Can't get rid of these F'ers. I throw out the trash every night, have removed all fruit and vegetables from the counter tops, tried glue traps, vinegar traps and have poured Drano down all the drains. What do I do?

Are the glue traps specifically designed for fruit flies????

Yes. Bought this crap online.



and



They just won't go away. I thougt maybe one of the kids left a piece of fruit under the couch or something, but nothing.

I have the same problem!

I came back from a weeks vacation to find a fruit fly horde in my kitchen compost bin (forgot to put it out).

I've been doing this to get rid of them...working so far: (I'm using balsamic vinegar, that way they fall into the liquid and drown, make sure you put a drop of dish washing liquid in it to break the surface tension)

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).

OK. I was asking because we had a HUGE problem with the moths that can get in flour and rice. We couldn't get rid of them until we bought the specialized traps for those moths....and it did take months still but the traps did work - I had three traps, set two of them right away and caught over 100. Then, I used the last trap and caught probably another 50. Nasty stuff but it worked. Good luck Bitterboy - it's really annoying!

Great suggestions DTM!

Amy, those moths came with a huge bag of dog food and it took ages to rid my home. ICK. I only like cute bugs

Bitterboy,
We found the problem was originating from our kitchen garbage disposal. Sometimes we'd forget to run it immediately after putting stuff in there. So now I pour a little softscrub cleanser in it along with hot water, after every use.

If that doesn't work, my guess is that you might have some food product somewhere in your house that you are not aware of. We found a peice of a PB&J sandwich in our childs room, hidden behind his books on the shelf. Apparently he knew he was not supposed to have food in his room, and tried to hide the evidence. LOL.

Our kids were the culprits of every insect infestation known to man. One kid hid his Halloween candy in the storage area on second floor and kept leftover pizza in drawers. The other one fell in love with the fruit fly experiment that he did in school and that was just downright awful. My own kids gave me a complete understanding why some animals eat their young. My advice is to go through kids’ rooms, storage spaces, and look under furniture. Kids are very clever at hiding things, even if the garage can is totally available to them.

When my daughter moved into her new house she had the same problem. She basically did what DTM said except used dish soap. In the beginning you'll see a lot of flies in the bowl. She put these in the kitchen as well as several other places in the house. Then she was told to keep water sources covered. Not sure what this was about so she plugged the garbage disposal side and closed off all the drains in the house. The flies were gone in a matter of days.

quote:

Kids are very clever at hiding things, even if the garage can is totally available to them.

Kids? I don't think I've ever seen my husband throw anything in the garbage can, even though it's totally available to him!

quote:

Originally posted by Flora Klok:

quote:

Kids are very clever at hiding things, even if the garage can is totally available to them.

Kids? I don't think I've ever seen my husband throw anything in the garbage can, even though it's totally available to him!

I know one thing he might throw in there.

FYI, I got my fly information from here:

more fruit fly info....

Finally! After 10 gallons of Drano, $30 worth of glue traps and a few DTM homemade bowl traps, I got rid of those things. Never saw anything like it. Thanks everyone for your suggestions!

No more fruit for you.

Well...

"Time Flies like an Arrow, and Fruit Flies like a Banana..."