Pesky Fruit Flies Spread Contamination in Northern New Jersey Kitchens
If you see tiny flies hovering near the bananas on your kitchen counter or buzzing around the trash can in your northern New Jersey home, fruit flies have come visiting. These tiny flies are just 1/8 inch long with tan-colored bodies and distinctive red eyes. Fruit flies are so named because they feed and breed on fruit. Eggs are usually brought into homes on ripe fruit where they quickly develop into larvae, then mature flies.
Fruit flies are attracted by the high sugar content of decaying fruits and vegetables which comprise their primary food source. These minute flies also use spoiled produce as a breeding ground, laying their eggs on the surfaces of over-ripe and decaying fruits and vegetables. When larvae hatch, they feed on the spoiled fruit. However, because fruit flies are surface breeders, the spoiled, larvae-infested portions of fruits and vegetables can be removed and the healthy portions safely consumed. While not a documented health hazard, their feeding behavior makes fruit flies a likely source of pathogens.
Fruit flies pose an annoying nuisance in the kitchens of northern New Jersey homes. However, when fruit flies infest commercial kitchens, restaurants or grocery stores in Bergen, Passaic, West Essex or Morris counties, they not only cause economic loss from spoiled fruit, but these pesky insects impart an air of uncleanliness that drives away customers.
If you are experiencing a fruit fly problem in your northern New Jersey home or business, call a northern New Jersey pest control expert.