SPOKANE, Wash. — If you've seen more gnats or fruit flies flying around your kitchen, you're not alone.
Fruit flies can be a year problem but are more common during the summer and fall.
"They reproduce relatively quickly, and you can go to bed at night and get up in the morning and all of a sudden you have fruit flies everywhere if you've got some over ripe fruit," said Aaron Noack with Senske Pest Control.
Fruit flies are attracted to things that are rotting, typically from fruits and vegetables that are overly ripe. While they thrive in warmer weather, they also like all the rotting fruits falling from trees. They can enter your home through cracks or their eggs could already be on the produce you bring home waiting to hatch.
"I mean the flies aren't coming in house and laying the egg overnight so it's stuff that's already coming in on with the fruit even though we don't see it," Noack said.
The best thing you can do to keep them out of your house is throw out produce before it goes bad. Or keep them chilled, to keep those pesky flies off your food.
So here's a little life hack: If you pour a little apple cider vinegar into a cup, cover it with saran wrap, poke some holes in it and seal it with a rubber band. Fruit flies can't resist the smell and will get trapped once they're inside.