Fruit Fly problem....

theerroll

Hi I need some advice!!
I'm moving from Scotland to the midlands, my wife has already moved and I had our move out inspection earlier this week.
I had left a few bits at our last home, vacuum, lawn mower, strimmer, mop etc...
I loaded all of these into my car where they will stay for at least another week.

However today I went out in the car and while there wasn't hundreds there were certainly tiny little flys in tens! I purchased a can of raid and have emptied half of it into the car and I'm going to leave it for an hour or so.

Will this do the trick?? or am I doomed for an infestation in my car!!

Please help!

Many thanks:):)

-taff

Fruit flies feast on rotten stuff, so check your equipment to make sure you haven't got rotting grass/fruit etc stuck to the blades or body of anything. If you have, clean it.
They've probably all hatched by now, but it ight help against future hatching.
http://insects.about.com/od/insectssociety/qt/Where-Do-Fruit-Flies-Come-From.htm

NewtoDIY

I agree with the above poster. Additionally, if you want to get rid of them, then a tried and tested way is to fill a large glass with lukewarm water and washing up liquid (so that there is foam at the top) up to 2/3 of the glass. Then top it up with balsamic vinegar (or other really potent vinegar). Leave it near to where you have the problem and watch as they are attracted to the vinegar but cannot escape the washing up liquid. I've caught hundreds like this.

APennySaved

Great postings, BTW, as am currently dealing with an "infestation" in our kitchen of fruit flies :eek: ! So your advice is exactly what I was looking for.

So shall definitely try the suggested vinegar remedy.

Meanwhile, any advice re what type of "fruit fly spray" solution I could use? I have been using the ubiquitous "Raid" fly-spray aerosol can ("Raid Protector Fly, Wasp & Mosquito Killer") for the past few days. However, I would rather find something less chemical, plus something that would DEFINITELY not harm humans if the spray lands on food or food-prep surfaces (which seems to occur with "Raid" vs the fruit flies as they are all over the kitchen - - so you have to spray EVERYWHERE).

I am hoping there might be something more human-friendly - LOL - and possibly also more enviro-friendly while I am at it! - than "Raid";
e.g. I have seen online that someone has created a lemon spray for killing fleas (How to Make a Lemon Flea Spray) on pets. Would this work for the ANNOYING little fruit flies? The lemon juice would be great around the kitchen surfaces . . . (Or perhaps there is something else along the same lines??) I live in hope . . . ! LOL!

Also, as a matter of interest, is the chemical content of "Raid" damaging to humans if it lands on food or food-prep surfaces? Or am I safe to spray it generously around the kitchen??

Hey-ho!

bouicca21

You don't need a spray - a trap will catch them within a day. My method is to put some water and a bit of tasty vinegar or red wine in the bottom of a shallow container, plus something like a peach stone or other old fruit. Cap it over with cling film, stab some holes in the cling film with a sharp knife. Leave to do its work. You will be amazed at how quickly it does the job.

APennySaved

Thanks bouicca21! Sounds like a good tip!

BTW, will normal malt vinegar/brown vinegar do? As I have some vinegar that was supplied with Pickled Walnuts, that is surplus sto requirements, so can be reused. (Or does it have to be cider vinegar?)

bouicca21

I've used cider vinegar, sherry vinegar, red wine in the past. The red wine actually worked best but I resented the sacrifice. Never used ordinary malt so have no idea if it would work. You could probably get away with plain water if you put enough suitably overripe fruit in with it. You just need something the little !!!!!!s like to attract them in - and enough liquid to drown them.

APennySaved

Hi bouicca21

I agree entirely re the wastage of red wine!

bouicca21 wrote: »

cider vinegar, sherry vinegar, red wine in the past. [...] You could probably get away with plain water if you put enough suitably overripe fruit in with it.

And if cider vinegar & sherry vinegar work, then I don't see why malt vinegar wouldn't too . . . ?!

However, as you mention using overripe fruit, & I have the last 2cm of some old supermarket apple sauce, that is going off/rather vinegary, think I shall use that!

Then, if that doesn't work, I'll try the brown vinegar from the jar of pickled walnuts.

I do like the idea of recycling these products! :T

APennySaved

Just an update: the MALT vinegar trap worked - yay!

So thanks, all, for your ideas on traps using other vinegars - :T - as I used the malt vinegar using the same method.

In fact, I ended up trying two different products as a trap; in addition to using malt vinegar, I also tried going-off apple sauce :



1st method - FERMENTING APPLE SAUCE :
Made a concoction up using: going-off apple sauce, dissolved in a little water. This worked a bit, but trapped only a few fruit flies . . . BUT! I had a nasty cold virus at the time so wasn't feeling well enough to do this 'trap' properly , so never got around to making a cellophane lid with holes punched in it - oops!! So wasn't able to give this 'fermenting apple' trap its best chance, really . But as it did partly work I'd definitely give fermenting apple sauce a go on another occasion, should such an occurrence rearise!



2nd method - MALT VINEGAR :
As we still :eek: had so many flies, I thought I 'd try the vinegar idea. I was interested to see that the flies were hovering ominously over a plate that had, at lunchtime, had my pickled (in vinegar) walnuts on, & had a few bits of walnut left over along with its vinegar. [BTW, don't ask me why I like this rare (even Tesco don't sell it - yikes! ) food product so much - it's something I inherited from a parent - LOL!] Which seemed to prove me correct in my hopes that the vinegar from the p.walnuts - whatever type of vinegar that the p.walnuts company use in processing the product - would successfully attract fruit flies as part of a 'proper' trap.

Due to a cold virus I currently had, I wasn't feeling well enough to go digging around to find the old jar of vinegar-pickled-walnuts; which was my original plan i.e. to reuse/recycle the vinegar from this prior purchase :money: . So instead I just used the to-hand malt vinegar in our store cupboard. I sloshed in some water to dilute it.

Then I noticed the fruit flies were also hanging around the dregs of a glass of lemon juice + water that I had been drinking as a cold remedy (BTW = great cold virus/sore throat remedy). So I added that lemon-juice-&-water to the vinegar mix.

I added the cellophane, punched some holes in this 'lid', & Hey Presto! . . .

The next morning there were a gazillion fruit flies trapped under the cellophane. And that evening still more.
(I felt a bit like a serial killer, but - hey ho - needs must! )

So thanks for this great advice re the vinegar trap.

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BTW, I came across - via a Google search - another helpful webpage:

3 Ways to Kill Fruit Flies - wikiHow

It has an ENORMOUS amount of tips:

Method 1 of 3: Killing Flies Quickly: 4 ideas
Method 2 of 3: Making Traps: 8 ideas
Method 3 of 3: Keeping Flies Away: 5 ideas

And there is another (related) webpage that elaborates upon the same ideas; a VERY useful source of ideas:

How To Get Rid of Fruit Flies - Style Me Pretty Living

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P.S. If/when! there is a recurrence of a fruit fly "invasion", I shall try the additional idea of coating the vinegar solution in washing-up liquid, as I noticed that most of the poor old flies (cue MORE horrendous thoughts about being a mass murderer :eek: !) didn't drown but seemed to spend ages walking on the underside of the cellophane. I think a quick end is more pleasant than such a long-drawn-out death!