If you’ve noticed more fruit flies hanging about lately, a Winnipeg bug expert says it’s not your imagination.
Taz Stuart from Poulin’s Pest Control tells Global News they have seen an increase in fruit fly related calls this year.
“I would say there’s probably more just based on our numbers currently as per last year’s numbers,” Stuart said Thursday.
Stuart couldn’t say exactly why the influx may be happening but did speak to the fact that fruit flies breed and multiply very quickly.
“Those females, once they are mated, will lay even more eggs every literal day so you can see that population grow very, very rapidly,” he said.
“That’s why people will always say, wow, there’s an explosion of fruit flies in my home all of a sudden, it seems like it’s overnight.”
Warm weather could be contributing to the flies’ growing population, according to another bug expert.
Tyler Wist, a research entomologist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, has previously told Global News: “What happens during the summertime is you get warm temperatures which increase the fruit flies’ reproductive rate so they can go from egg to adult in nine days in 25 C.”
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While many might feel as though fruit flies appear out of nowhere, Stuart says you may actually be bringing them into your home from the grocery store.
“Lot’s of people don’t realize that fruit flies can be brought in on fruits, vegetables from the grocery store so it’s important to make sure you are rubbing off the eggs that laid on another spot,” he explained.
One thing about these pesky little flies is they tend to come with a negative connotation. People sometimes think a place with lot of them flying about might be dirty, but that isn’t the case, Stuart says.
“Fruit flies don’t usually need much material — it’s usually not indicative of a dirty restaurant,” he explains.
Fruit flies can be managed by using wine as an attraction in a plastic cup with a hole and they can be prevented by simply getting rid of any possible food sources for them, Wist said.
With files from Meaghan Craig
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