Fruit Fly Infestation

We moved to the country 7 months ago. We started out a month or so ago with a minor nuisance of fruit flies that seemed to be limited to just the kitchen. I have a garden and the harvest has been plenty. However, I think I may have introduced a fruit fly problem. We have tried all the conventional remedies like a container with apple cider vinegar. It gets changed on a daily basis with a collection of at least a dozen dead flies. Now, they seem to even be in my upstairs office. Not a lot, but that occasional buzzing little bastage! Maybe they even originated from the pipes but, I'm at a loss now of what to do. I've talked to a few other folks that live in the country and they say they have them too and it is a yearly summer problem. So, do I live with this or, would setting up bug bombs throughout the house be the solution?

I've been having a problem with them as well. They are attracted to anything sugary and any type of food stuff that goes in to the garbage can. They even seem to like snotty tissues in trashcans for some reason.

I'm currently battling them as well. I found that the red wine in a bottle trick seems to work somewhat, but only to an extent. I sprayed some of them with lysol and it killed them.

You have to make sure that all food stuff is put up-- including bread-- where bugs can't get it. I have to keep my bread in the refrigerator. Trashcans also have to be kept covered/closed if they have any food stuff. Those little buggers like aluminium cans and empty soda bottles that aren't closed up.

I wish I knew of a perfect solution for it, but hopefully if they start to die off and you cut off their food supply they will diminish.

Ok, first of all...Welcome to the Country. :
We have bugs, mice, bugs mice and cowsmells...and the odd rooster or two that crows at 3am.
Fruit Flies are the least harmful, out here we have blackflies...tiny little nosseeums that bite and leave welts all over...fun huh..

I start out with a dryer sheet or three, and my Vacuum.With a clean bag, suck up the dryer sheets into the vacuum. Then do as Zaneej said and get rid of all fruits sitting around out in the open, this is usually where they come from.
As you see flies, just vacuum them right out of the air, and don't let your neighbors see you... they will talk at the local lunch counter.:beer:

The last 500 times I have asked this question the answer was 500 times yes, so here it goes.

Do you buy bananas?

Not joke and there is a reason why I ask.

The last 7 years I have asked and always get a YES answer. If you buy Bananas and buy them at Walmart you just found your source of fruit flies.

If you never buy bananas then you need to wash any fruit the second it comes home from the store (washes off the eggs of flies) and Walmart is the worst due to the fruit flies I have had over the years buying from Walmart. Once the built a Meijers store I started to buy fruit there and the problem never came back. Coincidence? I think not, and know it isn't.

I am not trashing Walmart I still shop there, but I think the way the employees handle the fruit is not right. Myself and others have made comments that when they walk into the local Walmart they smell rotting fruit, and never has this been said about Meijers. I suspect it is a local store by store issue with bad managers. There is no reason one should smell over ripe fruit or rotting fruit all the way at the front door. NOTE some people do not have the ability to smell it and others do.

It was so bad I stopped buying bananas period... And the fruit flies eventually went away with the help of the hanging sticky fly strips. Fruit flies can't resist the fly strips that come on the tiny tubes and unwind to hang.


I have a theory as to why the Walmart bananas are the worst, but it is only a theory. It is poor handling, lowest bidder (Walmart) related.



See the links below... Get the sly strips up and watch them get fuzzy with so many flies stuck to them.



http://www.homedepot.com/p/Victor-Fly-Catcher-Paper-Ribbons-4-Pack-C24510/100195987

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001MA4C8S/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20


http://www.walmart.com/ip/Black-Flag-Fly-Paper-Trap-4ct/15723850

brewer55 said:

We moved to the country 7 months ago. We started out a month or so ago with a minor nuisance of fruit flies that seemed to be limited to just the kitchen. I have a garden and the harvest has been plenty. However, I think I may have introduced a fruit fly problem. We have tried all the conventional remedies like a container with apple cider vinegar. It gets changed on a daily basis with a collection of at least a dozen dead flies. Now, they seem to even be in my upstairs office. Not a lot, but that occasional buzzing little bastage! Maybe they even originated from the pipes but, I'm at a loss now of what to do. I've talked to a few other folks that live in the country and they say they have them too and it is a yearly summer problem. So, do I live with this or, would setting up bug bombs throughout the house be the solution?

