Fruit Fly Control Products

Tiny flies a few millimetres long, hovering around fruit bowls, bins, recycling or the sink, are almost certainly fruit flies. If they are fuzzy, moth-like and sit flat on tiles or around the plughole rather than hovering, they are drain flies - a similar approach, but a different breeding site. Read our guide to getting rid of fruit flies if you are unsure which you have.

In something fermenting, and it is usually closer than you think. Overripe or damaged fruit, a spill that has run under a unit or appliance, the recycling bin, the bottom of the kitchen bin, a drain or waste disposal, a fridge drip tray, an unemptied bottle, or a damp mop head. Fruit flies go from egg to adult in about a week, so one missed source keeps producing new adults indefinitely.

Traps for the adults, including our own PestBuddy poison-free fruit fly trap and the Eradisect hanger and glue pad system, plus window stickers and fast knockdown sprays for a heavier build-up. Traps are the main tool - a spray clears the flies in the room but does nothing about the next batch.

The traps and glue pads are poison-free and made for use around food areas, though site them beside food preparation surfaces rather than on them. Where you use a spray, check the label allows use in a food area, do not spray food, utensils or food-contact surfaces, and ventilate as directed.

Usually one to two weeks, provided the breeding site has been found and cleaned. Adults already flying keep going for a few days, and eggs already laid will still hatch. If numbers have not dropped noticeably after two weeks, the source has not been found yet.

Two different pictures. If the traps are catching well but numbers are not falling, the breeding site is still active - go back through drains, under appliances, the recycling and the bin, and check anywhere liquid could have run and sat. If the traps are catching almost nothing, they are probably too far from the activity: fruit flies do not travel far, so put a trap within a metre or so of where you actually see them.

Not on its own. A fast knockdown spray clears the adults in the room at that moment. Fruit flies reach adulthood in about a week, so unless the breeding material has gone, a fresh batch appears within days. Use a spray to knock down a heavy build-up if you want to, then rely on cleaning the source and running a trap to hold it.

Keep fruit covered or refrigerated once ripe, rinse bins and recycling rather than just emptying them, clean under and behind appliances where spills collect, and flush drains you use rarely. Fruit flies often arrive on shop-bought fruit as eggs, so a spotless kitchen can still get them - the aim is denying them somewhere to breed rather than keeping them out.