Where do midges come from on fruits: precautions and combating the appearance of midges

Flying flies over rotten fruit are called wine flies or Drosophila midges. And somewhere they are called vinegar or fruit flies. The genus Drosophila has up to 1500 species. Small insects reach up to 5 mm in height.

Develops in three stages:

Eggs that are laid by an adult.
Larva.
An adult specimen.

It turns out that everything is quite simple. Adult specimens lay eggs on ripe fruits. That is, we bring them ourselves to the apartment or house. Special float chambers hold the eggs on a very small surface of 0.5 mm. One female can lay up to 80 pieces. Further, the presence of a spoiled place in the fruit will trigger the reproduction mechanism. Therefore, the next day there is a whole swarm of them.

The environment matters a lot. For example, at a temperature of 25 degrees Celsius, a midge can live up to 10 days. Reducing the temperature to 17 degrees prolongs its life by half; in winter, this can be 2 months or more.

The appearance of fruit flies is also caused by open windows in the summer.

Improper care of flowers can also cause an infestation of midges:

When the soil is waterlogged. Stagnant water in pots will be a favorable environment for reproduction.
Undisinfected soil leads to putrefactive processes.

Drosophila: description of fruit flies

The midge that gathers on fruits is called Drosophila. It is also called fruit midge. She really turns on fruits, because she loves sweets very much.

Perishable fruits and vegetables are the main breeding ground for it. It does not harm fruit and berry plantings and feeds on rotten ripe fruits.

Gray, yellow-gray flies often take root in kitchens. The size of the body of an adult fruit fly reaches three millimeters. Males are smaller than females.

Preventive actions

Before you find out what and how to get rid of wine insects, it is worth considering preventive measures to avoid the appearance of individuals. They are simple and accessible to every housewife who dreams of a house without midges:

the sanitary condition of housing must be normal;
measures should be taken to prevent insects from entering from the outside;
purchased fruits (vegetables) are thoroughly washed;
fruits are stored in the refrigerator;
the soil in pots with flowers is treated with a weak solution of manganese;
garbage does not linger in housing.

To kill eggs laid on purchased fruits, they must be washed only with boiling water. The gifts of nature in the form of wild berries, the harvest of fruits and vegetables from dachas and vegetable gardens are no exception. Everything that is brought into the house should be quickly processed and recycled, or put in the refrigerator. Only slightly perishable foods are stored outside the refrigerator. Otherwise, the appearance of fruit flies is a matter of days!

Fruit fly reproduction

Fruit flies rapidly increase their population in conditions of high humidity and high air temperatures. The putrefactive environment is favorable for females to lay eggs. Within a day, a larva hatches from an egg, and in five to six days it develops into an adult fly, going through all stages of the pupa.

The instant reproduction of fruit flies is explained by the ability of flies to mate half a day after emerging from the pupa. Mushki retains the sperm of males until it is fully mature and lays up to eighty eggs at a time.

Biting flies

These are tiny flies that live throughout the world and cause painful bites to people and animals. Black midges attack quickly and effectively, remaining undetected once they have bitten.

Although these insects do not usually transmit disease, it is not impossible to get the bacteria from their mouths. The symptoms are a painful red patch on the skin that goes away naturally after a few days.

If you can see a small insect hopping around, you are looking at a tick or flea. These parasites are unique in that they do not have wings, but they do have the incredible ability to jump up to 20 cm in height. For an insect measuring about 2 millimeters, this is a feat.

In addition, ticks and fleas feed exclusively on blood. Fruit flies also like to snack on organic matter, the food groups are completely different. Fleas and ticks feed by biting a living host and extracting blood, fruit flies drink fruit juice.

These pests are disgusting, but they don't spread disease or bite through your skin.

Fruit flies don't have teeth or cutting tools, so the worst they'll do is be an irritant.

Flies belonging to the family Tephritidae are also called fruit flies. This causes confusion, especially in the Mediterranean, Australia, South Africa, where the Mediterranean fruit fly Ceratitis capitata is a pest.

Harm and benefit

Since the habitat and reproduction of the fruit midge is sewage (garbage cans, vegetable and fruit waste, garden fruit rot, sewage, spoiled food), it is a source of the spread of infectious intestinal diseases, so combating it is mandatory. Drosophila may be a factor influencing the manifestation of allergies.

Despite these facts, many terrariums and fish farms breed fruit flies as food for reptiles, amphibians and fish. Aquarium fish also love to eat fruit flies.

Where do they come from?

Until the 18th century, scientists believed in a phenomenon called "spontaneous generation", suggesting that fruit gnats naturally reproduced from inorganic, dirty materials such as dirty laundry and rotting meat. Contrary to popular belief, this is not a case of spontaneous reproduction.

