Make a solution of water, apple cider vinegar, and a little squirt of dish detergent and pour it into several small bowls around the kitchen. It makes perfect fruit fly traps.

Apparently fruit flies are attracted to coffee, who knew?

Thank you. But I've found numerous websites explaining how to get rid of them (and several threads on Houzz). In almost every case, the first rule is to get rid of whatever is attracting the flies and proceed from there. I can't get rid of the coffee machine.

My question is how can I keep the flies away without keeping these traps and repellents around for the rest of my life? This coffee maker is going to be in use all the time and I don't want to be in an endless battle with the flies.

This is nuts!

They may be attracted to your coffeemaker but there may be something else around that they like.

Please check your kitchen.

Why not clean your kitchen drains well, clean out the bottom of your trash can, make sure nothing rolled in a corner anywhere on the floor or under your fridge like an old piece of fruit.

Something is keeping them in your kitchen, and while they are there they are buzzing around the coffeemaker.

Clean the counters and walls all around with a dilute 1/32 clorox solution, some juice or sauce or gravy that they like may have squirted somewhere.

Another thing you can try is getting a roll of that very sticky flypaper and hanging it from the ceiling in the kitchen not too far from the coffeemaker. If you (and your significant other) are not too tall, that may get a lot of them. Of course, your hair may stick to the flypaper too, but that is something else entirely!

I h ad a similar problem and it drove me nuts.

Turned out that a piece of fruit had rolled out of a grocery bag unnoticed and under a piece of furniture in an adjacent room, but the fruitflies weren't in that room, but hovering around the coffeemaker.

Once I found and disposed of the errant fruit, the fruitflies went away.

I had bugs in a coffee maker once (worse than fruit flies). I'm convinced it was due to my roommate not removing the grounds/filter promptly. I wound up throwing the whole thing away and getting a new one. Make sure you remove the grounds/filter ASAP after use and also leave it open so it can dry out.

I love coffee but coffee makers can be nasty.

I also wouldn't recommend the fruit fly trap. I've done it I think it just attracts more fruit flies.

Is it a Miele? No flies in the one we just installed!! I would run a cleaning cycle and throw out the coffee beans you have.

I only get them when there's uncovered fruit present. If they fly out of it when you disturb the coffee machine then that is where they are breeding - there is something in there for them to live off of.

Wait a sec, I just re-read the OP- she says there is no sink. How do you have a kitchen without a sink?

Yes, it is a Miele.

The cabinets were installed several weeks before the appliances and
there were no fruit flies until I started using the coffee maker. There are no counters. No sinks. No drains. (loobab - It's a new kitchen and still under construction, the sink and counters just aren't in yet.) There is no fruit or food of any kind anywhere. There is nothing to clean, the kitchen is new and unused but for the coffee maker. And the only fruit flies are sitting right around the coffee dispenser nozzle. So I guess it's possible they like the moisture there but is that enough to attract the flies in the first place?

There is one other thing I forgot to mention. This machine runs a rinse cycle every time it powers on and off. The rinse cycle dispenses water from the coffee nozzle so you always have to keep a container under the nozzle to catch the rinse because it automatically turns itself off after a preset time and you want to capture that water. It's mostly water and a touch of coffee which gives it a light brown tint.

I can keep dumping the water out every time there is a rinse cycle and see if this helps. But this will start to get old and I won't always be there to dump it right away.

I don't have a ton of flies, I'm hoping it's just a fluke and when I get rid of these buggers they won't come back.

On the Miele all the parts, or at least most of them, come apart and can be cleaned. I would take apart the nozzle and clean it.

Is anyone else using the machine?

usc, I don't remember where you live, but if you are in CA, it has been very hot and dry, so I could see the flies being attracted to any kind of moisture.

Are you sure they are fruit flies? Check online images to see if they might be moth flies (AKA drain flies). Post a few good photo of the little guys if you aren't sure of the ID.

