Do the fruit flies come with the bananas, or do the bananas attract them?

From what I have read a year ago, they come with the banana.
I thought that the eggs are in the peel already.
But, coincidentally, yesterday I saw a headline, which I didn’t click to read further, that said that we also eat them…
So that would mean they (eggs) are in the banana itself too?

Both.

I’ve read flies are small enough to sneak in through a cracked window or door. Or Trojan horse it on produce brought home from the store.

Though they also lay eggs on fruit. And burrow into the peel once the fruit starts to ripen.

I think they usually get the bananas because it’s not usually a fruit that we wash before we eat. Since we don’t eat the peel.

If you wash your bananas when you first bring them into your home, it might help reduce the issue.

Though it’s a small window since eggs hatch twenty-four hours after they’ve been laid. :/

Also, they are sometimes chillin’ in your drain until they smell fruit and come out.

@raum wouldn’t washing the peel make them spoil faster?

Sounds like the other place to look for them is, er, in us.

@kneesox I think if you pat them dry it should be fine? I’d imagine fruit gets plenty wet when it rains. :)

In us?! You mean because we probably eat them unknowingly?

@raum, yeah…or they might sneak into our crevices and burrow into our corners, hide in our hair, ride in on our clothes…along with all our other inhabitants…

I thought in general, though, that we don’t want to wash produce before we’re ready to use it because there are natural protectants on the outside that slow spoilage—?

I am going to do an experiment with the next bunch of bananas I buy.

I will immerse them in a 10ppm bath of ozone for 2 hours and see what happens. That level is extremely high – about 100 times the maximum exposure limit for workers, 0.1 ppm.

(I have access to a laboratory ozone generator. Don’t try this at home.)

Another experiment someone could do, is put a newly-bought banana under a glass cake dome or something, and leave it there, not lifting the dome for several days, at room temperature but not in direct sunlight, and see if any flies end up inside the dome. Could also do that both with just the peel, and just the banana, to see if any emerge from either of those specifically.

Coincidently, the fruit fly example was one of the first I learned in science about bad assumptions.

I was young, I don’t remember what grade, and they said a long long time ago people witnessed that if you leave fruit out in the house, eventually there would be fruit flies, but that the flies were not being born from thin air like some people thought. I can’t remember if it was that the fruit had the eggs or what? Too long ago.

I’ll be interested in the results of your experiment.

Oops.

….is exactly what they wrote.

@kneesox I think there’s a protective layer. But it’s fine to wash gently if you don’t scrub it so hard.

@LuckyGuy So curious about your banana experiments now!

@Zaku Great idea! Looks like I will have to split the next bunch and do a comparison. I’ll look around the house for a clear cover.

Last night, I intentionally left the peel in the open trash bag and placed a Window Fly Trap above it to see if it would catch anything. Yep! 8 fruit flies. I did not see any more today. Must have caught them all. ;-)

Time flies like an arrow.

Fruit flies like a banana.

I’m also interested in your experiment. I somehow got a ton of fruit flies in December, and although I’m down to 1–3 now, they’ve never gone completely away. I’ve had a small plastic container of vinegar covered with saran wrap out on the counter the whole time. I poked holes in the wrap, and put a drop of dish soap in the vinegar to destroy the surface tension, and it’s been quite successful. I even went without bananas for several months. But I still have 1–3 fruit flies (the ones I see), and they’re teeny, like babies. Also, I have a few dead ones in my refrigerator and freezer. ‘Splain that one to me Luuucy!

Oh…and last week I got some bananas. I don’t have any more flies, just the same 1–3. not literally the same ones, you understand!

I have a banana every morning and in summer I always find a few small black flies circling around my rubbish bin. I’m not sure if they are fruit flies. A very few take to wandering about my flat and are attracted to the brightness of my monitor. This morning one fell and drowned in the glass of orange I have with my breakfast.

I poured a little Kikkoman Plum wine in a glass and swirled it around to wet the sides. I put it near the window and placed a fly strip near it. In 6 hours I caught about 20!

I’m not surprised; they’re kind of related.

@LuckyGuy Can you tell me what fruit flies are doing in my refrigerator/freezer and how they got there? They’re dead, but I just cleaned out 6 of them from my freezer.

This morning I counted 33 in my trap. (That includes the 20 mentioned above.)
I also caught 3 in my bathroom.

They come in through the kitchen window screen. It is from the late 1950s and is still metal screen.

You make more connections than anyone I know @LuckyGuy!

I closed the window and have not caught any more flies in the trap.
I’m sure I got every last one. :-)

I’ll leave the traps up for a couple more days just in case.