Know thy enemy! Common household fruit flies grow from egg to adult in just 8-10 days. There are four stages in this growth process; egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Following is a (very) brief description of each of them.
Stage 1: Egg – Fruit flies can lay up to 500 eggs in their lifetime of less than two weeks! They will only lay their eggs in the surface of moist, organic material. They prefer fermenting and rotting fruits and vegetables. This is the weak point that we will use to eradicate them.
Stage 2: Larva – Approximately 24 hours after an egg is laid, the fruit fly will emerge as a larva. This is where the fruit fly starts to take shape.
Stage 3: Pupa – This final formative stage gives the fruit flies their wings and color. This is the final stage of metamorphosis. Soon they’ll be buzzing around your house and crashing into your face as you walk into the kitchen! They may be the best at reproducing, but they sure can’t fly very well.
Stage 4: Adult – Once the fly is fully formed, it emerges as an adult and can begin reproducing in less than 2 days!
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
why is it that as soon as you have a glass of wine they just suddendly appear
how do you make a homemade insecticide for the fuit fly?
Can you become ill if you accidentally ingest their larva, or if they had alighted on, say, an uncovered slice of melon; they were probably there for an hour or so. Beliving them to be unhazardous, I’m afraid I ate it anyway.
Anna
Can these fruit flies bite? I found 2 of them and as I swatted them off my wrist I was left with 2 welts of hives and had to use caladryl lotion to stop the sting & itch. Frist I thought they could have been fleas but they were fruit flies as I had some fruit on the t.v. cabinet stand like bananas and a couple of applies so then I realized they had to be fruit flies and not fleas. Needless to say I removed the fruit from my room and put the apples in the fridge and the bananas on the kitchen counter.
I personally dont think fruit flies can bite. It might of been an allergic reaction maybe. How can fruit flies bite anyway?
No, fruit flies don’t bite. They secrete a liquid that is used to break down fruit prior to consuming it. It is possible you were allergic to that liquid. If you want to get rid of them, make sure you don’t leave any fruit lying around anywhere in the open.
Maybe you should mention the time spent overall in the fruit fly…esp. if someone is doing a research project on fruit flies this will be a helpful resource website. Also can you add how the fruit fly is able to transform into another stage? Most websites don’t have that type of information. Thank you, all other information was needed in my assignment. Keep up the good work.
I would like to know how long fruit flies can live with no food source. This is a vital piece of information to their life cycle in my kitchen!
I work as a rep for a massive fruit and veg store, a week ago I went to the store room to collect milkshakes (some of the milkshakes were off ) and on the off milkshakes were a lot of fruit flys. I since got a rash on my face. It looks like 7 diffrent stings and is now a week later slightly passy..please assist me regarding this
Hi, I would like to know the period of life cycle of fruit fly, becouse i work in study (master dgree) in fruit fly but the period of life cycle of fruit fly is confuse (i found differnce period but not knowed any correct period).
Why is it when these fruit flies only emerge when you’ve had fruit sitting out for awhile? When there were no fruit flies before. Do they already have their eggs on the fruit before it’s bought? Where do they come from??
Fruit flies can enter your home in two ways. One way is just as you mentioned. The fruit you buy may already have eggs deposited on the skin. Then, after you buy it and bring it home, the eggs hatch. The other way is that the fruit flies come into your home after smelling your ripening fruit. It may be hard to believe but fruit flies can smell fruit from great distances. They follow this scent to your home and hunt for a way in. Because they are so small, it isn’t that hard for them to find a way in. A crack around a door or window is perfect for them to crawl through.
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