How to get fruit flies out of fridge

This post reveals the reasons behind the tiny dead bugs in the fridge. These bugs not only contaminate the food stored in the fridge but the corpses make your fridge stinky.

In this guide you’ll find out –

1. What these little dead bugs in the refrigerator are
2. What attracts these bugs and flies to your fridge
3. How do these bugs enter your fridge
4. How to stop these bugs from entering your fridge
5. How to ensure that you never see bugs, dead or alive, inside your fridge ever again

And a lot more! Keep reading.

What Are These Tiny Dead Bugs In Fridge?

Most of the time, the tiny dead bugs in the fridge are: 

• Drain flies
• Fruit flies
• Gnats
• And in the worst-case scenario, dead baby cockroaches

Each bug has its unique way. And knowing their points of entry will immensely help you get rid of bugs entering your fridge.

After entering the refrigerator, they can’t withstand the cold. Extreme cold in the fridge and the freezer freezes these bugs to death.

That’s the reason you see these tiny dead bugs in the fridge with their bodies curled. These dead bugs in the refrigerator also cause a nasty stink.

To keep these refrigerator bugs out, you need to know how these tiny bugs sneak inside the fridge and the freezer.

The #1 reason tiny bugs get inside your fridge is that your refrigerator is stinky and dirty. The stink and dirt draw bugs to your fridge.

And the second reason is that these bugs are already there in your home.

Let’s find out how each of these bugs sneaks inside the fridge.

Dead Drain Flies In The Fridge

Drain flies are tiny moth-like bugs with flimsy wings. They’re greyish, and they’re a nuisance in homes where there’s drain clogging.

Drain flies will lay eggs in the gunk and slime that clog the drains in your bathroom, kitchen, basement, and laundry room.

So, how come drain flies enter the fridge? They’ve got a stealthy way.

At the bottom of the fridge, just above the compressor, there’s a condensation pan. It’s also known as a water drip pan.

The water drip pan collects the water that drips out of a small pipe. The water comes from the melting ice in the freezer. 

That water has a smell of the food, especially meat and fish, that you keep inside the freezer. 

That smell, and the water in the water drip pan, attract drain flies. Drain flies love that stink because it signals them there’s a damp waste that they can lay their eggs on.

On reaching in the water drip pan, the drain flies make their way up to the fridge, and at times inside the freezer too, through the hose.

Phorid flies too enter your refrigerator in the same way.

End result? These drain flies freeze to death.

And you notice these tiny drain flies lying flat on their back, with their wings spread, in the base of the fridge, on the side shelves, and even on your stored food.

The smell of the food and the light from the refrigerator draw gnats to the fridge.

If your fridge has a water dispenser then the dampness around the nozzle brings these flying bugs to your refrigerator.

Water dispensers in appliances like coffee makers keep the machine wet. That’s one of the reasons for bugs in coffee makers too.

Gnats are tiny black flying bugs in homes. These are mosquito look-alikes but they’re weaker fliers than mosquitoes.

And they don’t bite. However, there’s a biting gnat species, which is known as no-see-ums or biting midges.

Gnats are in homes where there’s a lot of organic wastes. So, if you’ve got a yard with compost piles, or your yard is full of organic debris, gnats will be in your home and property.

The light from your home draws these gnats inside. Also, potted plants can have gnats larvae in the soil. Those larvae mature into adult gnats.

And soon these bugs turn a nuisance into your home.

Gnats get inside the fridge through the gaps in refrigerator gaskets. Poor sealing causes gaps in the gaskets which becomes the entry points for many bugs.

On entering the fridge, these gnats don’t survive for long. They die within 4-6 hours.

Being weak fliers, gnats can’t get out even when you open the refrigerator’s door. That’s why you might even notice live gnats crawling inside the refrigerator.

Inside the fridge, the gnats will feed on the food. They can also reach the freezer.

But these bugs wouldn’t have been inside your refrigerator if they were not in your home. 

You can get rid of flies in your home, and we’ll cover that in a minute. For now, let’s find out about another fly that gets inside refrigerators. 

