UGH!! FRUIT FLY HELP NEEDED!!

[Newbie GCC]

I need help from my fellow "bird brains"! How do I get rid of this damn fruit fly invasion??
Food bowls get removed after a couple hours. I normally clean cages with f10 every night and change papers, but the fruit flies are driving me and the flock nuts!! Trying 50/50 white vinegar and water now to deter the nasty little buggers. Any helpful tips? PLEASE?!?!?!

 

[BlueAbyss]

You can fill up a bowl of fruit then cover it with plastic wrap. Use a toothpick or something to poke small holes in the wrap. Place around places in the house where you think the flies are coming from. They get themselves trapped in the bowl and don't know how to get out.

 

[Newbie GCC]

Just put 2 bowls of canned peaches covered with saran wrap with toothpick holes on top of the cages. Hope the little buggers find their way in and drown themselves! Also poured boiling water and dawn dish soap down the drains.

 

[Jenphilly]

A trick my husband learned in military. Shallow dish of apple cider vinegar with a drop or two of dish liquid. Don't mix, just let the dish liquid - like Dawn - settle. The flies are drawn to the apple cider vinegar but the Dawn changes the viscosity of the liquid and the fruit flies get stuck and drown.

I put out a couple bowls when I forget bananas... works like a charm!

 

[rocky'smom]

use sweet smelling dish soap works the best.

 

[Mizzely]

I use the fruit fly traps by Terro. Wal-Mart, Home depot, etc carry them and ALWAYS work for me

 

[DQTimnehs]

I use a small container of water with a few drops of lemon dish soap (Sunlight) in it. The flies end up drowning in it.

I also now rinse my bananas as soon as I bring them home as I read that there are fruit fly eggs on them which hatch. I haven't had fruit flies since I started doing that a year or 2 ago.

 

[Peachfaced]

A trick my husband learned in military. Shallow dish of apple cider vinegar with a drop or two of dish liquid. Don't mix, just let the dish liquid - like Dawn - settle. The flies are drawn to the apple cider vinegar but the Dawn changes the viscosity of the liquid and the fruit flies get stuck and drown.

I put out a couple bowls when I forget bananas... works like a charm!

This is the best. We had an invasion of these little pests. Believe it or not, they look like fruit flies but they weren't! They were phorid flies. HUGE invasion of them this past summer. They were literally in every building all over the city. I'd mix a little bit of old soda, acv, and Dawn in shallow containers and killed hundreds of the little beggars. It was the only thing keeping them at bay.

 

[Newbie GCC]

A trick my husband learned in military. Shallow dish of apple cider vinegar with a drop or two of dish liquid. Don't mix, just let the dish liquid - like Dawn - settle. The flies are drawn to the apple cider vinegar but the Dawn changes the viscosity of the liquid and the fruit flies get stuck and drown.

I put out a couple bowls when I forget bananas... works like a charm!

No covering with Saran wrap with holes punched in it?

 

[Just-passn-thru]

Apple cider vinegar in a small container, that's what the fruit fly traps have inside.

 

[Jenphilly]

No covering with Saran wrap with holes punched in it?

nope, once the flies land, they get stuck because of the Dawn... changes the liquid texture and they can't sit on top of it and fly off.

 

[theocnoob]

Might want to change your fruit source. Unlike other flies that come into the home from outside, more often than not, fruit flies come from the fruit itself. They lay eggs in fruit on the tree and when that fruit gets to your house and reaches a certain ripeness the flies come out of the fruit and start buzzing around your home.

I'm sorry to tell you that if you didn't already know that because I know how gross it is to think you're eating flies when you bite into a piece of fruit but they're too tiny to notice. Fig wasps, on the other hand, are a bit more meaty. Don't google fig wasps if you eat figs. It'll ruin it for you.

 

[Zelle]

I keep a fan on and it blows those little buggers away

 

[Milo]

We had a pretty bad run in with fruit flies last summer, I went around and vacuumed up the ones I could see on the wall. We also used the cling wrap trick with some banana, it took a few days but it got things under control

 

[hotfoot jackson]

Fantastic solutions all....there is a chance that the wee flies may be vinegar flies....they are attracted to rotting fruit and are harmless...they often ruin wine when it ferments, turning it into vinegar, hence the name

 

[William Tobias]

My friend also faced the fruit flies infestation in his home. The infestation was so big that they have to consult a pest exterminator to tackle the problem from the root. The best way to deal with these annoying pests is by preventing them from breeding inside your home. Professionals also suggested pouring bleach down our drain pipes. This will kill off the larvae and make sure that another wave of fruit flies do not come buzzing out to infest your home again.

 

[Peachfaced]

My friend also faced the fruit flies infestation in his home. The infestation was so big that they have to consult a pest exterminator to tackle the problem from the root. The best way to deal with these annoying pests is by preventing them from breeding inside your home. Professionals also suggested pouring bleach down our drain pipes. This will kill off the larvae and make sure that another wave of fruit flies do not come buzzing out to infest your home again.

You have to be very careful what chemicals you allow, though. Bleach is a very harsh chemical and is especially dangerous for birds to breathe.

I would try using F10, personally.

 

[Shezbug]

We have just recently had the local council give out fruit fly traps to every household to reduce the numbers before they get any worse. They also have sent out information leaflets, there is a recipe for fruit fly traps they have included.....I have no idea how effective it is or if it is safe around birds though.

Empty soft drink bottle with lid, cut three holes in the bottle about the size of the lid and about 10 centimetres from the top of the bottle.
Bait mixture: 1 cup of 100% fruit juice (including pulp) add one tablespoon of cloudy ammonia.
Tie bottle with a string to hang it in a shady area about 1- 1.5 metres from the ground.

I do not think we have ever had a problem with fruit fly in the house (except the ones we ate that were living in my cherries, lol cherry flavoured protein)...... vinegar flies are a regular, once the weather warms up if we have food scraps in the house for any longer than half an hour they start hovering the bin or compost (where ever the scraps are)

As long as the fruit fly are still small I do not mind eating the fruit with them in it, if they are a little bigger then I make jam and the little buggers all float to the top while the fruit is cooking to be plucked or skimmed out. I have yet to find any wasps in my figs but I love the reaction people have when they find out about the fig wasps.

 

[Mizzely]

Vinegar flies and fruit flies are the same thing. I've never heard that term before so had to look it up!

 

[Shezbug]

Vinegar flies’ mistaken identity | The Advocate

This is the difference between fruit and vinegar fly. I originally thought they were the same thing too but they have some significant differences.