Fruit Flies - Burton,MI

I haven't any advice, but I wanted to thank you for asking this because I'm having the same problem with fruit flies right now too.

I am a chef and have been for decades. We would take a small coffee cup and put a small amount of vinegar in it. Then stretch a piece of plastic wrap over it with a small hole punched in the middle. Just big enough for flys to get into. They will fly in and die in cup so make sure its a jar or cup you no longer need. This will work and is almost free to use.
Good luck
Jack

Poor at least one cup of straight bleach down every drain in your house. They lay eggs in pipes. Do this everynight for a week after everyone is done using sinks and toilets. Remember every drain. Once you've done this for a week you should not see any more fruit flys. Keep up this at least once a week here after, then you can go to once a month.

Good luck. Oh, yeah you can use those sticky fly strips during the first week of your nightly treatments just to get the ones that are roaming around in the house.

this truly works. good luck and god bless.

D.

take a piece of heavy paper like construction paper and make it into a funnle with a small opening at the bottom-so twist it tightly. place it into a bottle that has some water with maple syrup in it or smoething that gives off a very sweet smell. place it into the area you see them-they will fly into the funnel for the sweet smell and not be able to find their way out and drown--sad but it works well and fast!

Put some wine vinegar in a small bottle and put plastice wrap over the opening of the bottle. Then with a toothpick poke a hole in the top. THe fruit flies go in but don't return. I keep one right by my fruit on the counter. The eggs of fruit flies are so small that they are easily transported in fruit shipments and then they hatch when they arrive in your home.

# Make a bowl trap:

* Put a piece of old skinless fruit and some wine, or some balsamic in a bowl (think like the flies: what do you want for dinner?).
* Cover the bowl tightly (no wrinkles) with plastic wrap.
* Poke many small holes in the plastic with a fork. The fruit flies go in and can't get out (if the holes are too big they will fly back out).

# Make a plastic zip lock bag trap:

* Place a few slices of an apple inside a zip lock bag
* Leave an inch open to allow pests to enter. The little pests will soon be on and surrounding the apple.
* Zip the bag closed and crush each one with your fingertips.

# Make a funnel trap:

* Make a cone out of the sheet of paper (like a funnel). Tape the outside of the cone so that it stays in place.
* Check that the cone fits snugly into a glass or cup.
* Cut off the tip of the cone so that you now have a funnel.
* Pour a small amount of cider vinegar into the glass or cup. (Rum mixed with orange juice also works very well - additionally, a half teaspoon of baker's yeast in water can also suffice)
* Insert the funnel into the glass or cup, but don't let the bottom of the funnel touch the liquid. Tape the funnel in two or three places from the outside so that there is no gap between the glass and the cone.
* Place your newly created trap on a flat surface. The flies will be attracted by the smell of the fruity vinegar and fly into the cone. The flies will slip down the cone and will either land in the vinegar and drown or will be trapped and not able to get back out. If you leave the trap overnight, the trapped fruit flies will eventually fall into the vinegar and drown.

# Make a soda bottle trap:

* Remove the lid and label from a clean, empty plastic two-liter soda bottle.
* Carefully remove the upper third of the bottle by cutting along its circumference at approximately where the top of the label used to be.
* Put an attractive liquid such as orange juice or cider vinegar in the cup-shaped part of the now-severed bottle.
* Turn the cone upside-down and insert it into the cup-shaped bottom part of the bottle. Seal the seam at the top of the bottle with duct tape.
* Fruit flies find their way into the bottle, but they can't get back out. After most flies are trapped inside, simply seal the bottle in a plastic shopping bag and throw out.

# Make an oven trap:

* Remove all available food from kitchen. Clean the dishes, place open items in ziplock bags or the fridge.
* Open the door of your oven and place a piece of fruit (banana or kiwi peels) in there overnight.
* Wake up early the next morning and quietly close the oven door.
* Turn on the oven to 400ºF/200ºC for about 10-15 minutes and majority of your fruit flies will be gone.
* Clean the oven thoroughly.

# Make a glass trap:

* Put a piece of fruit in a glass.
* Cover the glass tightly with plastic wrap and secure to the glass.
* Put a small hole in the plastic. The fruit flies go in and can't get out.

# Make a wine trap:

* Put a small amount of sweet wine in a little bowl.
* Take your finger tip and put a very tiny amount of dish soap on it, preferably diluted
* Barely touch the surface of the wine at the center with your finger tip.
* This breaks the surface tension of the wine. The fruit flies will be attracted by the scent of the wine and drown in it. Normally the surface tension of the wine would have protected them from drowning, but with it gone, as they touch the edge of the wine to drink, they will stick to it, fall in and drown.

Beer or juice in a cup also works if you don't have any vinegar. One time I didn't nip it in the bud and I ended up with *hundreds* of them. I would vacuum them up every night with the hose on my vacuum cleaner--several days in a row--and still they kept winning the battle. I finally went out and bought plain ol' fashioned "fly paper" and hung it up in my kitchen. It sure is sticky but it sure did the trick!

Sometimes fruit flies come in with the produce from the grocery store or produce stand. When I get them I do the following and it gets rid of them every time.

Get a tall jar and put a piece of banana and about an inch and a half of vinegar in the jar. Put plastic wrap over the top of the jar and secure it. Place a straw through the plastic wrap and only put it far enough into the jar so that it is above the vinegar and tape it in place. The flies will go down the straw and they can't get back out. Then when it looks like I've got them all I just throw the jar away. It's not a pretty thing to have sitting on my counter but it works.

T.

Make sure all ripe fruit is put in the fridge or a sealed bag. They like moisture, generally putting vinegar and ice cubes in your garbage disposal and running it helps (it is also a good way to clean your disposal).

Some of the replies are referring to 3 different kinds of gnats. Fruit flies are the only ones attracted to vinegar. They come into the house with fruit, sometimes from the grocery store, sometimes from your own back yard. They are attracted to any fruit. They are small enough to come right window screens.

Here is a link regarding drain flies, the ones you will see around your bathroom lavatory or your kitchen sink: http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef615.asp
If the link doesn't work, copy and paste it to your browser.

Some of the gnats are fungus gnats. If you have house plants, you probably have fungus gnats. You can put a layer of sand on top of your potting soil and the hatching gnats cannot get through it.

I just had this problem and traced the flies to the source before I was able to get rid of them finally - there were 2 potatoes at the bottom of the closet in a plastic bag that had been there much too long. Once I rid the kitchen of the source, it was no time before I was rid of the fruit flies.

If you are sure there is no source that brought it into your home, they can come from your water supply - all the way back to the water treatment plant! It's not very common for the infestation to go that far back, but they can set up house in your drain. You may have to get a chemical to get rid of them permanently if the vinegar doesn't work. It's available on-line through pest control suppliers. It's kindof expensive (about $20/quart), but if your home is a breading ground, it's cheaper than the repeat visits of an exterminator - complete extermination requires regular treatment for about 3-6 weeks.

Hopefully your problem can be treated with the vinegar jar! Good luck.