind furniture – especially your fridge! Use your nose to sniff out rotten smells. Look at all those sneaker smudges! When was the last time you washed your floor?? Also note that it is possible they are coming in from the outdoors, so make sure there are no openings around your doors and windows.

Step 3: Eradicate. Once their spawning grounds are gone, you can choose to wait out the death of the adults or you can kill them with insecticides and traps. Find these at your local hardware store or make them yourself.