Pesky Fruit Flies

I love summertime, and one of my favorite things about summer is all the fresh fruits and vegetables.  We almost always have some kind of fruit around.  Unfortunately, that means there are sometimes fruit flies around, too.  You know, those itty bitty dots you see moving across a piece of fruit or flying around the kitchen.  I was making one of my boys a peanut butter and honey sandwich (his favorite) and noticed this on the jar of honey on the counter:

At the top you'll notice a normal house fly that made it's way in as well, but the two spots in the middle are fruit flies.  This morning, there were a few flying around our bananas as well.  Because of their very small size, my basic, non-sophisticated camera cannot focus on them very clearly.  They just look like the other spots appearing on the bananas.  However, look closely and you will be able to pick out some details: 

Look for the wings on the center spot

Find the little legs and red eyes on the middle banana

I love this one.  You can see the fruit fly on the side of the banana.  Look closely and you can see one on the napkin holder!

These pesky fruit flies can be a problem all year round, but they are very common during the late summer and fall seasons because of ripened and fermenting fruits and vegetables.  Although they are only about 1/8 in. long and seem to just be a nuisance, fruit flies breed bacteria and can become a health issue.  Since the life cycle of fruit flies is around 10 days, you can quickly find yourself overrun with an infestation. 

Check back next week for some tips to keep your home free of fruit flies and ways to get rid of them once you have them.