**Help Mama's** I'm Surrounded by Flies

You might try making a Fruit Fly Singles Bar. At our house, this is a shallow glass or bowl with 1/2 inch of cream sherry and a couple of drops of detergent, but I imagine wine or any fruity alcohol would work.

Set it where you won't disturb it or you'll keep chasing the flies away from it. Sometimes they hang out on the rim for an hour or so, basking in the aroma and flirting, before taking the plunge.

The flies think it's decaying fruit, and get happily soused and fall in. Change it every week or so, as needed. We find it gets swarms reduced down to just a few of flies in a matter of days, and it's nontoxic. But the little guys reproduce very fast, so you may get succeeding generations over a few weeks if they have found an abandoned food source somewhere in your house.

Somebody gave us the sherry for Christmas years ago. We're still working on the same bottle. If you need to go out and buy something, buy cheap. The fruit flies won't be offended.

Fruit flies have very plump bodies. If your flies are skinny, they are not fruit flies. If you have potted plants, you may have soil gnats or fungus gnats. Here's a link that gives a simple treatment using soapy water: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=2008110106490...

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Try Venus Flytraps. We've gotten them in the past, right around this time of year, from Home Depot or Lowe's. The kids love to watch the "circle of life" (or death) and they do a decent job of catching those little critters.
Hope this helps.

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Oh, I HATE that - and it does happen -- here are some ''culprits'' I discovered in years past:

Is there a potatoe in a bag that has gone soft-- or
a piece of fruit that your little one carried off and
left somewhere?

Do you have potted plants -or any plants you are trying
to 'root' indoors?? - any standing water or moisture can
keep them going

Have you tried pouring boiling water down your drain or
garbage disposal?? -- sometimes that's the problem

As a last resort- -try fly strips - you can buy them
at Fred Meyer or hardware stores - and they are nasty looking but not poisenous

I'll keep my fingers crossed-

blessings,
J. - aka- Old Mom

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Start watching them and find where their breeding ground is. Even if you did bomb, they'd just come right back because you didn't take care of the real problem. Obviously, if you have that many, they are hatching from somewhere in the house. The can only hatch on a food source (which can be any food, not just fruit). Start watching them and see if you can find where they come from and go to, or where most of them are. When we had a fruit fly problem, we soon discovered that a waffle had gotten left in the waffle iron and then put away.

As for the temporary killing, put vinegar in a cup with a few drops of dish soap. They will go in for a drink, but the soap will drown them. You can also try putting a piece of overripe fruit in a cup, cover it with Saran wrap secured by a rubber band and poke holes in the top. They will crawl in the holes but are too stupid to find their way back out.

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Another trick if they are coming from your plants....put a layer of sand on top of the dirt in every single potted plant you have in the house. The flies lay eggs in the soil & the sand prevents them from hatching. Good luck!

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We are getting GREAT results with a piece of fruit in a small cup covered in plastic wrap (actully, I use a sandwich bag with a rubber band) with some fork holes poked in it. Flies get in and don't get out. I daily release them outside to do their job where they belong. :)

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I have dealt with this problem every year for a decade. Put a fan where they are the worst. We do this is bars and restaurants to stop the fruit flies. I don't know why it works. If you combine this with the cider vinegar traps and cleaning with bleach you should be able to get it under control. The fan works!!!

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The best thing I found to work was take a little bit of your left over coffee, or tea and pour it into all your house plants. If you do this daily or even every few days you will no longer have the flies. It does not take much just the little left in the bottom of a mug works great!

Good luck!
C.

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The only way to eliminate fruit flies is to remove their food source. Killing one batch - no matter how effectively - won't fix the problem unless you also remove the tempting food that is drawing them.

You can keep fruit in your fridge, or in tupperware on the counter. It is also a good idea to keep less of it - more frequent trips to the store, possibly, but, it will keep it from sitting around ripe. Other draws are juice cups in the sink, empty bottles in the trash, unwiped-spills, and even something like banana bread with the fruit baked in. Its hard, but scrupulous cleaning/storing in really key!

You can get a bug eating plant arrangement to keep next to any fruit you decide to leave on the counter. I've had mixed results with that approach.

