Frustrating Fruit Flies

Here is my problem: I have the most annoying little fruit flies at my house. And the kicker is, I don't have any accessible fruit!!!?!?!?!?! I don't get it? Where are they coming from? I'd almost swear it was the drain in the kitchen sink, cause it seems they hang around there. And it's not a ton of them, that I'd need to call an exterminator, but maybe like a constant 4-5 of them. And I can NEVER kill them! I try to clap them in my hands and always miss! Then they hover around our trash can, the drain in the sink, and the cat food. Does anyone else get these??? And what can I do about them? I can't spray them with bug spray cause, well, then I'd be covering my kitchen in bug spray. They are SO annoying, and they make me feel like I haven't cleaned enough... and I know I use enough lysol kitchen cleaner with bleach to re-sink the titanic!

Put out a glass of red wine when you go to sleep... they will be attracted to it and fly into the wine.

Originally Posted by lookingglass

Put out a glass of red wine when you go to sleep... they will be attracted to it and fly into the wine.

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Yeah that, or a beer bottle with a couple of inches of beer left in it.

We get them here at work. I always have them around me! Maybe its all the sweet smelling lotions and soaps?

Yah they love the drain in the sink and the trash. I once had a problem and was completely able to clear it using the following method:

Get a glass you don't intend to use again and put some vinegar in the bottom (attractive smell to lure). Take some tin foil and make a funnell with the funnell pointed into the glass and wrap it so the only opening is the tip of the funnell. Its easy for the fruit flies to go down the funnel towards the scent but they become trapped beacause its almost impossible for them to find a way out. Place the glass next to teh sink.

This method cleared my house of fruit flies.

This article has a picture that illustrates what I said. I just used foil and wrapped it around the edges of teh glass to make it more secure.
http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/ent...ruct/ef621.htm

Originally Posted by lookingglass

Put out a glass of red wine when you go to sleep... they will be attracted to it and fly into the wine.

Click to expand...

C'mon now, do you really think I'd be able to let a nice glass of red wine sit on my counter & not drink it??? I love wine way more than I hate those fruit flies!

Solarity Bengals: Thanks for the tip! I will be making a funnel tonight! (with vinigar I might add, I can afford to waste that!)

Sounds to me like fungus gnats rather than fruit flies. Do you have any plants at home? The fungus gnat larvae lives in the soil pf plants that are overwatered and they develop wings and fly in the summer and the winter. They look just like fruit flies!

I have them because I once bought a houseplant at a local plant store that happened to be infested, now I can't entirely get rid of them (I have over 50 plants, LOL.) I've had them for years, always showing up once in the summer and once in the winter. They are a nuisance, but nothing more than that - and I have noticed that they tend to congregate near my kitchen sink!

I buy fruit fly traps for them which seem to work quite well in lowering the population: http://www.gardeners.com/on/demandwa...eSearch2-Start

Use keyword: Fruit Fly Trap

To completely get rid of them forever, I'd have to get rid of all my plants, and I just can't bring myself to do that!

I've bought those fruit fly traps, and they work quite well. Another member once told me to put a small amount of cider vinegar in a dish with a few drops of dishwashing liquid. That also works well.

My ex's, ex stepfather used to have those too but thats because his Kitchen was literally rotten! >_< maybe you need to disinfect your kitchen, and i'd try with the wine and beer, Just buy those yucky 1 euro wines

GingersMom: I dunno...maybe. But it wouldn't be from a ton of plants... I have 2 plants. 1 aloe that's very small, and 1 bamboo that's also very small. And they are both ok I guess, although I do NOT have a green thumb.

AbbysMom: I am going to try the cider vinegar tonight... I will add a few drops of polmolive to it... and see if that works.

fwan: I really don't know how they got in... but it's not for lack of cleaning. I use SO much bleach that I have to open the windows and put on a fan, and occasionally leave the room so my eyes stop burning. I have white counters, so everything leaves a stain... hence the bleach. Also I use Lysol so it has the whole disinfecting/anti-bacterializing stuff in it with bleach!

I'm gonna try the cider vinegar stuff with the funnel...I'll let you know what happens! Thanks for all the tips!!!

We have a problem with them at work lately and the funnel thing works great for getting rid of them

I would pour some drain cleaner down the sink. They can live in there even if you run the water....Larvea thrives on water...Drano will knock em dead

Oh lord, I totally understand your pain...We used to live in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, wine country out here. Our house was INFESTED with fruit flies. It was so bad that when you ate, you had to sit infront of a fan to keep them from flying in your face and food! We tried the shot glasses with wine in them. We tried the rotten fruit with the fruitfly sticky traps. We tried the vinager. We tried the Raid for all types of insects. NOTHING worked to get rid of them. We found out that even if you have the traps/wine/vinager they still lay eggs, so you catch the parents in the traps, but the microscopic eggs still hatch and more generations appear. We made our own solution...a fly swatter wrapped in saran wrap so they won't fit through the holes when you hit at them, then covered the swatter in duct tape (sticky side out) to make sure they were really hit. That helped alot, considering it was the only thing that actually worked for us. Basically all you can do is wait for them to die out and for fruitfly season to be over. I totally understand your frustration though, they're so small and irritating and no matter how much you clean or try to kill them, they're still there. We basically lived in a sterile environment for months. I felt like the bubble boy, LOL! Best of luck to you...please try to keep your sanity! =D