Ever since hurricane Irene a few weeks ago where we didn't have power for days and the food spoiled, we have been overwhelmed by fruit flies. They are everywhere in the house now. I tried to sponge out the kitchen twice to no avail. How in the world do I rid us of these pests?
We've had them badly this year for some reason.
My #1 is my vac and suck them up
My daily routine... Small bowls with a little ( 1/4 cup or so) of apple cider vinegar with a drop of liquid dish soap. The bowl will be full before you know it.
Those are the 2 things that have helped us the most along with keeping fruits in fridge.
Buy the absolute cheapest bottle of red wine you can find.
Pour some in a drinking glass or two and set them around your kitchen.
You can also pour some wine in an empty soda can.
Leave the rest of the wine in the bottle with the cork out.
Fruit flies love crappy wine.
That's what works for me.
Just rinse them down the drain afterwards and you'll be good to go.
Some people swear by vinegar, so if you're opposed to buying wine, you can try that instead. Cheap wine works the very best in my opinion.
$1.99 Merlot.
Not really safe for human consumption....but not safe for fruit flies either.
:)
Clean everything. Make sure you get the egg cases, which stick to the sides of things like garbage cans and compost bins. Put anything attracting them into a sealed container or outdoors.
Then make a fruit fly trap. You can do this with a plastic bag or a canning jar. Put a little of something attractive to fruit flies (wine, vinegar, fruit peelings, whatever) into your chosen container. Leave it for a few hours. Then seal up the trap and take the flies outside. (If using a mason jar, slowly sliding the lid over the top catches much more flies than slamming it down.) If using a plastic bag, you can just throw the whole thing out. If using a canning jar, just walk a few feet away from the house, open the jar, and shake it until they all fly away.
Repeat until the fruit fly population is acceptable.
BTW, if you lost water as well, run or dump water into the drains to refill the U-bend plumbing traps under the sinks. If those traps dry out, sewer flies (which look almost exactly like fruit flies) can come up into the house.
Good luck!
You should get fly strips, they work great! And super cheap. Check your local hardware store like Home Depot or Lowes.
You could also try taking a bowl with a small amout of sweet wine or even cider vinegar and add a bit of dish soap. The sweetness attracts them and the soap kills them. The exact recipe is online just Google it.
Good luck!
we fill a shot glass with apple cider vinager and a few drops of dawn dish soap..stir a bit catches them by the 10s of 20s!
Pour a little cider vinegar in a shallow bowl, then put a couple of drops of liquid dish soap in the vinegar..
the vinegar attracts them, but the dish soap breaks the surface tension so they drown... you can get rid of a BUNCH this way!
They multiply in sewer gunk so clean out all the drains and drain traps. Make sure you didn't miss any food that they could be feeding on, the more rotten the better. You can take a bottle and fill it with wine, beer, or vinegar and leave it on the counter. They crawl in and drown in the fluid.
Oh yeah, keep your trash cans empty.
put little bowls of apple cider vinegar with a couple drops of dish soap out and the flies go right to it and get stuck in it
SO glad you asked - I have been having the same problem all summer!!!
Honestly, the vacuum works wonders! Suck them up and put the vacuum or the bag outside until you're ready to throw it away permanently. And, of course, this will be a more permanent solution after all the wonderful cleaning the other ladies suggested!
