We have a real problem here at the house and I NEED the expertise of those here on this forum. For the past couple of months we have been battling an infestation of Fruit flies. -- and to tell you the truth -> they are winning. I need ideas. We have tried ALL of the typical methods for controlling the flies -> to no avail. Bio drain, all natural fruit & drain fly killer, aerosol flying insect killer, concoctions of apple cider vinegar & sugar & dishwashing detergent sitting around to trap & drown them.... nothing works. And let me be plain: My goal is NOT to control them but to eliminate them. The only thing I haven't tried is a professional exterminator. Is that what I should do next? And will THEY even have any success? My "Thanks" in advance for all who choose to reply and offer any suggestions.......Fred

Try a shallow glass tray and put red wine in it, put it near the sink.

Never had to deal with them myself, but this looks like good information:

https://www.thisoldhouse.com/p...t-rid-of-drain-flies

We had it real bad last year. What wound up winning the war for us was this: take some plastic drink bottles, cut the top off. Put about an inch of apple cider vinegar in the bottom, swirl in some dish soap, and piece of fruit. Take a sheet of paper and roll it into a cone with the pointy end going down into the bottle with a small opening at the end. Make sure the top of the bottle is more or less sealed against the cone of paper. Fruit flies go in through the cone of paper, and work their way into the vinegar and soap mixture. The soap keeps them from getting out, and so does the seal of the cone against the bottle should they not immediately make it to the mixture of doom (and yes, there were plenty on the inside walls of the bottles during the course of the eradication - so maybe a dish wouldn’t have trapped them the way this device did - they all wound up in the sludge). Let the trap sit right by whatever drain they’re appearing from. A week, maybe two, and we had eradicated the bastards. Good luck.

Sticky tape. Those hanging strips do WORK.

quote:

Originally posted by Vgex:
Sticky tape. Those hanging strips do WORK.

These worked for us, as well.

The wine/apple cider/etc. trick did nothing for us.

There are actually a couple (a few?) different types of these annoying little flying insects. The wine/apple cider/etc. trick will work for true fruit flies, but will have zero effect on the other kinds.

Turned out ours were coming from the little square cat grass things my wife was buying at the store.

We've got them again, right now. But no store-bought grass. So we're not certain whence they're originating.

I’ve been fighting those little mofos for a couple of months, using the little apple cider vinegar a soap traps, and sticky paper things. I think the sticky paper things are working better.

Check out Rescue TrapSticks for indoor use. They are less obvious than traditional fly strips.

We've had fruit fly infestations in the past, as the fruit/vegetables will have the eggs on them, and when you get it home, the eggs hatch. Initially, we took all the fruit/vegetables and kept them in the refrigerator, allowing the flies to die out with no food to feed on.

This year, we use fruit protection bags to store all fruits/vegetables that are not refrigerated. They're made of a fine mesh so air can be exchanged, but nothing else can get in or out. So far, we have had zero flies. The bags are available just about everywhere.

We had an outbreak earlier this year. Like many others the vinegar and fruit traps did not work... At All.

A couple of plain old cheap fly strips hanging in the window over the sink or where ever we saw them did the job quickly. Couple days. I left a small light on at night near the strips as well but have no idea if that helped or not.

I think she got them at the Dollar store but they were...

Like these

What worked for me is identifying their food source- usually a garbage bag left out too long, or sometimes exposed fruit. Get rid of it (which is where they've laid their eggs), then wait patiently till the already hatched adults die off (at least 2 weeks or more).

Here you go. Start reading.

https://www.domyown.com/search?w=Drain+flies&search=

Do you have fruit flies, or do you have drain flies? They are not the same insect. Treatment for each will differ.

The objective will be the same, however. And that is to eliminate the source of the infestation which is the food source. But the two species have different food sources.

