fruit fly infestation
 

Hey Y'all!
Does anyone have any tips on how to get rid of fruit flies? The kids and
I were gone for the weekend and left the hubby at home to tend to the
farm. While we were gone he decided to cut open a watermelon and then
left half of it out on the table. When we got home the fruit flies had
taken over the kitchen! How disgusting! I've tried everything I can
think of to get rid of them, but they just seem to be getting worse!
Please keep in mind that I much prefer chemical free remedies.
Thanks!
~Rae

fruit fly infestation
 

In article , rachael simpson
wrote:

Hey Y'all!
Does anyone have any tips on how to get rid of fruit flies? The kids and
I were gone for the weekend and left the hubby at home to tend to the
farm. While we were gone he decided to cut open a watermelon and then
left half of it out on the table. When we got home the fruit flies had
taken over the kitchen! How disgusting! I've tried everything I can
think of to get rid of them, but they just seem to be getting worse!
Please keep in mind that I much prefer chemical free remedies.
Thanks!
~Rae

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
--
visit my temperate gardening website:
http://www.paghat.com
visit my film reviews website:
http://www.weirdwildrealm.com

fruit fly infestation
 

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

fruit fly infestation
 

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

fruit fly infestation
 

Billy wrote:


Snip

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.

Gee, thanks, Billy....you just made my day. Just what I wanted to
hear...err...read!
*shakes head*
lol!

~Rae

fruit fly infestation
 

On Aug 14, 9:50*pm, rachael simpson
wrote:
Hey Y'all!
Does anyone have any tips on how to get rid of fruit flies? The kids and
I were gone for the weekend and left the hubby at home to tend to the
farm. While we were gone he decided to cut open a watermelon and then
left half of it out on the table. When we got home the fruit flies had
taken over the kitchen! How disgusting! I've tried everything I can
think of to get rid of them, but they just seem to be getting worse!
Please keep in mind that I much prefer chemical free remedies.
Thanks!
~Rae

I received the following advice in an email recently:
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2" with
Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You
will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!
I don't know if it works, but good luck!

fruit fly infestation
 

In article ,
rachael simpson wrote:

Billy wrote:


Snip

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.

Gee, thanks, Billy....you just made my day. Just what I wanted to
hear...err...read!
*shakes head*
lol!

~Rae


Vinegar is real cheap. Guess you could scale up the trap design in the
URL below.

Bill

http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef621.asp

--
Garden in shade zone 5 S Jersey USA

fruit fly infestation
 

In article , rachael simpson
wrote:

Billy wrote:


Snip

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.

Gee, thanks, Billy....you just made my day. Just what I wanted to
hear...err...read!
*shakes head*
lol!

~Rae

Well, things vary. I had fruitflies last week, thick as the devil, mainly
because I hadn't put the lid on the compost bucket properly plus our stash
of subscribed organic fruit had some bad bits in it. All I did was pay
better attention to the bucket, refrigerate the fruit rather than leave it
out, throw out some pretty frazzled flower bouquets that had the requisite
yeast growing at the waterline, and oh yeah did the dishes a lot which I
hate to do. Today there's not a fruitfly anywhere.

Oh, they WILL come back before summer's through, but when they do, it'll
be because of a bad banana or the compost bucket lid not pressed tight,
not because there's fruit out of doors. Here they just don't come inside
without the scent of a breeding ground; one generally has to BRING them
inside (like on the subcribed organic fruit). We had a worm bin right next
to the back door, left the back door open so Daigoro could come and go
into the enclosed yard, and the worm bin did get some fruitflies in it but
they never came indoors.

-paghat the ratgirl
--
visit my temperate gardening website:
http://www.paghat.com
visit my film reviews website:
http://www.weirdwildrealm.com

fruit fly infestation~update
 

Bought a couple of baited fly traps and made a few of my own as well.
Between the all the "traps" the fruit fly numbers have diminished
greatly. Thanks for the tips and ideas!

~Rae

fruit fly infestation
 

On Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:50:16 -0400, rachael simpson
wrote:

Hey Y'all!
Does anyone have any tips on how to get rid of fruit flies? The kids and
I were gone for the weekend and left the hubby at home to tend to the
farm. While we were gone he decided to cut open a watermelon and then
left half of it out on the table. When we got home the fruit flies had
taken over the kitchen! How disgusting! I've tried everything I can
think of to get rid of them, but they just seem to be getting worse!
Please keep in mind that I much prefer chemical free remedies.
Thanks!
~Rae

Remove all food sources. The flies will die within a week then clean
the window sills. Don't kill the spiders, at least not yet.