How do they get inside? They hitchhike. You bring home a beautiful bunch of organic kale from the farmers’ market. Hidden in the leaves: tiny fly eggs.
They’re also masters of micro-journeys. A fruit fly can fly up to 8 miles in search of food. That’s a marathon for a bug.
Once inside, they release a scent called a “pheromone” to call their friends. Your kitchen becomes a networking event for flies.
Why This Year Is Different
Climate change is a factor—no joke. Warmer temperatures speed up their life cycle. In cool weather, eggs take two weeks to hatch. In heat? Eight days.
That means more generations, faster. A single pair in June can become 10,000 flies by August. Do the math. It’s terrifying math.
Also, we moved more. Pandemic home cooking meant more fruit scraps. More scraps means more breeding. We basically opened a fly hotel.
Common Tiny Black Bugs in the Kitchen and How to Get Rid of Them