They can live almost anywhere. Even the cleanest kitchens look attractive.

Leaving out fresh food is like advertising free room and board for pests. As a rule, they get on fruit brought from the store or through open doors and windows.

Fruit flies breed anywhere there is moist, decaying organic matter. This includes sink drains (the dark, larger pests known as drain flies), trash cans, compost, tile grout, even wash rags. Since they can reproduce in many places, these nasty insects are difficult to eradicate.

If you don't provide fruit gnats with a place to breed by using thorough cleaning methods, spray pesticides as much as you like. The pest will return.

How does a fruit fly get into an apartment?

Midges appear in the apartment if the table is left uncleaned after a meal.
Drosophila are infested by stale fruits or vegetables brought from a market or store. Fruits and vegetables tend to quickly deteriorate if improperly stored, which creates a breeding ground for harmful insects.
They can enter through open windows and vents from the street and take root in the apartment.
Ventilation passages and cracks in the walls are also ways for insects to enter the apartment.
They can appear if the basic rules of home cleanliness are not followed (unwashed dishes, uncleaned pet food area, dirty refrigerator).
A home orchard can cause the proliferation of fruit flies, which enter the room through door and window openings.
Drosophila can also be brought into the house with purchased flower indoor plants. In the absence of food objects, midges can take root in flower pots, because they maintain a high level of humidity.

In the apartment, fruit flies find a source of food - table scraps and stagnant garbage, sewer holes.

Midges on fruit: who are they?

Insects are interested in fruits because of the sugar they contain. In apartments in the Central region of Russia, midges hovering around fruits are most often either fruit fruit flies or some type of blood-sucking midges, which are also a component of midges

Fruit flies, according to the official scientific classification, are flies, but their sizes are extremely small - a maximum of 2.5 millimeters in length, which is why they look exactly like midges to the human eye. The insect has a beige-transparent body, sometimes with vague dark stripes or spots, and bright red eyes. Fruit flies
not only feed on fruits, but also lay larvae directly in them.
Midges are forced to drink blood to reproduce, but this only applies to females. Males feed on nectar and sweet liquids, so, like fruit flies, they may well be interested in the fruits laid out on the table and the contents of your garbage can. Midges
do not lay larvae in food containing sugar, but the very contact of insects with food already makes it unsafe.

Despite their size, these insects can cause many problems to humans. Blood-sucking pests are capable of acting as carriers of diseases transmitted through blood at the time of the bite. Eating foods with larvae inside can lead to poisoning and provoke the occurrence of myiases - ailments caused by insects entering the body. Fortunately, to combat small insects hovering over fruit in the house, it is not necessary to determine their species for certain. You can fight them using the same methods, so for convenience, below, the term fruit midges will mean both fruit flies and various types of midges at the same time.

Helpful advice

Midges that swarm around fruits do not always live in them. Check for them in sink, sink or bathtub drains, near hot water pipes and in areas around flower pots. If they are there, pest control will need to be done in these places too.

Ways to combat midges

How to get rid of midges in an apartment? Having appeared in human habitation, she stubbornly fights for her survival. It is not possible to quickly get rid of it until its nest is discovered - a place of active reproduction. It can be hidden in an ordinary bowl of fruit, in a bag of vegetables, in a food cabinet, even in the refrigerator, in the trash can, in the siphon of the sink and washbasin.

The appearance of fruit flies indicates that it is time to start general cleaning and daily maintenance of ideal cleanliness. Both popular recommendations and special toxic preparations for killing insects help to get rid of fruit midges.

Insect spray

A remedy such as “Dichlorvos” is always at hand. This is the most effective drug for controlling flies. Spraying toxic sprays and aerosols, especially in the kitchen, is extremely undesirable; after using this method, you will need to thoroughly wash everything in the room - furniture, gas stove, cabinets...

Toxins can also end up on food, so many are interested in what means of killing flies is gentle and safe for humans.

Inventing bait traps

How to effectively get rid of annoying fruit gnats? What can be done to prevent them from appearing for a long time? Do you want your favorite jam left on the table to not be a treat for fruit flies? Then you just need to get some scented insect traps. These can be sticky tapes, store-bought repellents that are hung around the perimeter of the kitchen or other room where there is a large concentration of insects, or ultraviolet devices.

You can also make traps with your own hands using basic available tools. Here are some ways.