If you can't figure out where they are coming from, try sealing the machine off with plastic wrap and see if flies end up on the inside or outside. Hopefully it will be the outside...

Go Bruins. :P

Fruit flies have a very distinctive random jerky flight motion; many other small insects go in straighter lines or smooth arcs. A vinegar trap might confirm that they are fruit flies, and make them easier to photograph.

There has to be something left behind in the kitchen, time for you to channel the inspector gadget in you and find the source.

Where the hell did these caffeine-junkie flies come from? <<<<<<< I like this one!!

I've gotten the drain flies before too and thought of those also in regard to the situation being discussed here. When you go to use a sink and one of these pops out of the drain it's pretty apparent what is going on. Same as when fruit flies come off of fruit you haven't used yet.

If You Build It, They Will Come

I had these a few times. What I read is there are three types tha t look very much alike..drain flies, fruit flies, and fungus flys that breed in plants.

Did you find a way to eliminate the fruit flies? I'm having the same problem with my espresso machine.

They just went away and they weren't there for very long. I freaked out because I never saw them before and they appeared right after I had the coffee maker installed. So I thought this might be something I'd have to live with but they went away soon after I saw them and they haven't come back.

OK, I've just emptied my Nespresso pod canister and guess what, tiny fruit fly like creatures and lavae (maggots) in it for the second time. None around the machine in the kitchen, all in the canister. When I first bought it I thought I had noticed one or two when I removed the lid to put the used pods into it but thought, no that can't be right but it is. They FLY OUT when I go to put the used pods in. They do not FLY IN when I remove the lid so they are breeding in the canister. I have just scrubbed it with very hot water and dish washing liquid which I also did after the first emptying. I don't know what to do other than stop recycling the pods and putting them straight into an airtight container and then into the bin.

Do you have house plants (catus) ? I had itty bitty flies from a cactus that looked healthy on the outside infested with these itty bitty flies or maybe you have a leak in the coffee pot area.

It's not the Nespresso machine (no pot) but the canister for storing the pods for recycling that is attracting them. I keep the lid on at all times. There are no plants in the area in fact, we don't have any indoor plants.

I can share my experience with coffee machines. I have a Miele coffee maker and I am suspecting my fruit fly issues stem from it. We have a new home and the fruit flies are everywhere in the kitchen, pantry area. I have repeatedly cleaned all the drains in the house with baking soda and vinegar. That didn’t eliminate the flies. Two things made me suspect the coffee maker. Flies appear every time I switch it on and after being away from the house for two months, the flies were non-existent for a few weeks after we got back. The coffee maker was clean and dry when we left so no place to breed I am guessing. Cleaning the parts of the coffee maker doesn’t seem to fix the issue so I am thinking I may have to throw out this very expensive coffee machine. I think the flies are breeding somewhere inside the machine where I cannot clean. It’s totally grossing me out😳

We have fruit flies in our Miele espresso machine and the route seems to have been from a bowl of fruit kept nearby all the way back to hubby noticing a swirl of flying things around the fruit section of our local Publix supermarket. There were a few maggots in the waste container and used coffee grinds but a swirling bonanza of white worms in the moveable dispenser where the coffee and water come out. We took the removable case off this part of the Miele and there were literally thousands of white worms.

We just noticed the problem with a few flies about 10 days ago...now we are inundated. The machine was carefully carefully cleaned and is now taking a rest in the garage. I'm going to try a two week rest and see what the mortality rate is...never ever had this problem before and, as mentioned below, expensive machine but may have to discard it and buy new.

Are these coffee makers the type where you have to keep the used pods around? Sounds like that's where the flies are breeding. Have you considered a smaller, simpler coffee system where you just throw the grounds out and don't have pods? It might seem like a hassle for the first three days but then you get used to it and it's easy.

Glad you were able to figure this out.

