Get rid of and prevent fruit flies on your bananas!

How to Prevent Fruit Flies on Your Bananas

So, you want to prevent fruit flies from getting to your prized bananas.

This quick guide will cover everything you need to know about how to stop and get rid of fruit flies from getting to your banana fruit.

Sound good? Let’s dive in.

Do bananas attract fruit flies?

Banana fruit fly prevention.
Bananas are a prime target for fruit flies!

Yes. Fruit flies are attracted to most fruits and bananas are only one of them.

Any kind of ripened or fermenting fruits are perfect meals for them.

Fruit flies eat a variety of fruits like:

  • Tomatoes
  • Squash
  • Grapes
  • Potatoes
  • Onions
  • Bananas
  • Melons
  • And more

Pretty much anything that’s ripe will be attracting fruit flies and they’ll gladly eat and breed on the fruit. Bananas are no exception to this.

Do bananas cause fruit flies?

Bananas are a prime source of food for fruit flies. They’ll eat bananas as soon as they become ripe.

They’re not attracted to underripe bananas, but are attracted to ripe and possibly overripe ones.

Ripe bananas will cause fruit flies. All it takes is just a single female fruit fly which can lay up to 500 eggs and also reach full maturity within just a week.

They’re almost as virulent as cockroaches or cluster flies!

Then the process can repeat, which means the reproductive ability of fruit flies is exponential.

How do fruit flies come out of nowhere on bananas?

Fruit fly on plant.
Fruit flies don’t spawn out of nowhere- they’re just way too sneaky!

While you may believe that these little pests just seemingly spawn out of nowhere, we all know that’s not the case!

Fruit flies were once believed that they actually spontaneously generate, meaning they appear from thin air.

They actually are super tiny flies that are attracted to ripe or rotting fruits that they can detect with their senses. They’ll sneak into your home and eat up your fruits just over the peak ripeness level.

They’re actually very stealthy and snek into your home through many different ways:

  • Cracks and crevices
  • Windows
  • Doors
  • Pet doors
  • Patio doors
  • Garages
  • Window or patio screens

They’re very good at detecting the scent from overripe fruit and fermenting alcohol. This actually is the prime attractant for fruit flies.

They eat up the ripe fruit and will breed and lay eggs in the same fruit. And the life cycle of a fruit fly is super fast- the eggs hatch within hours.

Bananas are a prime target for fruit flies because of how common they are (you probably have bananas in your home right now) and how easy they ripen.

They also have a smell that just reeks and fruit flies love this scent.

That’s why sometimes it seems like they spawn from nowhere in your bananas, but they don’t. They sneak in from outside, other fruits, or even hitchhike on you or your pets.

How do you kill fruit flies on bananas?

Well, the real question is do you really want to eat the fruit flies on your bananas?

After they’ve laid up to 500 eggs all over your fruit? Are you sure you want to take a bite out of that?

I’d suggest to just throw it out!

However, if you think you can spare those bananas, there are a few ways you can kill the fruit flies.

Here are a couple of my favorite methods:

Vinegar

You can mix water and vinegar in a 1:1 ratio in a spray bottle and spray it directly onto the bananas. This will kill the fruit flies, but of course, make your bananas taste sour.

But hey, maybe you can make banana bread?

Boiling water

You can dunk the bananas in boiling water to kill all the fruit flies on them.

Of course, this assumes you’re going to cook the bananas afterwards. I don’t think anyone wants bananas ridden with pests that’ve been dunked in hot water.

Windex

This will kill fruit flies right away upon contact.

But you won’t be able to eat the banana afterwards.

You can use this to kill all the fruit flies first, then trash the banana after. This will kill them all and prevent them from spreading in the trash can.

How do you prevent fruit flies around bananas?

Fruit fly macro.
Fruit flies can be prevented from your bananas with basic practices!

The easiest way would be to never let them overripe. Eat the banana before it starts to ripen too much and you’ll never have to deal with fruit flies on your bananas.

You’re probably not going to be able to keep them out of your home forever, so eating the fruit would be the next best thing.

You can also prevent fruit flies from getting on your bananas simply by eating them on time.

If you already have fruit flies buzzing around your fruits, here are some ways you can get rid of and prevent them.

Set up fruit fly traps

You can make your own DIY fruit fly trap for bananas at home quite easily.

Here’s what you need:

  • Piece of paper
  • Mason jar
  • Dish soap
  • Water
  • Piece of banana

How to make it:

  1. Take the dish soap and water and mix them together in equal parts in the mason jar.
  2. Place the banana pice in the jar.
  3. Take a piece of paper and roll it up into a funnel. Then place it over the jar’s mouth so it “funnels” the fruit flies into the jar.

How it works:

  • The fruit flies will sniff out the rotting banana and will enter the jar through the paper funnel.
  • Once they get in, they can’t get out.
  • The dish soap will then kill them over time.
  • You can set up this trap right next to your bananas or other fruits to prevent fruit flies.

Sticky tape

You can also make DIY fly tape at home and place those found your fruit bowl.

Simply tape it or whatever surface you want- the table, counter, or the bowl itself. Fruit flies will get stuck on the tape and can’t escape.

Use a fruit bowl cover

There are a ton of fruit bowl covers you can buy online that are made just for that proupse- to protect your fruits. In this case you can protect your bananas from fruit flies by covering them with a fruit bowl cover.

Place the bananas in the bowl, then cover it when you’re not eating them.

Simple, right?

Is it safe to eat bananas with fruit flies?

No. I wouldn’t recommend this at all.

They lay eggs that hatch into larvae with no remorse.

They have quality and you could end up getting sick from disease transmission or just fly eggs in your stomach. Throw out all banas and fruits that have been in contact with fruit flies.

This means the one that you know for sure they’re eating, and any neighboring ones. You can wash the fruit before you eat it for the fruits that you’re unsure about.

Bananas have the skin so you’re pretty safe when eating bananas that they’ve crawled on. Just inspect it and wash the skin with hot water first.

But for the bananas that they’ve clearly eaten or have ripped skin, toss it out!

Do fruit flies make bananas rot faster?

Fruit flies will destroy the remaining fruit.

They’ll eat it up, breed, and lay eggs all in the fruit, which of course will make them rot faster. The bacteria, larvae, and eggs are all detrimental to the fruit and something you should avoid.

Prevent them from getting to your fruits, then dispose of the fruits where they’re infested.

For all the other fruits, you can wash them after you use the various methods covered above to get rid of them.

When in doubt, throw it out!

Did you learn how to prevent fruit flies from eating your bananas?

Banana bunch.
Now you know how to prevent and rid any fruit flies from ever touching your bananas!

You should have all the knowledge you need now to prevent, get rid off, and stop fruit flies from eating your banana.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.

Or if this guide has helped you, let me know! Consider telling a fellow banana-lover about these tips and tricks also!

Thanks for reading.

2 thoughts on “How to Prevent Fruit Flies on Your Bananas”

  1. Hi Anthony,
    Just wanted to alert you to a few typo errors in this document. I’ve taken screenshots if that would be easier for you to find them, just msg me & I’ll send them to you.

    Another thing I thought I’d mention, is that the photos you’ve provided here are close-ups, which doesn’t give us an idea of actual size. I’m wondering if you can get hold of a photo to show scale?

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