Fruit flies get inside your fridge when you put dirty and unwashed fruits and vegetables with fruit flies stuck on them

For house flies too, this is the most common way to enter fridge.

If you keep your refrigerator door open for a while, the light from the refrigerator also attracts these bugs. 

Sightings of dead baby roaches is a nasty sign of a roach infestation in your home.

The baby roaches sneak inside the refrigerator through the thinnest of gaps in the underside and the rear of the fridge.

It also shows that there might be a roach nest nearby or underneath the refrigerator.

But the worst part is that baby roaches can even survive the extreme cold inside the fridge. So, you might also notice them crawling inside the refrigerator.

Roaches, most of the time, will avoid getting inside the refrigerator. But if they’re inside, it means that their numbers in your have grown.

And you might need a home-wide roach inspection by a professional pest controller to find and eliminate roach infestation in your home.

How To Get Rid Of Tiny Dead Bugs In Fridge?

Now that you know how they enter your refrigerator and freezer let’s find out how to remove them. 

Here’s the process that works ten out of ten times, without fail.

Step#1 – Empty Your Refrigerator

You can’t clean a refrigerator filled up with food. 

Before you begin, please turn off the refrigerator, unplug it, and take out all the food.

Wait for a while till your refrigerator defrosts. 

Now let’s move on to the next step.  

Step#2 – Remove All The Shelves And Trays

Remove all the shelves, trays, and baskets from the refrigerator. 

Wash them and wipe them off with a safe disinfectant. Let the parts dry outside till you finish cleaning the refrigerator. 

Step#3 – Clean The Walls And The Floor Of The Refrigerator

Take a sponge or a piece of cloth and a bucket of water mixed with a few drops of disinfectant. 

Wet the sponge and scrub the walls of the refrigerator.

Ensure that you don’t miss out on the tight corners inside the refrigerator where most dirt gathers. 

Open the freezer and scrub the sides inside the freezer. 

If you keep meat and fish inside the freezer, then clean the freezer only after defrosting. 

It’s because the organic waste inside will flow away with the water making it easy for you to clean. 

Step#4 – Keep The Door Of The Refrigerator And The Freezer Open Till The Interiors Dry

After you’ve finished scrubbing and cleaning the interiors of the refrigerator and the freezer, take a clean, dry cloth or sponge and wipe the interiors. 

Then keep the door open till the interiors of the refrigerator have entirely dried up.

Step#5 – Restock Your Refrigerator

Here’s the catch before restocking the refrigerator. 

Wash your vegetables and fruits and clean the jars, bottles, packets before you restock the refrigerator. 

And always discard rotting and stale fruits and vegetables from your refrigerator. 

Step#6 – Change The Gaskets Of Your Fridge

Over time, the gaskets of the fridge loosen up. That creates the gaps which the bugs exploit to get inside the fridge.

The best way to deal with it is to change the refrigerator’s gaskets. The fresh gaskets will hug the edges of the refrigerator tight.

That will prevent the bugs to sneak inside.

Step#7 – Keep A Cup Of Red Wine In The Fridge

The final step is a preventive step to eliminate any bug that gets inside the fridge despite all the efforts.

These bugs are tiny and you can’t guard your refrigerator day in and day out.

The best way to deal with the problem is to keep an open cup of red wine inside the refrigerator.

If by chance any bug get inside the refrigerator, then the strong fruity smell of the wine will draw the bug to it and the alcohol in the wine will kill the bug.

If you don’t dislike the acidic smell of white vinegar, then you can also keep a cup of white vinegar in the fridge.

The strong smell of the white vinegar will keep all the bugs away from your fridge.

How To Prevent Bugs In The Fridge?

As you know by now, there wouldn’t have been any dead bugs in the fridge had there been none of them in your home.

So, the source of these tiny black dead bugs in the fridge lies in your home. You’d need to eliminate these sources to ensure that there’s no bugs inside the refrigerator.

