How long does fruit fly live

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What Are Fruit Flies?
How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies
Learn More
How to prevent fruit flies
How long do fruit flies live?
Where do fruit flies come from?
Commonly Asked Questions

Indoors, a fruit fly infestation can be a truly annoying experience. Here’s how to get rid of fruit flies, including how to make your own fruit fly trap!

Reach for a peach, and what happens? A squadron of fruit flies takes to the air above the fruit bowl! But where the heck did they come from?

They probably didn’t come from your grocery store produce. They tend to wander into your home from the outside when they catch the scent of fruit that’s ripening, especially if it was starting to get a bit overripe. (In fact, fruit flies actually prefer wine and beer to fruit because they like food that has fermented.)

What Are Fruit Flies?

The tiny, yellowish, red-eyed insects are part of a large family of small flies that has about 3,000 species. Unlike houseflies, which may spread disease, fruit flies are harmless. They can live and breed in drains and garbage cans, and on damp mops and rags. Spilled juice under the refrigerator or a rotten potato at the bottom of a bin can be a happy home for the fruit fly’s larvae.

Fruit flies lay their eggs near the surface of your ripe fruit—and they can lay up to 500 eggs at a time! About 30 hours later, tiny larvae emerge and feed on the fruit, eventually turning into pupae. A week later, they are ready to take to the air.

Luckily for us, the entire life span of a fruit fly is only about two weeks. However, researchers have discovered that drinking a fermented beverage will enable a fruit fly to live a day or two longer—and a day or two is quite a bit when your life is only two weeks total!

Photo by John Tann/Wikimedia Commons

How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies

Eliminate Fruit Fly Breeding Grounds

The key to preventing fruit flies is to not attract them in the first place, so keeping your kitchen and dining area clean and free of potential fruit fly breeding grounds will go a long way in stopping an infestation before it begins. Here are some tips:

Refrigerate or throw away ripened or damaged fruit instead of leaving it out where the fruit flies can access it. Check it regularly for blemishes or rot, too.
Make sure you take out the garbage regularly, and consider putting a secure-fitting lid on your trash can.
Completely clean up any spilled fruit juice, beer, or wine, and don’t leave half-empty drinks out.
Be sure to clean your drains regularly, as flies can live there if grime builds up. Use these tips for clearing drains.

Build Fruit Fly Traps

You can buy fruit fly traps or make your own, and either way, they should be effective. One of the most common traps is the cider vinegar trap:

Fill several glasses or jars with apple cider vinegar (or old beer) to about 1/2 full. The flies will be attracted to the smell of the fermented liquids.
Add a drop of liquid dish soap to each glass and mix gently with a spoon. This breaks the surface tension of the liquid, making it so the flies can’t just float on the surface.
Put plastic wrap on top of each glass so that it is tight, and hold the plastic wrap in place with a rubber band.
Punch about ten holes in the plastic wrap with a toothpick, and put the glasses in an area frequented by fruit flies. Make sure the holes are wide enough for the flies to crawl through. They’ll be enticed by the smell, crawl in, and drown in the mixture.
- Tip: No plastic wrap or aluminum foil on hand? Take several pieces of paper and roll them into funnels (taping the sides of each funnel so they don’t unravel), then place a funnel into each glass. Flies will be able to get in, but not out.

Learn More

See more tips on managing other insects and pests.

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Coloured tan/yellow to light brown, with bright red eyes
Approximately 2.5 to 4 millimeters
Three segments in the antennae, third segment appears to be a feathery bristle

The most visible sign of fruit fly infestation is the presence of the adults. Usually seen swarming around fruits and vegetables left out on kitchen or commercial countertops or in and around refuse bins and other receptacles in which foods are disposed, fruit flies congregate en masse and feed on the decaying materials until any food source is gone. Fruit flies typically remain in areas with suitable food sources. Diners, bars, cafes, and restaurants often need to take special precautions to limit fruit fly infestations. Stowing raw, whole foods in refrigerated or vacuum-sealed units also helps to prevent fruit fly infestations.

