In article ,
rachael simpson wrote:

paghat wrote:
In article , rachael simpson
wrote:

Snip

The main thing is to stop feeding them. Keep all table surfaces
scrupulously clean. Don't leave wet dog or catfood out. Clean out the sink
drains with bleach. Take the trash out a couple times a day; if you use an
indoor trash can sterilze the interior bottom. Keep fruit in tightly
sealing freezer-baggies or rubbermaid lidded containers. Don't keep any
flower bouquets for a while. If you have a potato bin, move the taters to
a sealable can for a while. Keep all the fruit in the refrigerator for the
time being. They only live a couple days, so unless you're still providing
a medium for them to reproduce, they should be gone quite soon.

Baited fruitfly traps are available at the hardware store but I've never
needed them. Whenever I've had an outbreak of fruitflies the cause was
obvious, either not wiping up well after cutting fruits, or not doing the
dishes often enough, it's usually pretty easy to figure out and quickly
repairable.

You can make a trap with a jar, put a quarter-inch of red wine in the jar,
and tape a funnel for a lid pointed down. The flies find their way in
easily, but not so easily out, and drown in the wine instead of making
maggots. Alternatively, use a paper cup with banana chunk or banana skin
or grossly overripe nectarine in the bottom, make a paper cone to fit over
the top. When the cup is full of flies, wrap it in a baggy and toss it in
the outdoor trash. Repeat until flies are gone. Best baits have a bit of
mold or nasty stuff on them as the fruitflies don't actually go for the
fruit, they go for live yeast growing on rotting fruit.

Since they started on the watermelon you can be pretty sure what they are,
but sometimes what seems to be fruitflies turns out to be some other tiny
fly and what gets rid of fruitflies won't work; they won't go away until
you figure out which indoor flower pot they're breeding either in the
potting soil or on some houseplant.

-paghat the ratgirl

Thanks for the trap idea. I'll give it a try. We don't have indoor pets
and all the feed for the livestock stays in the barn! lol! I've
cleaned the drains several times since returning home and generally try
to keep the table clear of the kids "stickinesses". The only thing
potato bin wise is what I keep my onions in. The taters are all in the
storage shed outside. No indoor plants here either as I figure they
wouldn't fare so well with two toddlers. I've tried sticky fly traps (
the kind that hang from the ceiling...we generally keep some placed
around the barn) and also have kept a dish of cider vinegar out in hopes
that would attract them. Between the sticky paper traps and vinegar, we
caught quite a few, but it still doesn't seem to have put a dent in
them. I have to do some grocery shopping tomorrow, so I'll try to pick
up some red wine then...unless you think using the vinegar with a top
that way might would work also?

~Rae

You can reduce their numbers but until you have a frost, you are
gong to be in a constant battle. They are probably being attracted by
ripe fruit outside.
--

Billy
Bush and Pelosi Behind Bars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KVTf...ef=patrick.net
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1009916.html