Vinegar flies, also known as fruit flies, pomace flies, or wine flies (all references to the attraction to overripe or rotting fruit that these species demonstrate), are a species of small flies that belong to the family Drosophilidae of the genus Drosophilia. The most common time of the year that people report encountering problems with vinegar flies is the end of summer, when ripe fruits and vegetables are abundant.
As summer approaches and more fruits become available, the vinegar flies also make an appearance. Cleaning up your house regularly, especially your kitchen, where fruits and vegetables are mostly found, can help you keep the flies away. As they are mostly attracted to fermenting or rotting fruits and vegetables, make sure you do not provide them with the possibility of finding the food they want.
Fruit flies or vinegar flies are tiny, quick-reproducing flies that either sneak into your house right on your fruits and vegetables, or flit in through minuscule window cracks and screens. Since they can grow from egg to adult in just over a week, fruit flies quickly set up well-established families in your kitchen and feed off any fermenting fruit they can find.
Vinegar flies, or Drosophila, are part of a genus of small flies, and is often known as “fruit flies. The entire genus, however, contains more than 1,500 species and is very diverse in appearance, behaviour, and breeding habitat. They can be found in deserts, tropical rainforest, cities, swamps, and alpine zones. They eat all foods that are rotting or fermenting, such as apples, bananas, tomatoes, potatoes, onions. The liquid that remains at the bottom of beer bottles or cans, as well as the wet remains of food that gather in drains can also be enough organic material to support a population of vinegar flies.