How to prevent fruit flies

These tips may help you prevent fruit flies in your home:

Reduce the presence of ripe fruits and vegetables; place them in a refrigerator or a paper bag
Ensure recycling bottles, cans, and garbage bins have lids and are tightly closed.
Clean up and spills and inspect the environment for potential breeding areas; dirty sponges and washcloths, drains, broken tiles, and standing water
Eliminate moist decaying/fermenting organic matter inside such as sink and floor drains
Rinse vegetable and beverage cans prior to disposal
Use of fine screen mesh on windows will help prevent them from coming indoors
Use of fruit fly traps can help in control without the need to use insecticide.
Rinse and dry out mop head and bucket after use immediately

Learn more about how you can prevent fruit flies

How long do fruit flies live?

Fruit flies are known for their rapid reproduction and relatively short lifespans. The average lifespan of a fruit fly is about 40 to 50 days. The fruit fly life cycle is made up of four stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Most of the fly’s life is spent as an adult, with development usually taking less than two weeks. Developmental time and overall lifespan is largely influenced by environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity. High temperatures quicken development and may extend lifespans, whereas cooler temperatures may prolongs larval and pupal development and kill off adults.

The fruit fly life cycle begins when a female fruit fly lays a batch of eggs, which usually consists of around 500 eggs. Under the right conditions, a fruit fly egg only takes about a day to hatch. The newly hatched larvae then develop through three instars stages, with the entire process lasting about five days. A larva then encloses itself in a hard case for the pupal stage, which takes about five days. After emerging from the pupal case, the fruit fly reaches adulthood. Females may begin procreating within two days.

Where do fruit flies come from?

Fruit flies are found all around the world and almost everywhere one can find exposed food. Restaurants, hotels, cafeterias, farmer’s markets, trash receptacles, recycling areas, dumpsters, beverage stations, and janitorial closets are some of their favourite areas.

For many years, fruit flies were thought to spontaneously generate on ripe and rotting produce, but that myth has been disproven. In most cases, fruit flies have either found their way inside the home by following the odours of ripe fruit or have been transported there along with the produce. This not only underlines the importance of washing the fruits and vegetables that are brought into the home, but also means that you should not keep excess quantities of produce exposed.

Commonly Asked Questions

Why do I have fruit flies?

Fruit flies, also known as vinegar flies, wine flies, and pomace flies, feed on the yeast and fungi that cause the fermentation of overripe, rotting fruit, vegetables, and organic matter.

As a result, they are attracted to any where there is exposed food, including home kitchens, food processing facilities, restaurants, hotels, cafeterias, farmer’s markets, trash receptacles, recycling areas, dumpsters, beverage stations, and janitorial closets.

Contrary to popular belief, fruit flies do not spontaneously grow out of rotting fruit, but find their way inside the building either by following the odours of ripe fruit or hitching a ride on the purchased produce.

Female fruit flies then lay eggs inside fruit with damaged skin or in other moist, fermenting organic matter. The emerging larvae then have an immediate food source.

Should I be worried about fruit flies?

Fruit flies cannot bite or chew, so in order to eat, a fruit fly will repeatedly eject its own saliva on to food and then suck up the resulting mixture. This is an extremely unhygienic process, leaving behind bacteria and organisms that were once inside the fly.

Fruit flies can also carry and transmit disease-causing germs. When fruit infested with fruit fly larvae is consumed accidentally, it can cause gastrointestinal discomfort and diarrhea.

Fruit fly larvae also pose massive problems in Canadian orchards and farms, as the pests have the potential to ruin large amounts of fruit in a short time, due to their quick development and ability to reproduce rapidly.

Female fruit flies lay approximately 400 eggs, about five at a time. The eggs hatch into larvae after only 12 hours. The larvae then grow for about four days, before pupating for about five days, to emerge as an adult fruit fly. The females begin breeding after only two days.

Unfortunately, most DIY methods, like vinegar traps and fly strips, have minimal results, are unsightly, and do little more than kill a small segment of a fruit fly population. To truly end a fruit fly infestation you need a good sanitation program and professional pest control services.

Do fruit flies bite humans?

No, fruit flies do not bite people. They lack the piercing and sucking mouth parts of typical blood feeding flies. While considered a general annoyance in homes and other institutions, fruit flies can be significant pests in food processing and handling structures. Because of their habits of visiting unsanitary sites, they have the potential to carry disease causing germs. When fruits infested with fruit fly larvae are ingested accidentally, it may cause gastrointestinal discomfort and diarrhea.