Fruit flies stay away with common item in fruit bowl – not vinegar

While supermarket shelves are stocked with sprays and insect deterrents to help combat this issue, there are also several natural remedies you can do to keep them away by using items many people already have at home.

This often includes creating small traps of apple cider vinegar mixed with dish soap in a glass, or by pouring hot water down the kitchen sink to get rid of any new eggs.

But if you can’t stand to have your kitchen smell of vinegar all summer, people have now been left baffled to learn that you can use the cork of a wine bottle to deter these pesky fruit flies.

Taking to Instagram, a man named Erwan, who goes by ‘secretwinedoor’ on the app, has shared how the cork from a bottle of wine can have more uses than just keeping your wine fresh.

“Do you ever find fruit flies in your fruit basket? Well, did you know you can take a wine cork cut in half in your fruit basket to repel them?” the man said at the start of his video, before going on to explain how it works.

How do wine corks keep fruitflies away?

The idea behind this method is that fruit flies are attracted to the scent of ripe or decaying fruits. But by placing natural wine corks in your fruit bowl is a clever, natural way to deter fruit flies, as they will deter from the smell of the wine cork due to their sensitive sense of smell.

The porous corks absorb the excess moisture emitted by ripening fruit while releasing an odor that fruit flies find unpleasant.

“By placing a cork in the fruit basket, the cork’s natural scent may help mask or deter the fruity aroma, potentially making the area less appealing to fruit flies,” they wrote in the caption of the post.

But to make this work, you will need to make sure to use corks made from actual, natural cork material rather than synthetic (plastic) alternatives. Natural materials can absorb humidity, whereas synthetic ones cannot. The corks need to be clean and dry. If they have wet, sugary wine residue on them, they will actually attract more flies.

People were quickly left amazed, as viewers went on to take to the comment section of their video to share their thoughts. One person shared: “OMG. I have a ton of corks in a tub in a tub on another work top for crafts. I need to remember this for future reference. Thank you.”

“Will try,” a second user wrote, while another praised: “Good information.”

Someone else also added: “pour boiling water in your sink once a week… that’s where they’re laying their eggs.”