GRRRR!!! fruit flies have made a home around my kitchen sink.

[Odin2005]

I have cleaned the area obsessively and yet the annoying little bastards keep on reproducing as fast as I kill them. they disappeared over the winter and I thought they were gone for good, but now with the warm spring they have returned! UGHH!!!

Any suggestions?

[elleng]

1. Sounds like a plumbing issue.

Sorry

[drm604]

2. Pour boiling water down the sink drain.

Do it several times a day for a week - longer if they're still around. Even if they seem to be gone after a day or two continue doing it for at least the entire week. If it takes longer than a week to eliminate them, make sure that you do it for a few days after they do disappear.

It's likely they're breeding in your drain. Ideally you should do this with every drain in the house at the same time so they don't move to another one.

This has worked for me.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

4. This would never have occurred to me. Thanks!

There is about a month in Tucson when the fruit flys are so bad that you have to make little tinfoil caps for your wineglass or just expect that you are going to get some extra protien with your wine, then it gets too hot and they go away but at least now I know how to fight em.

[Odin2005]

5. Just started doing that, thanks!

[csziggy]

12. A tip for keeping your sink drain clear

When you clean your coffee maker by running white vinegar through it (should do that about once a month if you make coffee every day) - before you pour out the hot vinegar, dumps some baking soda in the sink drain. When you pour the vinegar in the backing soda will react with it and the boiling bubbling reaction will clear out anything in the drain from grease to hair clogs.

Besides, it's cool to watch!

[drm604]

13. I don't make coffee, but it's an interesting idea.

However, I'm not sure if it would kill fruit fly eggs.

[csziggy]

15. The way the drain 'boils' when you pour the vinegar into the baking soda

There shouldn't be anything left in the drain for fruit flies to live in! Plus, you're pouring an extremely hot vinegar solution (I use 1 cup white vinegar with enough water to fill my 12 cup coffee maker, about one third of the carafe vinegar, then fill with water for my 6 cup coffee maker) down the drain. I'd expect it to be hot enough to kill of most insect eggs.

I tried to see if anyone had posted a video of this procedure on YouTube and found a different method for clearing drains where they dissolved the baking soda in water before pouring it down. I just sprinkle dry baking soda in, then dump the vinegar solution over that to wash the baking soda down.

[seabeyond]

3. this works. a little apple cider vinegar in a little glass. a funnel or make funnel out of paper

they fly in and cant get out. the apple cider vinegar calls to them.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

7. this recipe works too..

small dish or cup (I use leftover single serving applesauce cups) 1/2 inch of warm water, 1/2 t sugar, dribble of apple cider vinegar, stir. two drops of dishsoap floating on the surface will trap them. dump and refresh every day till you don't see any more.

[Major Nikon]

11. This is similar to how I do it

I take a small mason jar and fill it 1/3rd of the way full with apple cider vinegar, then put a few drops of dish soap and stir. I punch some holes in the mason jar lid, big enough for the flies to get through. Then you just set it out in your kitchen.

Here's why it works....

The apple cider vinegar smells like rotting fruit to a fruit fly and they can't resist it. The dishsoap breaks the surface tension of the liquid and causes them to sink when the light on the surface, rather than staying on top.

It should get rid of all fruit flies in a couple of days.

[Curmudgeoness]

6. I use hydrogen peroxide in the drain

but the boiling water sounds just as easy. I get them in my bathroom sink and they hide out in the overflow hole, which makes the hydrogen peroxide an easier solution for me---I don't have to worry about scalding myself trying to get it in there.

[HipChick]

18. Anmonia in the drains works well too...

I get a bottle or two from the dollar store..

[nolabear]

8. Glass of red wine with a little soap around the rim.

The Fruit Fly Motel.

[fizzgig]

9. i just set out a small glass of beer

maybe a drop or two of dish soap in it

[HipChick]

10. I tried everything..nothing worked for me, except this...

I found it in my local Grocery store, but you can get it from Home Depot..I haven't seen anymore of the little bastards...


http://reviews.homedepot.com/1999/202212720/2-pack-fruit-fly-trap-reviews/reviews.htm

[Major Nikon]

14. Did you ever try the apple cider vinegar solution mentioned in post #11?

I keep fresh fruit in my house all the time, so from time to time I get fruit flies. My little mason jar traps never fails to get rid of them in a day or two. It's amazing how many of the little dead bastards you find in the bottom of the jar in the morning.

[HipChick]

17. I had a invasion of them, and then they migrated to the bathroom

and hanging around the drains..

I did the apple cider thing but it was just taking too long

[JVS]

16. Clean up well and then starve them out by not eating in your house for a few days.

[Kali]

19. drain (or sewer) flies are not the same critters as fruit flies

http://www.heritagepestcontrol.net/are-they-drain-flies-or-fruit-flies/

edit to add a little better link http://lancaster.unl.edu/pest/resources/flies015.shtml

[drm604]

20. Well, I guess if they're hanging around Odin's sink

then they must be drain flies.

I had a major problem a few years back with tiny red flies. The problem seemed to start when I had some forgotten bananas go bad. They had flies around them. I threw them out but the flies then moved to the kitchen and bathroom sinks. They were driving me crazy till I heard about the boiling water trick. Pouring it down the two drains for a week or so did the trick.

So, they seemed to originally have been attracted by the rotten fruit and then moved to the drains. Which were they, fruit flies or drain flies?

[Kali]

21. red - especially eyes would be fruit flies

other clues are time of year, fruit flies tend to be late summer, early fall and drain flies in the spring

I agree I think he's got the drain flies. boiling water, clorox and/or actual physical cleaning

[Curmudgeoness]

22. I always have problems seeing their eyes!

But you are right, there is a difference. It just isn't that easy to see it.

[gopiscrap]

24. welcome to DU