Fruit flies!!!!!

[minnie56]

HELP?

I am being invaded by them!

Any tips to get rid of?

Thank you!

 

[Chattyaholic]

I feel your pain. We had them bad several years ago and it was so embarrassing when people came over, until we found out others were battling them the same as we were!!

It's amazing, you leave one watermelon rind on the counter overnight and WHAM, you're invaded!!

You know what worked for us? My boss, at that time, had a little tree (I think it was boxwood, some kind of pine) sent to me at Christmas and I had it on the kitchen counter. The next morning, dead fruit flies all around it!! It was strange, but it worked!!

 

[lynxstch]

leave a small dish of cider vinegar on the counter near where the flies seem to be..I did this earlier this fall when we had tomatoes coming out of our ears..and fruit flies to match..the next morning we had a bowlfull of drowned fruit flies!

 

[dg39]

I get them also. They started coming around a few weeks ago and now I notice just 1 or 2 still flying around. Their hard to swat too, their fast little buggers...

 

[minnie56]

Fast!

I have my fruit bowl sitting outside hoping the cold will nix those... and am looking for cider vinegar as we speak!

I tried chasing them around with a tea towel but that was fruitless!

 

[luvdisney81]

Oooh I had this problem...

If you have a garbage disposal....clean it! You can actually buy garbage disposal cleaner, it is a liquid you put in, and it foams up when you run the disposal, works like a charm and no sticking your hand down there. I thought mine was clean and that is where they were coming from. I used those sticky tape things you hang, they worked well. Eventually I just bombed the place and that solved it.

Just clean everything, no food can be left out while trying to get rid of them, no crumbs and nothing spoiled in the fridge.

 

[Tuffcookie]

The apple cider in a bowl did not work very well for me so I had to resort to a can of Raid flying insect spray. Try to close off the section of the house they are in. Then clear all the counters and shelves. I had everyone (& pets) leave the area for a couple hours. Then after several hours had passed, I went in and wiped everything down. It was a lot of work but it worked and I didn't see those annoying critters after that.

 

[TheOtherVillainess]

I hate fruit flies too. We get them at work all the time because of the fresh bananas and fresh strawberries we have. But my boss doesn't seem to care...they buzz all over the place and fall into the ice hopper or the drinks and we have to fish them out. He doesn't care if they fall in the drinks as long as we get them out before we hand them to customers.

TOV

 

[wvjules]

I thought i was the only one with bad fruit flies. But weird thing is I have no fruit around! They seem to like wet washrags so I don't leave them out anymore. I hung a fly catcher in my bathroom where they seemed to congretate and its covered in them. I'll have to try the vinegar. I hope it works quickly. I have a date tonight, don't want any nasty fruit flies ruining the fun.

 

[minnie56]

No garbage disposal..

I have the bowl out of cider vinegar but so far only 2 victims. One even managed to get out!!!

I have no food out anywhere. They are mainly in my kitchen, a few in the dining room and some in one bathroom.UGH...they are making me nuts! I cannot really spray insecticide as I have 3 cats and a dog...though there are times.....

Thanks for all these great ideas....I knew I could count on you all!

 

[pixie3]

Warning this could be really gross:

This is really embarassing, but I'll tell anyway. I had them for a year and couldn't get rid of them. I could never pin point where they were coming from or why they were hanging out. There was no fruit around. One day I opened a kitchen drawer that we never opened and whamo an old brandy bottle that had leaked and they were breeding everywhere in the drawer. I was pregnant at the time and barfed right there. Poor DH had to clean because I was so sick.

Anyway, the point of this gross story is to find the source. It could be from somewhere you don't expect.

 

[doxdogy]

Had the same problem a few years ago. DH finally bought a no pest strip from Lowe's and no more fruit flies. I tried everything to get rid of them. The strip was the only thing that worked. They were gone within a few hours.

 

[Dan Murphy]

We had them not long ago, learned the great apple cider vinegar tip here on the CB. We tried it, after two days had about 15 little buggers, floating in two little bowls. All gone. A bowl/s of apple cider vinegar, top wrapped in plastic wrap (Glad Wrap), a few small holes punched in the plastic with ice pick or similar, works great. And, as so often, thank you DIS.