Another thing that really works is to get a bottle of some sort - a wine bottle, maybe. Put some apple-cider vinegar in the bottom of it, and swirl that with a little dish soap. You can also take a square of paper, wrap it around to form a funnel, and then put that in the bottle top. The flies are attracted to the smell of the vinegar, so they enter the bottle. The the soap and the funnel keep them from leaving. (This is the technique my biologist friend uses to keep the infestations down in his fruit-fly-testing-lab.)

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We had fruit flies last summer and we eventually got rid of them. First we found the source - a red potato fell out of the bag and back behind the pantry. What a mess. Then to catch all the free floating ones, we took swallow bowls with a little smashed banana in the bottom and plastic wrap tightly across the top. I pricked little holes (fruit fly sized) in the plastic wrap and set them about. Flies got in and couldnt get back out. Then my daughter and I would take them outside and set them free. Good luck - they will go away eventually - they have a very short life.

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I have really good luck with about an inch of wine (any kind will do) and a squirt of dish soap in a wine glass (this reduces the surface tension so the flies can't be supported by the surface of the liquid). You can put food wrap over the top with some holes poked in, but I don't bother with that. Leave it out for awhile - the longer the wine oxidizes and gets vinegar-y, the better it seems to work. I have one that is 4 days old with a good 15 flies in the bottom at home now (it's probably time to change it out...).

Good luck!

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The bugs the fly about from potted plants are different than those that attack ripening fruit. One is a fruit fly. The other is a fungus gnat. Normally you see the fruit fly in the summer and the gnat in the winter. Fungus gnats come from overly moist potting soil so if you are trying to keep any houseplants extra watered in the heat this may be the culprit. Try cutting back on the watering. Let the plants dry out just a tad before watering again. Or better yet, move them all outside into the shade while the temps are so warm.

As for the fruit fly, try a small glass of vinegar on the kitchen counter. Red Wine vinegar works great. They are attracted to it fly in and drown.

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Do you have a trash compactor? I stopped putting food in there when I had that problem. I use it only for cereal boxes and dry items.
I use a shallow dish, pour in 1/4 cup red wine and 2 tablespoons of dish soap. Leave it out on the counter. The flies come and drink and die.

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I ditto the vinegar thing. I put a tall shot glass about 1/3 full with apple cider vinegar and a droplet of mild dish soap. I then make a mini funnel with a scrap piece of paper and tape it into the opening of the shot glass. The flies get in, but can't get out. The dish soap makes their little wings sticky and they can't fly, just glug glug glug to the bottom. I leave it by my fruit bowl and I don't get them bad at all anymore. Every now and then I just empty my fruit fly cemetery and refresh. It's worked like a charm.

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1/4 cup of cider vinegar and a little dish soap does the trick - we put it in a couple places in the kitchen and one in the bathroom and have not had any trouble since - It works fast!!

This is very mysterious! But I know the feeling of trying to keep the house clean to keep pests out. In South Texas, we tried everything to get rid of the cockroaches, which come into the cleanest of homes if there are palm trees nearby--and maybe even if there aren't. We had to bomb our house and I was 5 months pregnant and had a toddler, too. We set the bombs and ran (hubby helped), went to church, stayed for potluck, came home, hubby ran in, opened all the windows and turned on the central air fan, and off we ran to something else for an hour or two. When we came back, it was pretty much aired out.

Hope that gives you some ideas. Sorry I can't be more helpful!

I totally feel your pain--we had the same thing last summer and it drove me nuts because I had to start refrigerating everything--even bananas and tomatoes! What I found to work the best was a bowl filled just a little bit with some liquid dish soap and a little fruit juice. Then cover the bowl with some plastic wrap with a tiny slit in it. The flies would flock to the bowl because of the juice, then they would stick in the viscous soap and drown...it took a while, but finally we got rid of them. Good luck!

if they are coming from your plants, just letting them dry out isn't enough....instead, water your plants with a mixture of baking soda and water. works like a charm!

I was told to use a little apple cider vinegar, a firend said to find a little vase or votive holders and set them out with some vinegar and it will attract and catch the flies. It worked for us.

