How to Get Rid of Gnats in the Kitchen

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Nobody wants to face a gnat problem around the kitchen but understanding how these tiny pests behave is the most important thing to know when it comes to prevention and control. However, before you can start eliminating these bugs from your home, you first need to understand what a gnat is. In this article, we share everything you need to know about these tiny insects, including how to get rid of gnats in the kitchen.

Table of Contents

What are Gnats?

These little insects are often confused with small flies and when left unattended, can spread as pests around the house. Some of the most common types you’ll find inside homes include drain flies, fungus gnats, phorid flies, and fruit flies. They are particularly drawn to organic matter and moist environments, making bathrooms and kitchens their primary hot spots.

Where do Gnats Come From?

Because the common house fly can smell odors from as far as 4 miles away, gnats have a similar advantage and will often invade places where they smell food, including restaurants and homes. They will be drawn to the scent of decaying and rotting meat, vegetables, fruits, and other natural materials such as feces. Most of the time, gnats will enter houses once they identify an odor where they can lay eggs — putting their eggs directly onto their offspring’s food source ensures their survival.

There are also times when these annoying pests enter our home through the groceries we bring inside. Sometimes, flies may have already laid their eggs over produce inside the packing factory or grocery store; by the time your fruits and vegetables reach your counter, the life cycle may have already started. Other areas where gnats can come from include underground areas of your home where broken pipes can cause problematic fly infestations.

Identifying a Gnat Infestation

As mentioned above, gnats can make their way into your home through gaps or cracks in your walls, foundation, doors, or windows. Moreover, they can be found inside rotting fruit, garbage cans, and other moist areas where you’ll find organic waste. You’ll also find them around drains, sinks, and toilets — gnat infestations will often start once you notice adult flies around sources of organic material, house plants, or standing water.

Key areas for you to check include garbage disposals, sink drains, potted plants, and fruit baskets. If you see gnats somewhere around your home, then chances are that something is decaying or there’s a source of moisture nearby.

Types of Gnats

The term gnat is a colloquial word that’s often used to describe small, pesky, flying insects. While true flies under the order Diptera, come with 2 wings; there are more than 125,000 species of true flies known but it’s believed that there are more kinds of true flies yet to be discovered. With such a wide variety of flies, it can be difficult to discern which is which but in terms of pest control, the issue almost always points to fruit flies, drain flies, phorid flies, or fungus gnats.

Fungus Gnats

While fungus gnats aren’t harmful to people, they’re often considered to be an aesthetic pest and nuisance. Live plants will often be incorporated into the interior design of homes and businesses to add vibrancy and color to the room while promoting general health and well-being. Fungus gnat larvae will often live on these plants since the adults will be attracted to moist soil with organic content.

Plants that are particularly at risk from fungus gnats are tender, young seedlings — while most indoor plants suffer from a lack of water, fungus gnats will thrive when there’s too much moisture within the soil. To break the lifecycle of fungus gnats, be sure to let the surface of the soil dry completely before watering it again. It’s also important to avoid putting an infested plant close to another that doesn’t have fungus flies.

Drain Flies

When there’s a complaint about gnats, it often refers to drain flies which are also called moth flies, sink flies, sewer gnats, or sewer flies. While their name suggests that they come from drains, they actually come into your home from outside since they’re attracted to organic debris inside drains. Inside commercial facilities like schools, hotels, and restaurants, you’ll often see unused floor drains that may let drain flies come in and out easily.

A simple trap you can use consists of a clear plastic cup with a bit of vegetable oil or petroleum jelly; be sure to put this cup over your drain for a few days. If there are any immature drain flies around the drain, you should be able to capture adults as they develop and attempt to fly away. Drain flies also come with moth-like wings and are drawn to places with water, so you should be able to identify them easily.

Fruit Flies

Wherever there’s food, you can be sure that there are fruit flies, this includes school cafeterias, commercial kitchens, grocery stores, and your kitchen. These are all likely places for a fruit fly infestation to take place which can take place simply by leaving a piece of vegetable or fruit on your counter. Even as adults, fruit flies are small, and are easily distinguished through their red eyes, and like other flies, they develop through metamorphosis.

