Possibly fruit flies indoors - luring & trapping them?

[shaz likd]

I've got these little insects / bugs / gnats.....whatever you want to call them....buzzing around our kitchen and in the office room at home. I initially thought they were small mosquitoes, but after having a really close look at them, and getting to know them almost on a first- name-basis, they are definitely not mosquitoes. (As an aside, I definitely do get mosquitoes inside from time to time, and my hatred for them drives me to the wall, but those airborne vampires are a different matter). These little pests love my laptop screen too. I think they might by fruit flies - possibly. Anyway, what is the best attractant for fruit flies, if that's what these little pests are? I've heard of apple cider vinegar. Well....I don't have any of that at home, but I can guarantee you I do have alcoholic cider at home (love it!). Obviously fruit flies like fruit, but what is the #1 best attractant for them? I wanna seem them literally fighting each other over whatever drowning bait I am going to use. Thanks.

[Paul Cassel]

Fruit flies on your monitor? May be false chinch bugs. Why not grab one up and send it to a local expert. Also w/o your location, nobody can tell what this may be. I mean, for all I know, you're in Arabia.

[FragileWarrior]

shaz likd wrote in news:1188603984.486202.219310 @i38g2000prf.googlegroups.com:

The best attractant for fruit flies is what brought them there in the first place: rotten fruit somewhere. Check around the computer and associated waste paper baskets.

[Oren]

That's not a "program error", that's a booger! :)

-- Oren

"I don't have anything against work. I just figure, why deprive somebody who really loves it."

[Keith Stelter]

Put some vinegar or wine in custard cups or those little clear cups that you get stuff like tartar sauce in at fast food places, and add 3 or 4 drops of liquid dish soap. It works GREAT! The little buggers climb in and the soap grabs 'em!

[Meat Plow]

Drain flies possibly. They live in the drain of your sink.

[Lar]

Fruit flies will be reddish color, though there is a dark colored gnat that will also find it's way to rotting potatoes/onions. Wine or malt/cider vinegars will attract fruit flies. You may even set several small dishes of wine around the house to help determine where the population is coming from.

The most common small gnat I get calls on are fungus gnats from a plant you are either watering too much or that you have to keep wet for it to grow. The larvae are down in the soil and by using a bright flashlight inspecting the potted plants should tell you which one is infested, if any. Also if you are in a part of the country that is getting all the rain they may be just coming in from outside/under the house. I'm in Texas and we had over six weeks of continuous rain this year and from about halfway through the wet spell till two weeks after the rain stop my most common call was for small dark gnats all over the house, mainly homes with pier/beam foundations that was just wet from all the rain for weeks. Once the dry season came the gnats were gone.

Another possibility is drain flies (about a third the size of a house fly or once again fungus gnats coming from a drain. It could be a drain that isn't used much and the water has evaporated from the p trap allowing insects in from the sewer lines or a broken sewer line itself. Place a clear bowl over the various drains and if any are trapped you know they are coming from that drain. Also they can get in the muck that builds up in an old food disposal.

Lar

[nick hull]

I keep a 'slop bucket' in the kitchen for waste and it attracts fruit flies if I don't empty it daily. I just put in a small piece of yellow plastic vapor insecticide and cover loosely. The loose cover allows the flies in and keeps enough of the vapors in to kill them.

Free men own guns - www(dot)geocities(dot)com/CapitolHill/5357/

[Sheldon]

Are you certain they're not crotch flies? hehe

Fruit flies are typically brought into a home as eggs on produce. If you toss your produce parings into a waste basket or uncoverd trash can that's not disposed of often fruit flies will proliferate. On the plus side once hatched fruit flies live only 24 hours, so if you make an effort to have reasonably clean habits regarding produce then you wouldn't have fruit flies. Produce should be washed as soon as it's brought home and its original packaging disposed of outdoors. If you have fruit flies around your office it's a sure bet you're eating produce at your pc and leaving the waste about... even wiping your dribbles and tossing the tissue in the wastebasket will make a cozy environment for fruit flies. Also regularly wipe all surfaces where produce has been set (syrups, preserves, and confections as well), fruit flies are an excellent indicator of slovenly housekeeping habits.

[Keith Stelter]

I have to disagree with your last statement. Here in Michigan we still buy a lot of our produce fresh from farmers. I'd like to think that my house is kept very clean, but we still get fruit flies a few times each summer because the produce isn't being processed and packaged for a supermarket. There is virtually no way to quarantine the produce because if you put it in the garage or outside you will only attract MORE fruit flies. We wash our produce and immediately throw away the bags or cartons that it comes in, but invariably some of the little buggers (or their eggs) will be inside sweet corn shucks or in bunches of grapes. They are a nuisance, but it's not like they sting or anything. We just put out a few custard cups full of vinegar with a little bit of dish soap in it, and they are gone in a day or so. I honestly don't think that having fruit flies occasionally should be lumped into the same category as having roaches, mice, moths, etc., which ARE indicators of poor housekeeping.

[Sheldon]

Everyone has some *occasional* fruit flies... I didn't lump in with anything, you're the one lumping in. If you're putting out fruit fly traps, reading in things that aren't there, and taking personal offence then perhaps your fruit flies are more problematic than occasional. I suggest you read the info at the link I posted.

[Keith Stelter]

I read it twice just to make sure that I didn't miss anything. I don't know how you got "fruit flies are an excellent indicator of slovenly housekeeping habits." from anything in that article, but to me that seems like a pretty strong, general statement to make. As for the additional, uninformed accusations that you make in your last reply, I take no offense from them because I know that the level of cleanliness in my house is high, and I'm not at all ashamed that I buy fresh produce instead of month old, shrink-wrapped stuff from overseas at the supermarket.

[Sheldon]

Doesn't mean you're knowingly remiss (eveyone thinks their food handling methods are stellar), means you're simply not realizing how you're unknowingly doing and/or not doing things that promote fruit fly proliferation... anyone who regulary puts out fruit fly bait has more than the usual occasional fruit fly flare up. Adult fruit flies only live 24 hours.... when someone is witnessing a steady occurance it simply means they are doing something to breed them, albiet unknowingly. Most folks don't know very much about proper food handling safety, doesn't mean they're slobs so much as they're simply ignorant. Of course they're also slobs, they just don't realize they are.