Follow these five steps to eliminate the source of bugs and flies sneaking inside the refrigerator –

Step#1 – Clean And Unclog The Drains To Kill Drain Flies And Roaches

Clogged drains is the source of drain flies. And roaches can also inhabit the choked drains.

If you’re not cleaning the drains of your home often, then you’re inviting drain flies, and in many cases, sewer roaches inside your home.

The scum and the waste in the clogged drains is a breeding ground for drain flies and other types of bugs. 

You can quickly kill and clean the drains of your home in a single step. 

And that’s by pouring bleach in the drains. 

But here’s a catch. Bleach is corrosive, and using bleach often will damage the drains. 

So, use bleach, not more than twice, to clean your drain. 

Alternatively, you can use a mixture of white vinegar and hot water to pour into the drains. That will also kill drain flies and many other bugs hiding and nesting in the drain.

Step#2 – Clean Your Yard Or Garden To Remove Gnats And Other Bugs

If you’ve got a yard or garden, with full of organic waste like rotting mulch bed, wood, and foliage, then those places are breeding grounds for gnats.

And when they’re in your yard, they’ll fly inside your home through open doors and windows.

So, ensure that you keep your yard clean. Don’t over water your yard and garden. High dampness in the soil makes the soil a perfect egg laying place for gnats.

If there are waterholes in your yard, fill them up. Stagnant water breeds mosquitoes and increases the dampness of the yard.

Also, check for gnats’ larvae on the soil bed of potted plants that you bring from outdoors. The larvae look like tiny off-whitish legless worms.

If you find any, then spray a mixture of water and vinegar on them to kill them. You can also put some epsom salt on the larvae to eliminate them.

If you don’t then the gnats’ larvae will mature into adults and can sneak inside your fridge.

Step#3 – Install Window Shields To Prevent Flies From Flying In

Artificial light attracts all the tiny bugs that can get inside your fridge. 

To prevent them from entering your home, install window shields with finer mesh. 

These bugs won’t be able to pass through the smaller mesh and you’ll have one less thing to worry about.

Step#4 – Clean Your Pantry And Kitchen

Inside your home, the kitchen is the most attractive place for these tiny bugs and for the pantry pests to live and breed.

And what’s the reason? Endless supply of food and places to lay eggs.

Also, wipe off the hard surfaces of your kitchen, like countertops, to remove any food droppings and stains.

Step#5 – Keep Sticky Fly Traps In Different Corners Of Your Home

This step is optional. If you follow the above steps, you’ll prevent all the refrigerator bugs. 

But to make sure you get rid of any of the remaining flies, keep sticky fly traps near your fridge.

You can make DIY sticky trap by keeping a rotting piece of fruit in a bowl of red wine. Cover the bowl with plastic and poke some holes on it.

The bugs will sneak inside the plastic through the holes but won’t be able to get out. In the end, dispose of the rotting fruit and wine. 

You can also use this method in your bathroom which is also a prime real estate for drain flies and gnats.

In your bathroom these bugs can also lay eggs in the shower grout. Shower grouts with cracks on them is also a hiding and breeding place for many bugs.

Do These Tiny Bugs In Fridge Carry Any Diseases?

They can carry diseases. It’s because flies sit on decaying and dead organic matter. 

If you’ve got a cat litter box in your home, you don’t want these flies inside your fridge and freezer.

It’s because these also breed in the cat litter box.

So, if you have found any dead bugs in the food stored in your fridge, it’ll be best if you discard that food.

Conclusion

The reasons you see tiny dead bugs like gnats and drain flies in your fridge are two. First, your fridge has gaps and openings that the bugs can use to sneak inside.

Second, your fridge is dirty. It emits stink that draws flies, especially drain flies and phorid flies, to your fridge.

In this guide you’ve also learned a fail-proof way to get rid of these dead bugs in the fridge and ways to ensure that bugs don’t get sneak in the fridge.

But remember, the source of these dead bugs in the fridge is your home. You’ll have to eliminate them from your home too.

We are Mark and Jim. We dabbled with bugs and pests for most of our lives. And we provide information and hacks that work in making your home pest free.