On fruit flies in your kitchen

What’s the deal with fruit flies? Are they living in fruit when I buy it? Migrating to it? But from where?

Fruit flies — the tiny ones, not the big ones — are the product of bad sanitation. They breed on moist organic material, seeking a nice sludgy environment to lay eggs in and use as a home base.  What I’m trying to say is that you’re dirty.

As you’d expect, fruit flies will live on dirty kitchen surfaces and ripe fruit. But there may be other breeding grounds in your apartment that you’re overlooking:  chronically damp house plants, dirty trash bins, and empty wine bottles.

bad things happen when you leave fruit out for too long

A licensed sanitarian — whatever that means — once told me that if you see fruit flies then their breeding site is less than 20 feet away. This means they’re not coming from your neighbor’s filthy apartment or the restaurant downstairs. This is on you. Where’s the grime? Find the grime!

 Let’s say your kitchen is visibly clean and still visibly infested. Where are the flies coming from?

They’re living in your sink drain. Betcha didn’t see that coming. All you have to do is empty a full kettle of boiling water down the drain and it’ll kill all of the eggs.

Once you do this, the fruit fly population will diminish quickly. You can speed up the process by trapping adult flies using this simple fruit fly trap.

But first, here’s a fun game: count the number of fruit flies in your kitchen. The first one is worth 5 points and every additional fly is worth 1 point. Tally your total points and calculate your NYC Health Department letter grade using this scale: 

0-13 points: “A”

14-27 points: “B”

28+ points: “C”

Print the official letter grade and post it prominently on your front door. Tell your neighbors that the health department inspection caught you totally off guard and that you heard they’re going to be working their way through the building all week.

Ok, now go flush all your drains with boiling water.

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