But my fruit flies are different!

[Adasmommy]

I searched and read tons of tips on getting rid of fruit flies BUT my fruit flies are not taking the bait. Grape juice, orange juice, banana peel, half-eaten plum. . . one or two will land on it, but the rest are still all over the kitchen (and starting to turn up in other rooms too)!

Cup with vinegar, water, soap, sugar? No takers.

They do seem very attracted to my bread and any crumbs I leave when I slice it. Also, a couple landed on the honey container when I had that open, so I may try a couple of traps with those baits. Also, I found where they were breeding--old bag of potatoes on top of the fridge :

So, does breeding on potatoes and preferring bread to fruit make them not really fruit flies?

Also, vinegar question. Does vinegar attract or repel them? I saw a tip to wash down my counters with white vinegar but after doing so I saw a bunch of fruit flies sitting on my counter! Have I somehow bred super-fruit flies?

Oh, I tried vacuuming them too, and have gotten a bunch but it never seems to cut down the overall population. Maybe once I've found a bait that works!

Sorry, but it's just so hard to get rid of these buggers and I had to share the frustration! Any new tips very welcome!:

[HoldensMama]

Have you tried using wine as a bait? That has worked for me in the past.

Good luck with your battle, I know they're annoying.

[allnaturalmom]

Use apple cider vinegar as bait in a bottle... or jar with small holes so they can get in but not back out.

Even try beer.

We had them for a short time last year... :

Here is a link with other options

http://www.stretcher.com/stories/03/03jul21b.cfm

GL
HTH

[Spock]

I would keep trying the vacuuming. For us, it took a few days of vacuuming multiple times a day before they were all gone. I never had any luck with any of the bait methods.

Good luck!

[mykdsmomy]

I have those same "fruit flies". They LOVE bread and they seem to really love my apple cider vinegar :
what do you put in the "bait" to get rid of them?

[aprilibarra]

I have the same problem. i put borax and a few drops dishsoap then sugar, and pour a small beer on it. and they die about a hundred each jar, about a day or so, but it would probably be better if I put more jars around.

[Yooper]

Not so natural....but lots of people have this stuff sitting around in their garage so it might help......

Armor-All.

Great ff bait. Do not ask me how I discovered this. They fly in and drown. Just keep it out of reach of kids.

[Yooper]

BTW, it works of mosquitoes too.

[Rhiannon Feimorgan]

I've always found that the best way to get rid of them is to get rid of what they are eating. Don't leave any food out. Getting rid of the rotting potatoes shouls make a bid diferance in a day or two. Sometimes though if they are still around after you've gotten rid of the obvious food sorce it means that they have found something down the drain. Try cleaning out your drains too. Pour about a cup of baking soda down the drain followed by a cup of vinigar. Let it fizz for a bit and then pour a kettle of boiling hot water down the drain. That should clear it of any bits of food sticking to the pipes that the flies are feeding on.

[kosheng]

Yes!!! exactly what previous poster said about the drains!!!

we broke the cycle at my mom's last year by doing all the above cleaning, plus sealing the drains with stoppers at night. within 4 days... all gone! we soooo wished we had come across that tip sooner!!!

good luck!!

[Rhiannon Feimorgan]

oh ya, stopping the drains at night would be a great idea!

[Adasmommy]

Boy, thanks, all!

I did the baking soda followed by vinegar followed by boiling water down the drains bit on every drain in the house yesterday though I haven't seen them particularly around a drain. Hopefully that's covered. I may try stuffing a dry towel in each of the kitchen drains tonight--is that how one stops them up?

I'm going to vacuum some more but I always feel the need to rush the vacuum outside immediately after gettin them in case they fly back out. It gets to be a real pain! Is this not a concern? Actually, I can't seem to find WHAT happens to them after I vacuum them up. None in the cannister when I open it, or none that I can see. Are they stuck in a filter somewhere??

I don't really have wine or beer, though I do have a little Jim Beam left over from a bread pudding. Does whiskey do it?

Actually, my husband doesn't want to go around poisoning them (even with dishsoap). He figures that if I stop obsessing over them and just keep eliminating any food source I find, they'll disappear on their own pretty quick. He's probably right. But I will still close the drains and keep the vacuum handy for when I see a bunch of them.

Thanks for all the support and great tips! I feel so much better now I'm not alone . . .

[Spock]

Originally Posted by Adasmommy

I'm going to vacuum some more but I always feel the need to rush the vacuum outside immediately after gettin them in case they fly back out. It gets to be a real pain! Is this not a concern? Actually, I can't seem to find WHAT happens to them after I vacuum them up. None in the cannister when I open it, or none that I can see. Are they stuck in a filter somewhere??

I never had any escape the vacuum. They don't seem like particularly strong flyers so I would be surprised if they could get out.

I have to admit that I got an unhealthy amount of satisfaction sucking those little buggers up. It felt so good watching them disappear up the hose on the vacuum. Ah, the small pleasures in life.....

[hubris]

Wow, those are some serious fruit flies!

I think your husband might be right that if you keep everything really clean (i.e., no food around for them at all), they'll die off. Then you just have to avoid attracting new ones. We kept getting new ones and I couldn't figure out how...but then I realized that they were hitching a ride on the inside of the compost crock when I dumped it! Now I rinse it out with the hose outside before coming in, and so far no new flies.

Originally Posted by Adasmommy

I don't really have wine or beer, though I do have a little Jim Beam left over from a bread pudding. Does whiskey do it?

Oh, man, I couldn't give my whiskey to flies! Too good for 'em! Criminal waste of whiskey!

[kosheng]

as far as what we use to plug the drains, the same type of rubber stopper that you'd use to close the drain for hand washing. you can pick them up at any home improvement store or hardware store. i'd imagine the rags work fine as well, but i didn't want any fresh air getting to the little suckers!!! i could only have sooo much fun vacuuming them before it grew tiresome!!

[Hanilulu]

I've had this problem in the past, and it turned out I had a weevil problem in my pantry. One of their life stages must involve flying around and annoying people!

They eventually died out after I got rid of any grain product in the pantry that had been open and from then on I stored all grain products in sealed containers. They were also attracted to some syrup that I didn't know had spilled in the pantry, but it looked like they just got stuck and died in it.

I hope this helps you!

[Brisen]

We had awful fruit flies from a bag of potatoes in the basement. They were all over the house, and they were big -- they left huge red splotches wherever we managed to whap them. I tried all sorts of traps (before finding the potatoes) and they didn't really like them. I have a friend who is studying genetics and works with fruit flies -- she said they really were a different kind of fruit fly. Anyway, we found the potatoes shortly before we left for a visit with family at Christmas. We everything they might possibly want out of the house in the garbage, cleaned everything, and turned the heat down as far as we could without worrying about the pipes. They were all gone when we came home a week or so later.