Common fruit flies again pestering Finnish kitchens

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The common fruit fly or vinegar fly (Drosophila melanogaster) is a common nuisance in Finnish kitchens, frequently in the autumn.
      Jaakko Kullberg, the Collection Manager of the Finnish Museum of Natural History, says that this yellow-brown, red-eyed fly is a species in the family Drosophilidae.
      These insects get into flats in fruits carried by residents from supermarkets or from outside the house. The common fruit fly is native to Finland, so does not need a helping hand through imports of fresh produce.
     
Fruit flies are at their most abundant in the autumn, as they have been able to breed over the entire summer.
      Breeding fast and laying many eggs, fruit flies can develop from egg to adult in some 7 days.
     
Fruit flies are attracted by the smell of rotting products. They feed on rotting fruit or other suitable material such as decaying mushrooms. However, flowers are not a natural habitat of fruit flies.
      Frequently fruit flies show up when people do not empty their biological waste containers often enough. Or when one plum in the fruit basket is contaminated.
      ”Or if a can or bottle with some beer or juice is left open somewhere. It is a good place for fruit flies to breed”, Kullberg notes.
      Fruit flies can be irritating, but they are harmless enough. They neither whine, buzz annoyingly, nor spread diseases.
     
Even though common fruit flies are a nuisance in a kitchen, they have long been the most commonly used model organisms in biological research, particularly in genetics and developmental biology.
     
How to get rid of fruit flies is a popular subject on the Internet. In fact, proper sanitation is the only effective resolution. One should remove the food source and breeding areas, and not leave any moist, fermenting, organic material in which they may lay their eggs.
      One could also make a fly trap to speed the process.
      For instructions, see the link below.


Links:
  Drosophila melanogaster (Wikipedia)
  How to get rid of fruit flies (WikiHow)

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