Does anyone have any ideas on ways to get rid of fruit flies? We've put away all the fruits and veggies already, but the little suckers are just not going away!
You could try putting some fruit scraps in a wide open plastic bag. Leave it for a few hours then seal it tight and toss. Repeat as often as needed to round them up.
The hanging fly strips really seem to work. But I haven't been able to totally get rid of mine, either. The other thing is trying not to let water stand in our sink: impossible because we never get to the bottom of our dishes; DH never even tries but that's a whole other thread. . .
I came here looking for advice about fruit flies too! The above is a link to a website that talks about them and how to control them. Feel free to ignore the comments about pesticides.
Another website I scanned had an idea for building a trap out of a mason jar and a paper funnel (kind of like a wasp trap maybe, where it's easy for them to get in but hard to get out?) using bananas sprinkled with yeast as bait. Rinse the jar every couple of days.
I have been putting a bowl on the counter, where they are gathering, put some vinegar in the bottom-cover tightly with plastic wrap and then take something a poke holes in the wrap big enough for them to get in- they have a real hard time finding their way out.
Same as above...
Get a large jar and put about an inch or so of Apple Cidar Vinegar (seems to work better than white vinegar).
Add the secret ingrediant (soap) to the mixture. The soap breaks down the surface of the vinegar so that when the knats land on the liquid they sink and drown instead of walk on it and mock you.
Cover with saran wrap and pop a hole in the top. Put a rubber band around the jar lip so no smart little knats can find their way out.
Clean countertops... gotta make the vinegar look more appealing than dirty dishes
.
I set this up at my grandmother's house and we caught about 30 buggies in two hours. Very satisfying.
i too face an insane invasion! i came to this board to post about it and found your plight is identical to mine! my dilemma...i tried a trap, i have sucked them up with the vacuum cleaner every day too ---its great you can suck them up as they try to fly away..... but this has never happened to me where they just wont go away! usually i just clean up the fruit or whatever cuased it, and scour the sink, and a couple days later they are gone! now i find myself constantly wondering about friutfly reproduction...is it really just one day ?
anyway i will try the vinegar trap w/plastic bag idea. this is seriously making me insane, my kitchen isnt even that dirty at all now.
: i just dont get it.
BTW the fly strips are NOT working for me, it just catches some of them, i think its a "survival of the fittest " situation. i am breeding fruitflies that hide at the sound of the vaccuum cleaner, and avoid flypaper.
I came here the day before yesterday and tried the vinegar with soap thing. I'm happy to report that I've gotten 8 fruit flies, and that seems to be all I had. I had fruit flies for a while, and I couldn't figure out where they were coming from. I finally realized that it was because I moved my kitchen trash from the pantry to just inside the garage. It was really easy for bugs to get into the garage, as compared to the house, so there were always fruit flies in the trash, and every time I opened the door to the garage they came in. Now I have fly paper right over the trash can (which does help a lot) and the vinegar in my kitchen, and I'm happily fruit fly free!
I, too, am happy to report that the fruit fly vinegar trap works like a charm. I have 30 or 40 of the little reptiles in there, and that many fewer in the kitchen. (I'll freely admit that my housekeeping suffers during the school term) Yay! Thanks!
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