Bengal roach spray. It's not greasy, it's a fog. Around doors, Windows, floor baseboards. With the stem it goes into cracks.

check every trash can, in each room
check every potted plant,

flush every toilet, and run a few gallons of hot water thru every sink,

esp those in bathrooms not used daily,
not a bad idea to add some bleach to the water,

if you have a disposal, fill the kitchen sink with hop soapy water and pull the plug, and then turn on the disposal,

run a cycle thru your dishwasher too,


that should get any place they can breed, (potted plants are usually the biggest culprit)


then get a cat,

once you have eliminated any source, the cat(s) will take care of the bug

Drain flies are the devil. Google & read up on them. Learn to tell if you have them: they are pretty distinctive when still. Place an upside-down Dixie cup over each drain at night. The next morning see if any have come up. They live in the drain and I believe they eat decaying matter in the crannies. Two-week life cycle. Eggs for the next batch are already in the drain gook so killing the flies will only give a short respite. The only way is to clean the drain by removing the tailstock. Clean the tailstock (several nooks there). Use a drain brush on the drain. The little bastards also go through the P-trap and lay eggs farther down. Cleaning out the gook is the only way to rid your house of them. You can see the eggs in the tailstock: I have pictures of mine. I wouldn't call an exterminator; call a plumber trainee and tell him what to do.

We had those 10 years ago in an apartment. The Red wine vinegar with saran wrap on top worked like a charm except for one problem. They were breeding about as fast as we could kill them. They used to hang around on the bathroom mirror. I got pretty proficient in killing them with a quick bare hand without endangering the glass, but still to no avail.

We finally realized the AC unit (in a bathroom ceiling) had rusted away where it drains. All the condensate was draining from a plastic overflow drain tray. We finally got a new one along with the outside unit and the vinegar traps made 2 days work of the remaining survivors. Then we said good bye to these little bastards for good. It's been many years now and they have shown up with some Walmart bananas twice. We stopped buying Walmart fruit completely and lo and behold they have never, ever returned.

From the internet:
Kill Pesky Fruit Flies. Even if you’re a total animal-lover, fruit flies are always considered unwelcome houseguests. Thankfully, you don’t have to put up with these pesky critters flying around your kitchen. That is, not if you have a little vinegar.
Take a small saucer or jar and pour in a bit of apple cider vinegar. Then add a few squeezes of dish soap on top. Place the dish in the area where you’re having the most trouble with fruit flies. The flies will be attracted to the smell, but they’ll soon drown in the liquid, leaving your kitchen a fly-free zone.

We were getting them from the soil of potted plants that had been outside. Seems the little bastages lay their eggs in the soil. Now, any plant that comes in, even from the store gets the soil sprayed with Ortho Home Defense.

Let me tell you,Guys - I appreciate ALL the replies, I really do. We have tried two approaches principally: "vinegar in a dish" AND "Bio Drain". The Bio Drain is supposed to rid your waste plumbing of all the eggs AND the crud that naturally accumulates in all drains over time. But the instructions for the Bio Drain tell you to clean out all your drains thoroughly before you use it. My question to the manufacturer (who never bothered to reply) was: To what extent do you clean out your drains? Do you hire a plumber to come in and disassemble all your pipes from the house out to the road? (Don't laugh. I read one report in which a family paid a plumber to dig up all the waste line from the house to the road in order to better be able to clean the pipes. - NO KIDDING) So again - to what extent do you try to clean out your drain pipes? OK, so we tried the Bio Drain - at a cost of about $45 per gallon,,,, and it didn't work. Contacted the manufacturer for hints to make his product work better and never got a reply. So now we're trying to "control" the bastards with vinegar/sugar/dishwashing detergent... and it looks like a losing battle. Again I say - I appreciate all the responses and ideas, but they seem to be essentially what we have already tried. We're looking for the "knockout punch", but haven't found it. I thanks you ALL for your replies.........FredT

jtedescucci, again I ask the question, do you have fruit flies or do you have drain flies? They are not the same creature.

I've not heard of using vinegar in a dish for drain flies but that doesn't mean it wouldn't work. Have you trapped/killed any of these pests using vinegar in a dish.

First, have you located the source or sources of the infestation? I can tell you that in our case in was our floor drain in our basement.

Do you by any chance have a sump pump in your basement? I would check there to see if that might be your source.

In regards to our basement floor drain, the previous owner installed a drain pipe from the footing drain to the floor drain. When our main sewer line backed up the water, carrying sewage, flowed back into the pipe. This was the source of our drain fly problem.

The only fix was to dig out the old floor drain and replace it with a new drain that sealed off the pipe.

I've been told that drain flies are always around. The key is to seal off their entrance point into your home. But you have to find it first.