Wanted to add my two coins as well: no matter how clean your kitchen is, they will always find a way. Unfortunately, so long as the coffee grounds are wet (and that's a huuuge problem with in-built machines), you will have a problem: these flies breed and feed in decomposing, wet (or very moist) matter and have no interest in fruit, etc. You'll need to clean it as often as possible if you notice them flying around. As this means they already hatched (ew, gross, but this it real) and they have laid eggs in some wet matter.

Apart from cleaning your Miele, always check your houseplants and sink drains (as they can settle here as well if it's too wet). Place a trap with a mix of juice and glue somewhere near the coffee system so they can stuck in it.

Thank you for the tip on other sources where they can procreate! And...interesting idea mixing glue with juice!

You're welcome Linda!

@Linda Smith, I was able to salvage my machine, but I didn‘t use it for a couple months. That gave me time to ensure all the flies were out of my house. As others have mentioned, they seem to hide in other places too and although I got rid of a huge amount within a week, it seemed there were a few that lingered for several weeks. They’re back in the kitchen again this year, but I now empty coffee grounds daily so they aren’t in the coffee machine. I found that while the sugar & vinegar traps work, it is a SLOW process. I’m going to try the glue & juice mentioned above. In the mean time, I’ve found one of the fastest ways to kill them, is to keep a spray bottle of water & dish soap handy. If I spray them with it they can’t fly for a while giving me time to smack them. I get my daughter to help and it becomes a game to see who can kill the most flies. LOL!

I am working in Petrol Station and we have coffee machine too. I was troubling with fruit flies around the coffee maker machine. I analysed that mostly they sit on those parts where milk mostly split. After that, I decided to clean all surfaces, gaps, corner, machine part, milk cleaning clothe and also sink where wasted milk goes with streak free cleaner regularly. And finally I got good result. This method doesn’t work for permanent removal but it can huge reduction.

I agree that the milk seems to be the biggest culprit...the milk frother nozzle of our machine had a huge cluster of maggots. It was also the hardest to clean because of the nooks and crannies. But, as Becky mentioned, the final solution seemed to be a loooong rest after cleaning. We dismantled the whole machine, cleaned it and let it rest for weeks in the garage.

Don't want to 'hex it' but think we finally got a solution with cleaning and rest. Plenty of good ideas here if they rise up like zombies again...grrrr.

I've seen them fly past my face into the house, just as house flies will, through the door as I am entering or exiting - almost as if they were waiting for the opportunity!

Hi everyone! Well, I came to this post because I just had a barrage of fruit flies invade my kitchen-in which I currently have no fruit out.

Inside all of these coffee makers is an extra water reservoir that attract these annoying, disgusting beasts. I had a nespresso machine that fruit flies LOVED and I finally figured out that there was this secret water container where these pests were thriving. It was an extra tray within the nespresso machine that was the culprit!

Currently, we have a tecnivorm Moccamaster and when you look at it there is no visible water. I remembered my scarring nespresso incident and flipped my machine upside down and holy crap did a ton of water (and fruit flies ) emerge! (Insert vomit emoji here!)

Sadly, it seems I’m still on the search to figure out steps to preventing this reoccurrence but my suggestion is to FIND THAT RESERVOIR! Coffee maker manuals should all DEFINITELY have that information prominently displayed.

I hope this helps someone else and if anyone knows an easy way to access it in the Moccamaster I’d greatly appreciate it!