A shallow container with a neck (a plastic bottle without a neck, a glass, a glass jar) is filled with fruit, jam, sweet syrup with a small amount of lost fruit or an apple core, covered with film, tied with a rubber band, and holes are made in the film with a fork. Place the trap on the table, near the sink, near the trash can. Within a few hours the trap will be filled with a large number of insects. It is necessary to continue using such traps until the fruit flies are completely exterminated.
The trap can be made from transparent plastic cups with lids. To do this, pour a little honey into the container, add a piece of fruit and close the lid. The glass is turned upside down, holes are pierced in the bottom with an awl. Such traps are small and easy to use at home. The cups should be transparent so that the result of the trap’s operation can be seen. Such devices can be placed throughout the house.
Sweet sticky caramel (5 tablespoons of sugar, 1 spoon of vinegar and 2 tablespoons of water) is boiled over low heat until a sticky mixture is formed, it is applied hot to a sheet of A5 paper, allowed to cool and hung around the perimeter of the room. The midge flies to the sweets and sticks to the leaves.
A wine bottle with a minimal amount at the bottom can also serve as bait for midges.

Vacuum cleaner efficiency

As trivial as it may sound, a vacuum cleaner gets rid of midges in the house. A powerful air stream can pull flies into the trash bin in a matter of seconds. This method is effective in large concentrations of fruit flies.

Aromatherapy and smoking midges

Camphor can help against fruit midges. It is heated in a hot frying pan until a specific evaporation of the product begins to form. It is necessary to fumigate all rooms in the house, especially carefully in places where there are large concentrations of fruit flies.

Midges cannot stand the smell of geranium; plant this plant on your kitchen windowsill and the midges will not bother you.

The aroma lamp is an excellent device for fighting insects. The fruit midge does not tolerate the scent of cloves. An hour of operation of the aroma lamp gives a sustainable result.

Preventive actions

The main fight against midges is to follow basic rules that must be followed daily:

Take out trash and wash trash cans in a timely manner;
store only fresh food in the refrigerator;
regularly sort through vegetables stored in pantries;
When bringing fruit from the market, it is advisable to wash it before putting it in a vase;
wash dishes more often;
Ventilate the apartment only using mosquito nets.

Follow these recommendations and forget about insects forever!

Useful tips - how to get rid of midges

We take these tips from the comments under the article on the site - many of the tips are original and very interesting! So:

If a midge starts in flower pots, then you need to stick an ordinary match there, head down, they disappear.
Most often, flies appear due to rotten potatoes, onions - all spoiled root crops are a breeding ground for flies. The main thing is to remove the source. Gradually they will disappear. Be patient.
Once a week I do a total cleaning with ultraviolet light, and for a year I have had an ultrasonic trap running, and this is how we save ourselves.
I solved the problem with flies simply: 1) I collected crawling and flying ones with a hand-held kitchen vacuum cleaner (fortunately they don’t fly fast). 2) at night in the place where they accumulate (for me it’s a jar of kombucha) I turned on a mosquito lamp. The effect is amazing - in the morning there are almost no flies!
They can be caught perfectly with a vacuum cleaner, even on the fly!
The jar of flies can be placed in the freezer for a few minutes. They'll die. Verified.
I poured beer into the lid of the cake so that it barely covered the bottom, a lot of it collected and almost everyone drowned.
I have found that they really like spoiled bananas. In the kitchen I put a crushed, rotten banana in a bag. Problem solved.
Adhesive fly tape, spread with red wine. And here they are right there.

My husband accidentally left the remnants of apple compote in a jar on the table, during the night they filled with darkness, at first I covered them with a plastic lid and then thought for a long time about how to kill them, I can’t open them, throwing the jar away in this form is also not a good idea, I decided to put it in the microwave and turned it on for a minute!

The end came to them all instantly! The glass jar needs to be placed in the microwave, covered with a plastic lid, don’t be afraid, it won’t explode, 40 seconds at a power of 600 - 700 is enough.

Apple cider vinegar attracts flies and they fly into this jar; dishwashing detergent prevents them from getting out. This fluid needs to be renewed once a week.

Getting rid of fruit flies is very easy. Buy fly or mosquito repellent plates that are designed for raptors. Install the plates to the window glass and the problem is solved! The sun heats up the plate and releases a deadly poison for flies.

I accidentally discovered a remedy for fighting flies: I started peeling horseradish roots for a horseradish snack, left the horseradish peelings in an open bag - all the flies instantly disappeared. Several days have passed and they have not returned.

Life cycle

The lifespan of these insects depends on the availability of food and air temperature. On average, life expectancy is 2 weeks in the presence of food and a temperature of about 18°; if the air temperature is 25°, life expectancy is reduced to 10 days.

Unfavorable conditions are air temperatures below 18°; the lower, the shorter the duration. A midge can only live for a few days without food.

Females lay eggs on fruits or other foods; within a day, voracious larvae emerge from them. Before moving to the next stage, the larva goes through 2 molts, after which it pupates.

After 5 days, a young individual emerges from the pupae, which is ready to reproduce and lay eggs. One female lays about 400 eggs in her life, they are very fertile and increase the population very quickly.