Irritating flies

[Bertie Doe]

Over the past 2 weeks, the kitchen has been plagued by tiny flies. At any one time, there's as many as a dozen to be seen. The problem is, they are so small, the fly-swat has no effect on them. They are about 3 mm in length - you think you have them under control, then a couple of days later, there seems to be a fresh hatching.
Are these the dreaded fruit fly? According to Wikipedia, close-up pics have them as an orangey sort of colour. Can't detect much colouration on these, with the naked eye.
Preventative measures include; moving all fruit from the larder to the fridge salad drawer. Cleaning the inside of the swing bin with bleach. We save all peel and fruit skins in a mini swing bin - which has been moved outside the back door. So what are the living on? All wine and beer is in an outside utility room (former outside loo).
I've moved some of my carnivorous plants (Butterworts and Sundews) from the porch and into the kitchen, but I suspect these plants are approaching the dormancy period and aren't sending out the necessary smells. The flies aren't at all interested in our electric zapper, although the fly papers bought lunchtime are having some effect.
It's all a bit of a puzzle, as there hardly seemed to be any fly activity inside or outside the house during the Summer :hmm:

 

[Runwell-Steve]

We had an infestation earlier in the year, couldn't work it out, turned out to be the sack of potatoes which was festering unnoticed in the corner.

They must be feeding and breeding on something inside at this time of year, it's too cold for them now outside.

 

[Darcey]

Beerfly! Arggh! Even a small residue is big enough for them to feed on. Check for spills down the side of the cooker / fridge!

 

[Bertie Doe]

We had an infestation earlier in the year, couldn't work it out, turned out to be the sack of potatoes which was festering unnoticed in the corner.

They must be feeding and breeding on something inside at this time of year, it's too cold for them now outside.

The kitchen units are MFI type - very few nooks and crannies for fruit and veg to compost. Ironically I had intended to dig the remainder of my spuds on the allotment, but it's peeing down here. I'll give the cupboards a proper clearout.

Can't blame it on the 'medicinals' as all the beer and wine is prep'd in the bath, which gets bleach sprayed after use.

Beerfly! Arggh! Even a small residue is big enough for them to feed on. Check for spills down the side of the cooker / fridge!

The cooker may be the culprit, it's got a glass top, so the odd spillage could go down the back, although it'll be a mammoth tusk shifting it :hmm: I know flies need to drink, so we've been scrupulous in keeping everything dry, I'm hpoing this will force them onto the sundews etc. This morning there was an angry yelp from the wife, as a cloud of flies popped out of the dishwasher :evil: cunning little sods .....

 

[graysalchemy]

Fruit Flys they are attracted to fermenting sugars so rotting fruit beer and wine.

Don't let the peskies into your beer as they will have the acetobacteria living on them and you beer or wine could turn to vinagar, it has happened to me once and it is not a pretty sight seeing a grown man cry because he has lost 60l of beer.

I think fly papers are probably the only thing to stop them. I got an electic bug incinerator thing with the blue light. It turns out they are colour blind and don't like UV light, infact they prefer the dark of my fermenting cupboard. :lol: :lol:

I have been infested with them since august, but they are not as frequent now the temp is dropping.

 

[Dave1970]

Top 10 Tips for Getting Rid of Fruit Flies

Some interesting ideas here, reckons they can breed on dishcloths and that you can make a trap using cider vinegar. I'm pretty sure that wine or beer would work in a trap too.

 

[graysalchemy]

I'm pretty sure that wine or beer would work in a trap too.

It does my fecking 60l fv

 

[Dave1970]

Sorry to bring back painful memories, that was kind of what I meant.

I'm sure the fruit flies have become a much bigger problem for us since we've been composting more, our main compost bins have thousands of the buggers.

 

[graysalchemy]

Not just bringing back memories I have just tasted my Stout and I think I have just brewed my first batch of Stout Vinagar.

Oh Well

Plenty of Pickeld onions Next year then

 

[disco_monkey79]

We came back from holiday in June, to find a total infestation. It was eventually traced back to the OH's wormery, which was outside the back door. Once relegated to the bottom of the garden (the wormery, not the OH), the problem cleared. Nasty little b*ggers!

 

[tazuk]

i could not work out why i was getting them too till one day i had a bin out side back door i open the lid omg lol a massive swarm came out of the bin talk about num nuts when i scratt my apples the press them i put pulp in the bin durrr :shock:

 

[Bertie Doe]

Fruit Flys they are attracted to fermenting sugars so rotting fruit beer and wine.

Don't let the peskies into your beer as they will have the acetobacteria living on them and you beer or wine could turn to vinagar, it has happened to me once and it is not a pretty sight seeing a grown man cry because he has lost 60l of beer.

