Fruit flies!

[TwinMom]

I don't know what it is, but I am having the worst season for bugs in my kitchen! First it was ants, now it's fruit flies or gnats (are they the same thing?). They are EVERYWHERE. How do I get rid of them? I keep wiping down the counters, got rid of all the fruit, even though it looked okay, but they're still swarming around. The windows and doors are shut, I don't think they're coming in from outside. If I knew which store they came from I would boycott it! Is there something I can do to attract them and then annihilate them? Besides spraying poison, I mean, though I'm willing to do that if it's necessary!

[Leta]

Get a bread bag (or something similar) and roll the top down. Fill with banana peels, a mist of sugar water, fruit juice, honey, anything else that smells sweet and fruity. Put all other fruity sweets in the fridge. Leave the goodie bag on your counter for a couple of hours. Then, pull the sides up and tie. Many, many fruit flies will be in this bag. Throw the bag away, and repeat as needed. I had a hideous fruit fly infestation, and within three days, they were all gone using this method.

Note: You must change the bag everyday. Fruit flies breed fast.

[BumbleBena]

I'm going to have to try that! I've been sucking mine up into my vacuum's accessory hose.

[Denvergirlie]

Take a glass (8oz) and place about 1" of cider vinegar (have used balasmic vingear, stale beer, red wine) in the glass. Place a white (copy paper) funnel with the small opening about 3/4" wide into the glass.
Flies get in and don't find their way out. Take glass outside once a day and realease or swirl liquid to catch them in liquid and poor down the drain.

Works every time.

[milky_mama]

In the past when I've had a fruit fly infestation, I've just poured some red wine into a few glasses (1/4 to half full) and then placed the glasses around the house. The flies are attracted to the wine and fly in but can't get out. Fruit flies are such a pain because they multiply so quickly! Good luck!

[superstella]

OMG I just dealt with an infestation, and I'll tell you what finally worked for me. I tried the funnel thing, but not much luck. What did work was filling a shallow dish with apple juice and putting in a few drops of dishwashing liquid. By morning I had about 30 dead in that tiny dish, so I changed it out, refilled it, and by evening I had about another 30. By day 2 I didn't notice any fruit flies flying around anymore! There was a round 2 when the eggs hatched, but I repeated the process and by day 2 they were gone again.

HTH! OUr infestation was BAD!

[farmgirl83]

We had fruit flies a couple of summers ago, and I finally realized they were living off of my not-very-well-rinsed recycling in the pantry! Gross! So I took care of that, did some research, and found out they breed in drains, so I bought some nasty chemical stuff from the farm supply store for horse barns (this was before my no-chemical days) to clean the drains, and I did the acv/funnel thing for the existing flies, which seemed to work. They seemed to love congregating on my bathroom mirror, which I thought was strange.

[mightymoo]

We had a fruit fly infestation last summer and I did what you did - wiped everything down, put the fruit in the fridge so they wouldn't have access. If you've eliminated all the obvious sources of breeding for them and they are still around - there is a source you haven't found.

For us it turned out we had put a bag of garbage in the basement (to go out to the curb but DH didn't realize it, since the basement has other things stored in garbage bags like toys and stuffed animals) - once we found that, the whole thing cleared up pronto.

After that though I started washing out all my recycling w/soap (not just rinsing) since it sits for up to two weeks in our pantry. Look for some place where some food could be hidden and rotting, like under the stove or fridge, etc.

[milky_mama]

Originally Posted by farmgirl83

They seemed to love congregating on my bathroom mirror, which I thought was strange.

The infestation I had also loved to congregate in the bathroom mirror and it freaked me out! Ewww!

[eden/averymum]

put some wine or beer in a bowl on your counter and cover with plastic wrap. make a slit about one inch long in the plastic wrap in the centre. fruit flies go in, get drunk and drown. clean out the bowl after a couple days and re-do if needed. this works awesome for us. we always get fruit flies in the summer.

[TwinMom]

I tried the fruit-in-a-bag thing yesterday, didn't catch anything. Right now I have out several dixie cups of pineapple juice (only juice I had) and I am going to go add some dishwashing liquid to it. I don't have any wine, but maybe tonight I will try the beer. They are only in my kitchen, thank goodness! I wonder if bleach would help in the drains?

[Ruthla]

I've gotten rid of fruit flies by leaving out a cup with a sugar water and soap solution, or fruit juice and soap (hey, fruit juice is just sugar water anyway, right? )

They get attracted to the sweet solution, but the soap breaks up the surface tension so they can't fly away, and then they drown.

I've managed to kill hundreds of fruit flies in a few days with this method. Well, maybe it wasn't hundreds but it sure seemed like it! The infestation was gone in a few days when we did this, then we kept a sugary soapy cup out all summer just to be safe.

[Boernemama]

I am glad I found this thread as we have quite the infestation of fruit fllies! We just spent last month defleaing the house and thought we were done and then we noticed the fruit flies. It has been really wet here in TX and we are guessing that all of the moisture brought the bugs out!

[TwinMom]

Okay, so far my fruit flies do not like beer. After leaving out three cups of juice and dishwashing liquid, I have six dead, so I don't think that's going to work. I scrubbed the counters, walls, and sink again, hopefully that will do SOMETHING!

[Boernemama]

Okay, so I had a dream about fruit flies last night and that I captured them all using the apple juice and the soap. What a disappointment when I woke up and they were still here....not as bad though because I have been scrubbing everything! Today I am going to leave out the juice and soap while I am at work and see if they go away!

[TwinMom]

I have had juice and soap out for DAYS and have still only caught six. So frustrating!

[Boernemama]

Well, so far I have caught nothing...but then again they all seemed to have disappeared. So weird!

[quirkylayne]

I've been dealing with this too. I take out all trash every night, any food for compost goes out right after the meal. Any food trash goes in a sealed container until it goes out. Clean, clean, clean and wipe counters down. I also pour a little vinegar down the drain before I go to bed for the night or if I'm not going to be using the kitchen for awhile. And I kill any that I can by hand, just use a paper towel. The buggers are fast.

[Thalia]

Here's my method:

1. Put away all the fruit that is attracting the flies (even just hiding it under a cloth towel.

2. Get a tall glass container, like a ginger jar shaped vase or a very tall drinking glass. Deep and narrow is good, and so is a narrow neck, but it should be wide enough that it is easy to clean.

3. Put a piece of banana or any other kind of fruit in the bottom of the container. Rotting fruit is best: the flies go for that very quickly.

4. Cut a piece of plastic wrap that is wide enough to cover the opening easily, and have it ready, along with a rubber band.

5. Wait an hour or two for the flies to find the fruit and settle on it. You might want to help this process by walking around and bumping stuff to find out where they are hanging out. Eventually they will find the fruit. You can also wait overnight if necessary.

6. Carefully slap the plastic wrap over the top of the container and secure with the rubber band. You have to do this quickly or they will escape.

7. If you don't want to kill the flies, but just get rid of them, put the jar in the fridge until the flies become torpid. I can't remember how long this takes, but I think it's less than an hour. Then you can take them outside and release them away from your home. Eventually they will become active again and fly away.

8. If you want them dead, put them in the freezer, wait until they die, and then toss them out and wash out the glass.

9. Repeat as needed. It usually takes just one or two tries to get rid of even a pretty bad infestation this way.