A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Plant pests and problems Fruit flies

My friend has what I'm pretty sure is a fruit fly infestation. She thinks they got in because of some banana's she had but now they're all over her plants. They don't seem like my flying pests- hers seem a little bigger and might have red bodies. I don't see anything moving in the soil or harm done to the plants but would, of course, like to fix the problem before t gets worse. Any ideas?

Actually put a piece of banana down on the soil and see if they congregate there. That will give you a good idea.
There are sticky traps you can put around plants to capture these things. But if you have nothing else, my go-to is to put about a tablespoon of liquid dish detergent in a qt. spray bottle of water and spray plants and soil top. They stick to that too.

We can bring home a perfect banana, but leave it to turn brown or black and fruit flies come from seemingly no where? Where do they come from?

In the past when they have gone into the soil of my plant, I used an ivory dish soap diluted with water and watered the soil, that got rid of most of them.

Daisy, they just get into the house like anything else. Leave meat out, you'll get maggots. Just happens- they like food and they're good at finding it.

When you get rid of the food they usually go away, however my friends didn't go away, they found the plants. Still not sure what they liked so much over there.
But my problem is resolved now anyways.