I think fly papers are probably the only thing to stop them. I got an electic bug incinerator thing with the blue light. It turns out they are colour blind and don't like UV light, infact they prefer the dark of my fermenting cupboard. :lol: :lol:

I have been infested with them since august, but they are not as frequent now the temp is dropping.

The fly activity is mainly in the kitchen. There's 5 DJ's of wine and a 25L of beer fermenting in the bedroom. Not much activity in the bedroom - nor from flies

Yep my blue light seems to knocking out larger flies, has little effect on the FFF's :rofl: Agreed flypapers are best, yesterday I got a pack of 10 rolls for £1.40p - nay bad.

Top 10 Tips for Getting Rid of Fruit Flies

Some interesting ideas here, reckons they can breed on dishcloths and that you can make a trap using cider vinegar. I'm pretty sure that wine or beer would work in a trap too.

Some great ideas there Dave, I'll set up some traps. I've got wine vinegar (shop bought lol) and I'll keep all sponges and cloths primed with dilute bleach, thanks.

 

[Bertie Doe]

We came back from holiday in June, to find a total infestation. It was eventually traced back to the OH's wormery, which was outside the back door. Once relegated to the bottom of the garden (the wormery, not the OH), the problem cleared. Nasty little b*ggers!

i could not work out why i was getting them too till one day i had a bin out side back door i open the lid omg lol a massive swarm came out of the bin talk about num nuts when i scratt my apples the press them i put pulp in the bin durrr :shock:

I've scrubbed out the swing bin and the mini fruit/veg peel bin has been moved to the back door. I'll move it to the end of the garden. :idea:
I've just had a thought on Dave's '10 Tips for getting rid of em'. They refer to the dishwasher. In an earlier post I mentioned seeing them come out of the DW on opening door. I assumed they were after water spillage, but maybe this is how they get into the kitchen. I don't see any 'U-bend in the waste water pipework. Should there be? Is there a plumber in the house?

 

[sheffieldlad]

I don't see any 'U-bend in the waste water pipework. Should there be? Is there a plumber in the house?

I'm not a plumber but I'ev worked with a few and I'd suggest a U bend on the dishwasher waste if only to keep bad smells from kicking back up the pipe.
If you've seen em fly out of the DW when you open the door this could well be where they're getting in.

I'll talk to the plumber we use next time I work with him and get more info if no one else on the forum comes forward.

:

-Paul

 

[alphacento]

I have had the same issue this year. We had some rotten fruit and the flyes appeared immediately. After we threw away the rotten fruit they still manage to survive by moving into the flowers and then into some other fruit (this time it was not off yet) and it took us a couple of weeks to get rid of them!

 

[Moley]

I have major objections to fruit flies (or any other flying insect) in my house, and especially anywhere near a fermenter of any description.

Mrs. Mole has major objections to me spraying insecticides around the house, and especially anywhere near fruit bowls or food preparation areas.

She solved that by buying a couple of those hand held, battery powered fly raquets, I think they were only about £3 each.

The blue light zappers don't work because the fly has to touch two wire grids on its way to the light and make an electrical circuit through itself, and fruit flies are just too small. The hand held bug bats have a much smaller grid spacing.

I also have ‘pretty fly papers’ in the corners of the kitchen windows, these are a clear plastic sheet approx. 20 x 7cm printed with a floral pattern and sticky on one side, I think they were £1 for a 3-pack from Aldi.

I also have an ‘inverted funnel’ type wasp trap hanging near the fruit bowls, baited with a splash of WOW and a chunk of fruit, preferably pineapple or pear.

One way or another, any fruit fly entering my house has a very limited life expectancy.

 

[Bertie Doe]

She solved that by buying a couple of those hand held, battery powered fly raquets, I think they were only about £3 each.
The blue light zappers don't work because the fly has to touch two wire grids on its way to the light and make an electrical circuit through itself, and fruit flies are just too small. The hand held bug bats have a much smaller grid spacing.

The regular sized flyswats are useless, they waft the fly away and demolish ornaments. The battery powered swat sounds great, I'll have a look on fleaBay :P
Last night I half-filled 2 wine glasses, one with wine 'tother with beer, with some punctured cling on top and they've bagged half dozen FFFs each :whistle:

 

[sheffieldlad]

I worked with my plumming friend today who was by coincidence fitting a disfhwasher.

He says....

'If your dishwasher is plummed into your waste trap for your sink and the outlet on the dishwasher is not higher than the waste trap every time you let water down the sink it will spill into your dishwasher.

If this is the case you should form a loop in the DW waste pipe to stop water coming out of the trap and into the DW.
You can buy a plastic loop former which slips onto the DW waste pipe and this will eliminate the problem.'

It also happens to washing machines aswell aparantly..

Hope this helps.

-Paul