Is it that time of year already?  Is harvest season really upon us so soon?  It seems like we were just planting yesterday.  Where does the time go?  An ancient saying goes something like..."time flies like the wind." How true it is.  A similar and equally true saying, no doubt coined by some frustrated gardener, goes something like..."fruit flies like bananas." Both statements warrant deep reflection, but what is their relationship?  This will be the subject of today's pest column.  Here are some facts, you decide.

Gardeners are now proudly bringing their bounties of fruits and vegetables into the home for eating or processing, but in so doing, they often also accidentally introduce a nuisance pest called a fruit or a vinegar fly. These are tiny, brown or black flies, usually about 1/8 inch long with red eyes (if you look really closely). Fruit flies can be a pest year-round, but are especially common during the late summer or fall. They hang around ripened or fermenting fruits and vegetables, including tomatoes, melons, squash, grapes, apples, peaches or just about any other perishable items brought in from the garden.  They are equally attracted to rotting bananas, potatoes, onions, and other produce purchased at the grocery store.  Regardless of where they originate, once inside a home, their reproductive potential is enormous.  Given the opportunity, a female can lay about 500 eggs.  An entire life cycle (egg to adult) can be completed in about a week.  This means that 500 flies can mature, mate and reproduce within one week, and each female can then lay 500 eggs of her own.  In just the course of August and September, zillions (got a calculator?) of flies can result. 

Fruit flies are primarily nuisance pests.  However, they also have the potential to contaminate food with bacteria and other disease-producing organisms.  They usually infest any over-ripe fruit or vegetable, but they also can reproduce in dirty trash cans or in small amounts of fermenting juices that may have spilled behind sinks, cupboards, clogged drains or garbage.  In fact, they can even breed in empty bottles and cans, or even mops and cleaning rags.  All that is needed for development is a moist film of fermenting material.

The best way to avoid problems with fruit flies is to eliminate sources of attraction.  Produce that has ripened should be eaten, discarded, refrigerated or processed.   Do not leave it sitting out on the cupboard for an extended length of time.

Once a home is infested with fruit flies, all potential breeding areas must be located and eliminated.  Unless the breeding sites are removed or cleaned, the problem will continue no matter how often insecticides are applied to control the adults.  Finding the source(s) of attraction and breeding can be very challenging, and will require persistence on the part of the homeowner.   After the source of attraction/breeding is eliminated, a pyrethrum-based, aerosol insecticide may be used to kill any remaining adult flies in the area.

Always remember that fruits and vegetables plus even a short period of time equals fruit flies.  In other words, "time flies like the wind and fruit flies like bananas."