As their name suggests, fruit flies are attracted to rotting fruit – but it can be easy to misidentify fruit flies as other types of flies. You can often recognize these pests by their red eyes, translucent wings, and black or tan-looking bodies. Fruit flies can reproduce quickly, and sometimes, it only takes one adult to start a full-blown infestation. Here’s what New York homeowners should understand about the dangers of having fruit flies in your home, how you can prevent them, and what to do if you’ve already got a fruit fly problem on your hands.
Why Are Fruit Flies Dangerous In New York?
When a lot of homeowners deal with fruit flies, they picture these insects as a harmless nuisance just looking to take a bite out of your rotting fruit – but fruit flies aren’t as harmless as they seem. While they are attracted to rotting fruit, fruit flies will go after any rotting or decaying matter, including compost piles, trash cans, and other decaying food sources. As a result, fruit flies often hang out in unsanitary places, like sewers and drains, where they pick up pathogens and bacteria that they can spread to you. For instance, it’s not uncommon for fruit flies to spread salmonella or cause diarrhea if you take a bite out of a contaminated food source.
Fruit flies may even try to reproduce in the food they’ve contaminated. Pregnant females will hunt for ripening fruit that they can bore holes in to deposit their eggs. Since one fruit fly can produce up to 400 eggs, these infestations grow quickly. Having a full-blown fruit fly problem only puts you and your family at risk of contracting harmful pathogens, parasites, and bacteria.
How To Prevent Fruit Flies In New York
Fortunately, there are some preventative steps that you can take to keep fruit flies out of your New York residence, such as:
- If you purchase fruit, keep it in sealed and covered fruit bowls or place it inside the refrigerator.
- Keep trash cans, and garbage bins (both indoor and outdoor) completely sealed, and make sure you deal with your trash regularly, so there’s not much of a decaying or rotting food source to attract fruit flies.
- Throw out rotting fruit.
- Regularly clean up after meals by dealing with food crumbs, spills, or other food scraps that may be on your tables, counters, or floors.
These steps will help minimize the risks of fruit flies as well as other pest infestations.
The Most Effective Form Of Fruit Fly Control In New York
Once they’ve found a house that provides them with an abundant food source, fruit flies aren’t eager to leave – and throwing out your rotting fruit or taking out the trash isn’t always enough to get rid of an active infestation. Fortunately, that’s where the professionals come in – at BHB Pest Elimination, we are New York City’s most trusted choice for pest management, and fruit flies aren’t an exception. If you’re worried that you’ve got a fruit fly problem on your hands, don’t waste your time and money dealing with these dangerous pests on your own. Contact us at BHB Pest Elimination for more advice and assistance.