Once you’ve cleared your home or business of a fruit fly infestation, performing regular preventative maintenance of your trash bins, drains, and surfaces is crucial. Whether you have a business or need help at home, calling a professional pest control company can be a great way to control these pests.

Phorid Flies

Phorid flies are another small and bothersome critter that is often referred to as gnats; also called coffin flies, sewer flies, and scuttle flies, the adults are poo fliers and prefer to run rather than fly. Rather than sticking to overripe fruits and vegetables, they will reproduce inside any rotting organic matter and their favorite foods consist of feces and decaying flesh. To get rid of phorid flies in your home, you must locate its breeding site first and remove all organic matter.

You will often find them around sewer pipes, as well as floor and sink drains but they can also breed around mop buckets and in tight spaces where large appliances and tables meet the floor. However, these pests can only survive around moist conditions, including trash cans and garbage disposals but you should also inspect around your bathrooms and kitchens.

Eliminating Gnat Infestations

If you’re frustrated with having to deal with these buzzing pests around your house, below is a quick guide on how to exterminate gnats and prevent future infestations.

Remove Their Breeding Grounds

To rid your home of drain flies, you must take away their breeding sites; drain flies are known to lay eggs along sewage pipes and wet manure, and will commonly breed in the organic matter around the edges of drains. The most vital step in getting rid of these annoying pests is to destroy the areas where they live and breed. These areas will often be wet and have things that they love to eat such as decaying organic matter.

Kitchen Sinks and Garbage Disposal: Bits of food that get stuck here are why they love to stick around here; be sure to use a mix of vinegar and baking soda with hot water to keep it free from gnats. You can also use commercial cleaning products such as a fruit and drain eliminator.
Pipes and Sink Drains: Gnats eat up everything that ends up inside sink drains; if you want to clear these areas, mix some liquid dish soap with boiling water and pour it down the sink. This will help you break down organic matter and doing this at least once a week should keep pests away.
Bathroom Showers and Drains: Much like your kitchen sink, bathroom drains can also attract gnats so be sure to clean them regularly using a mix of hot water and white vinegar. Alternatively, you can also use a drain cleaner and be sure to fix leaky pipes or faucets that create standing water which can become a breeding ground.

Make a Gnat Trap

Creating a vinegar trap can be an effective and inexpensive way to rid your house of these pests. Inside a mixing bowl, combine a tablespoon of sugar, a few drops of dish soap, and a few tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. Place the bowl around gnat-infested locations such as bathrooms or kitchens where it will catch all of these flying insects.

If you’re unable to get apple cider vinegar, you can also mix some dish soap with red wine to make your gnat trap. Another option you can take is to make a fruit trap, where you cover an overripe fruit jar using plastic wrap; you can then punch small holes over the wrap’s surface. When gnats come looking for food, they will come inside the jar and get trapped.

Try an Insect Zapper

Getting a bug zapper is a great alternative to the traps above, even if it works better on bigger pests like mosquitoes. These days, there are a wide variety of designs and brands to choose from, all of which are ideal for indoor use. They are quiet devices that will be able to capture huge amounts of flies and gnats around your home; the best thing is that you never have to exert energy to get them.

Clean Drains with Baking Soda

Using ½ a cup of baking soda, ½ a cup of salt, and 1 cup of vinegar, create a mixture inside a cup or bowl. Pour this mixture into your drain if you notice them hanging around your bathtub or kitchen sink. Carefully pour it down the garbage disposal until gnats disappear from your kitchen.

Use Rotting Fruit

In this option, you’ll be using the exact item that may have started your infestation in the first place. Using a big bowl, add a few pieces of overripe fruit and cover it with a plastic wrap then fasten it with a rubber band. Next, use a toothpick to make some holes; gnats will soon come for the fruits and enter the jar through the holes, but will ultimately get stuck inside.

Call a Professional Pest Control Company

When all else fails and you have a persistent problem that can’t be solved by the suggestions above, it’s time to call a professional pest control company. The best pest control firms will provide you with great service and give you an experienced approach to treating these problems. Apart from killing off the larvae, they will also exterminate adult gnats using a personalized treatment plan for your home.