Fruit flies

Fruit flies cause a nuisance and they are considered a serious contaminant of human food. They can accumulate in large numbers very quickly in houses and food service places, which necessitates the elimination of them as soon as possible, you should reduce their entrance to your house to protect your family health Numbers of fruit flies tend to increase, usually in the spring, when temperatures are warm and under good conditions and it develops from eggs to adults within four to five weeks, it takes about a week to reach sexual maturity.

Understanding the fruit flies life cycle helps to know the best way to control it, and without understanding its life cycle you may end up using wrong control methods, understanding of the fruit flies life cycle can help you determine how a life stage of an insect’s life affects your crop, And when the insect turns into a powerful threat, how to control it, and how to drive it out of your home or garden.

Fruit flies identification

Fruit flies are a very small oval fly, the adult insect grows and its length ranges between 1/10 and 1/5 inch, while the larvae are very small where the length ranges between 1/10 and 1/5 inch and has a white dirty color, chest and abdomen are black with a gray bottom and often they have red eyes.

Fruit flies life cycle

fruit fly lays its eggs on the surface of rotting fruits and vegetables, each female lays up to 500 eggs, where they hatch in larvae that turn twice before they become an adult insect, larvae feed on yeast and fungi that grow in decomposing and rotting material, they transfer food into Liquids to digest it , flies life cycle transfer from eggs to adults from 8 to 10 days, mating occurs shortly and then the adult insect usually appears within a few hours, egg laying begins after about 24 hours.

There are four stages of life cycle of fruit fly, eggs, larvae, cocoons, and adult.

• Eggs: The adult female lays eggs in mature fruits and they hatch after a few days  from 2-4 days, it may not be possible to recognize the presence of flies eggs in your fruits because their eggs are very small.
• Larvae: larvae feed when they hatch inside the fruit and are accompanied by different bacteria. The activity of worms and bacteria causes the fruit to rot internally and the affected fruit that often falls prematurely.
• Cocoons: the mature larvae leave the fruit and dig into the soil to come out and become inactive larvae and it turn into an oval solid cocoon with a light brown color.
• Adult fly: The adult fly emerges from the cocoon in less than seven days during the summer, or after several months during the winter, the adult fly searches for the food with needed to reach maturity, and at this stage you are able to recognize the flies Adult.

Why do fruit flies enter the house?

Fruit flies enter house through doors and open windows, or through gaps around windows and external doors, as well by buying fruits, vegetables, or small or tightly packed containers filled with fruit flies or their larvae. They are also attracted to your home if you have a garden or have trash.

Nutritional habits of fruit flies

fruit flies feed on fruits, vegetables and other decomposing organic matter. When the number of fruit flies increases in the open air during the summer, they are found near food sources. The fly is more active during the day and it feeds on mature or decomposed plant matter.

damage caused by fruit flies

Fruit flies are not known bite people, but rather they are generally seen as a nuisance insect, yet great care must be taken to get rid of them and prevent them inside and around the house because they live in contaminated areas where garbage, sanitation and drains are so they carry dangerous diseases and bacteria on their bodies and legs and spread these diseases and bacteria for your home, food and anything they touch.

How to get rid of fruit flies?

• Control warm weather at home by examining all openings in the house and setting a strong mesh screen so that it does not leave room for flies to enter.
• Do not leave pieces of open fruits, vegetables, or fruit salads and fruit juices, and jam in open containers.
• Do not keep whole fruits on hand in large quantities so as not to be exposed to fruit flies infection.
• Check vegetables such as potatoes and onions that are stored in large quantities, as there can be rotten vegetables at the bottom.
• Keep sensitive foods in a cool place to inhibit the growth of larval fruit flies.
• If the infection with fruit flies becomes severe, the homeowner should carefully search for the eggs places.
• Get rid of adult insects with pesticides.
• It can be difficult to identify breeding areas at times, so garbage cans must be disposed of properly and you have to stop improper sanitation practices.
• Disposal of food accumulation places that are usually hidden. waste may accumulate in the corners, under the meters, under the boards, in the cracks or around the drainage plates, in the cracks.