Try cleaning the kitchen drain. I read somewhere on the net that some fly lays its eggs in the sink gunk. Plus to add to the tip with the fly trap. Beer or apple juice works well too. The important part is to add a drop of dish soap to the water, then the flies are unable to get out of the water when they fall in. I also seal the glass or bowl with plastic wrap and put some holes in it for them to crawl in that way they don't fly out of the trap once they are in.
I hate them too, good luck.

Houseplants! I had masses of fruit flies in my bathroom, it was driving us crazy. I even started to worry that there was a leak and we had a rotting problem... I repotted the little plant we had in there, and no success.

Finally, after throwing out the plant, the flies went away within a day or two. You could test this out by moving all your houseplants to the garage or outside (right now it's definitely warm enough).

Good luck!!

S.

I had them once and poured an entire bottle of bleach between both our sinks in the kitchen and they went away. I also had bleach watered washed all the counters, floor etc but they must have been hiding in the sink because that cleared them up. :)

Have you checked your sinks? I find that my fruit fly problem gets bad when my kitchen drain gets slimy on the inside (I wash dishes by hand, and a lot of gunk goes down my drain). When the problem gets bad, I pour some bleach down my drain, and then I scrub out my sink with Comet and rinse it with several tea kettles-full of boiling water. This usually eliminates my problem for several months, until I forget to clean my drain and develop more gunky residue.

Try pouring boiling water down every water drain in the house (including the overflow drains in tubs & sinks). When I was a kid, we had a similar problem, until we were told that we had 'drain flies', not fruit flies! Boiling water down all the drains did the trick - now every time I make tea, I pour any excess boiling water down the drain (helps keep them from clogging, too!)

Check for holes in your screens, check your vents (heat & exhaust), fill any spaces around pipes under your sinks.

There are some bug sprays that are natural & non-toxic.

We had the same problem and found a rotton potato in the back of my pantry. once we eliminated the sourse I vaccumed them out of the air. It was great fun and the kids loved helping do it. now I make sure my potatos are getting used or thown away befor that can happen. J.

Do you have any OLD meats in your fridge? We had an issue with fruit flies once and I was putting away our fruit, cleaning everything...etc....then come to find out we had some bad meat in our fridge.....I didn't think bad meat would attract fruit flies, but I threw out the meat and soon enough the flies were gone!!!!! Hope this helps!

I agree with others that you could have a lost potato or something like that. The only time I get fruit flies is when I have food sitting out. I read that you had cleaned everything but have you looked in the back of cupboard and drawers or under the stove and refridgerator.

We had the same problem. I googled and found a remedy which was put a bowl of vinegar on the counter, cover it with saran wrap and punch a few small holes in it. The flies crawl in as they are drawn to the vinegar and get trapped. Its amazing the first day how many there were. I would take it outside and change it daily cause they figure a way to get out eventually. It worked well for us and we had it bad. good luck!

I've also had good luck with making a homemade fruit fly trap. I take a plastic bottle and cut the top off. Fill the bottom with some apple cider vinegar and a few drops of liquid dish soap. Invert the top into the bottom and tape into place. Place in an area where the fruit flies seem the most prevalent.

We've had great luck with the fly paper strips. Just hang them near where the flys are and let them collect there. It looks gross, but it does the job! I'd also check to see if your toddler might have tucked a piece of food somewhere that you haven't been able to find yet. There's something that the flies are going for. Also, make sure you're rinsing dishes and running the disposal frequently (at least daily) so no food is available for them to feed on.

I have heard that leaving a half-full bottle of red wine open and out overnight will solve the problem. Apparently, they dive in, get drunk and drown :-) Good luck.

I am a 40 year old mother of 3. My father-in-law told me when we had a fruit fly problem that they live in the sink drains. So you have to pour a little bleach down there and block off any hole that your sink has that they can come up threw. So I would close my drain and plug off the hole that helps drain if your sink overfills. You might have to do this for up to a week!
S.

I was going to suggest that they might be coming from a potted plant of some sort. I had that problem once and I just re-potted the plant and it was fine. You might consider spraying the house too just to say farewell once and for all. Take a trip to the beach or something, that way you will be gone for many hours.