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Years ago we got fruit flies in the office and tried everything the boss even banned bring fruit to work for a time. They were persistent even though the janitors were spraying the waste baskets once a day.

One of the test guys finally figured something out. He wired a shop-vac to come on and run 15 seconds every 15 minutes and pointed it at a plate of over ripe bananas smashed on a plate. Just about the time the fruit was covered in flies the thing would come on and suck them all up. Within a couple days they were gone with it running 24 hours a day.
:banana:

I have eight rental homes and this was a common stunt when asked to leave for non payment of rent. They would place bananas in heating vents, or far worse meat so it would rot and make the home uninhabitable without massive work and costs. The Bananas hidden would cause upwards of 50,000 plus fruit flies and when you walked in you saw a grey cloud of them everywhere. The fly strips worked as best as anything I could find. Even bug bombing the place left many flies left alive. People are messed up.

bud16415 said:

Years ago we got fruit flies in the office and tried everything the boss even banned bring fruit to work for a time. They were persistent even though the janitors were spraying the waste baskets once a day.

One of the test guys finally figured something out. He wired a shop-vac to come on and run 15 seconds every 15 minutes and pointed it at a plate of over ripe bananas smashed on a plate. Just about the time the fruit was covered in flies the thing would come on and suck them all up. Within a couple days they were gone with it running 24 hours a day.
:banana:

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Bailenforcer, now I know how to get even with my neighbors...

We actually have not been buying bananas, but we did get oranges from Walmart. The local walmart is horrible for fruit stuff. They sell fruit that has mold on it and they have a caterpillar/moth problem. I went to eat some brand new pop tarts and there were caterpillars in them. The raisins also had them.

They will take bags of cat food that have caterpillars on the outside and just wipe them off. I had to stop buying stuff from them because they would try to hide that they had an infestation. So they cleaned the outside of the bags really well and when I opened the bag, moths flew out into my face and there were caterpillars crawling all over. I taped the bag up and took it back.

They also don't keep their refrigerated section cold enough and the dairy products go bad early.

So yeah, Walmart does suck. In addition to health code violations, they also have been butting heads with the CDC for forcing employees to work while sick-- even ones with H1N1 because many of them do not accept doctor's notes as valid excuses. If an employee misses 3 days of work in 6 months they can be fired.

Ooh, there I go about Walmart again. LOL.

Moth balls sometimes seem to work a bit in deterring the bugs. I hate the fruit flies because they get into my eyes and nose. Not as bad as the little biting gnats though.

I don't harbor any ill will with Walmart, it is in fact a store by store problem with some stores being really clean and others nasty. They need regional inspectors to surprise check the stores. They can hire me, I will keep the managers on their toes I am a White glove type. I demand a clean store. So they fruit flies are most likely from the bananas and also infected the oranges. Once you have an infestation they attack anything food related.

zannej said:

Bailenforcer, now I know how to get even with my neighbors...

We actually have not been buying bananas, but we did get oranges from Walmart. The local walmart is horrible for fruit stuff. They sell fruit that has mold on it and they have a caterpillar/moth problem. I went to eat some brand new pop tarts and there were caterpillars in them. The raisins also had them.

They will take bags of cat food that have caterpillars on the outside and just wipe them off. I had to stop buying stuff from them because they would try to hide that they had an infestation. So they cleaned the outside of the bags really well and when I opened the bag, moths flew out into my face and there were caterpillars crawling all over. I taped the bag up and took it back.

They also don't keep their refrigerated section cold enough and the dairy products go bad early.

So yeah, Walmart does suck. In addition to health code violations, they also have been butting heads with the CDC for forcing employees to work while sick-- even ones with H1N1 because many of them do not accept doctor's notes as valid excuses. If an employee misses 3 days of work in 6 months they can be fired.

Ooh, there I go about Walmart again. LOL.

Moth balls sometimes seem to work a bit in deterring the bugs. I hate the fruit flies because they get into my eyes and nose. Not as bad as the little biting gnats though.

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