Let me tell you my tale of woe which is still increasing my blood pressure even tonight. For the past 5 days, my house has been inundated with some type of small flies; maybe drain flies, but I have a coffee angle as well. This morning, I used the foot peddle on a plastic Rubbermaid trash receptacle in the kitchen........there must have been at least 25 in the garbage and many flew out all over my kitchen and dining room. I had noticed most seeming to come from the kitchen sink/drains, so I used the foaming disposal/drain cleaner at least twice, but that had no impact. I made coffee as usual this morning, using my Cuisinart 12-cup coffee maker, although I just make one cup and use paper filters and some organic ground coffee. I didn't really look "into" the coffee maker this morning, but I had just run vinegar and water through it the other day for the auto-clean cycle, which it really needed. Like some others in this thread have mentioned, I don't think that the standard cleaning touches every opening within the coffee maker where moisture may be allowed to linger. Later in the day, it appeared that many of these flies were around my coffee maker........to my horror, when I opened the lid on top, there must have been 15 or 20 inside the coffee maker. Even after I rinsed it out and attempted to dry it off, more flies were landing on it. It was like a horror film. I tried putting into two plastic grocery bags, since I didn't have a single bag big enough, and I shortly realized that there were flies getting into the bags like the coffee maker was a magnet. I then cleaned the coffee maker in the sink, and cleaned the canister as well and hand dried each and put the coffee maker into two other plastic bags and put it in my home office at the other end of my house. I put the canister in a separate bag and tied the top and did the same with the basket. (as I type this, there are flies landing on my hands and arms......Alfred Hitchcock can't be far away) I would guess that I have killed about 100 of these flies in the past 4 days and still am not entirely sure where they came from, but I have read that drain flies breed and hatch every 48 hours and I seem to just keep coming. If these things were in my coffee maker this morning, I must have ingested a lifetime's worth. I seem to have two sizes of these flies and the only way to kill any of them is when the land on the counter. When they are flying, it is extremely hard to kill them. I believe they are attracted to carbon dioxide, because they have flown into my eyes, nose and mouth. They sound like mosquitos when they fly near my ears. I may try the apple cider vinegar and dish soap idea before going to bed shortly, but I'm afraid that I wake up with even more tomorrow. I have read that you can add some sugar to this mixture as well. The dish soap is important. Since I could not eat lunch or dinner today because so many were landing on my food and plates, and I had to throw food away, this is really taking its toll. They are going into my kitchen cabinets and have tried to get into the microwave. I am putting many scraps that might have gone into the garbage into separate bags and tying them off. There is no open food or waste in my kitchen. I even sprayed flying bug spray into the garbage when I discovered the infestation there and it made no difference.....nothing kills these things........help !!!

UPDATE: I used two suggestions found online that seem to help. One is to build a simple fly trap using apple cider vinegar and dish soap in a cup/container and put plastic wrap on top, secure with a rubber band and poke some small holes in the top with a toothpick. Flies get in; can't get out. Other thing is the suggestion to use a spray bottle and fill with water and dish soap. You can zap flies when they land somewhere and it makes it easier to kill them. Run water and disposal more frequently to make sure there is no "organic matter" that can attract more flies.

Yes I have the same problem. Those little bastards go in and out of my coffee maker and come charging when I grind my coffee 😡 cleaned the coffee maker real good. No traps work. I am gonna try the funnel method only no fruit... Only coffee grinds.

I think I've found a solution. 

The flies were rampant in the vessel we dump the coffee grounds into.  Everytime I emptied the spent grounds into the vessel, I'd be greeted by a cloud of flies.  The did no harm, but it wasn't pleasant. 

I experimented with sitting a basic sieve on the top of the vessel I scrape the grounds into.  The water, obviously, drained through the grounds into the  below, and the grounds themselves dried out.  At the end of the day (we make our coffees in the morning) I dump the drained grounds into the vessel.  

Two weeks now ...  no flies!  I suspect it's the 'mix' of grounds and water that provide the habitat.  By separating them, the liquid has time to somewhat evaporate.  

Worth a try.  It worked for us.

Also, drain and rinse the drip tray daily.  I do this into an icecream container that sits in the sink (to avoid grounds heading into the pipework when I rinse the coffee holder thingy after scraping the grounds out as mentioned above) and then use the water each day to water indoor plants.  Plants are loving the daily attention!

No fly spray where you lot come from? I made sure all surfaces etc were clean as could be with a solution of 20/1 water and strong disinfectant. Disinfected my kitchen bin and put it outside. Make coffee, empty coffee grams into bin rinse through all moveable parts. Every time I left the house I spray with strong fly spray .. two days in ..no flies ..I didn't ask them where they came from btw, but they seem to have found their way back there.