I've had these annoying flies for several years now and nothing I seem to do gets rid of them. On the advice of an exterminator, I tried spraying the drains with a spray called "Bac-A-Zap", but it didn't seem to do much good and the flies have persisted. They seem to be all over the house and at times won't leave me or other family members alone. The best method I've found so far to at least take a bite out of their quantity is putting up sticky fly paper at various spots around the house, but aside from annoying the wife with their appearance, even they don't get them all.
Any ideas would be welcome to get rid of these annoying things.
They're hard to kill because they are covered with hairs that repel water. They breed in organic matter in drains.
Pulling any hair out can help. A snake or a drain-cleaning gel can help. Some say bleach, boiling water, and vinegar don't work.
I like to maintain drains by pouring down a little baking soda, maybe a tablespoon, adding an ounce or water, and letting it sit. Then I cover the drain with a flap-style universal stopper and put in a couple of inches of water. I remove the stopper and use a plunger.
I've had drain flies, but only briefly, so maybe my cleaning method works.
Bac-A-Zap is simply a deodorizer. I've had success simply pouring water dow n the drain--lasts for about a week. Adding bleach helps too. Some drains s eem to lose the water in the trap rapidly--could be due to a blocked stack pipe, wind blowing over the stack top or suction from another fixture pulli ng water from the trap. You can also try an indoor insect spray that has re sidual killing effect.
I noticed my almost empty coffee cup would sink a few. Just the other day I filled a salad bowl to the very top with a mocha coffee loaded with sugar. It did catch quite a few. More than I thought I had. Bowl needs to be totally full so when they land on the lip the tension pulls them in. Give it a try.
I was battling drain flies for a couple of years, not knowing what was going on for many months. A few months ago, with a stench coming from beneath the kitchen sink, I took apart the drain piping and found the worms that beget the flies. I tried putting bleach down the drains. I tried vinegar. I tried vinegar and baking soda. I tried overnight soaks, blocking off the drains so I could let the various chemicals sit for several hours. Finally I found a web site that said to use an "enzyme" drain cleaner. From Home Depot, I purchased "Instant Power Commercial Drain Maintainer" advertised on the label as "bio-enzymatic with natural enzymes," made by Scotch Corporation, Product #1510. It has a "100% money back if I fail 'but I won't' " sticker on the gallon jug. It is also called "Instant Power Commercial Drain Cleaner," with the same product number (1510). I stopper'd the drain pipe under the kichen sink and let the pipes soak for 1.5 hours, mixing 1 part of the chemical to 2.5 parts water until I filled the drain pipes completely.
Usually I see half a dozen drain flies by noon. So far I have seen only one.
The staff at Home Depot also recommend the "Green Gobbler" products they have. The above products are among the drain cleaners in the plumbing section.
I suppose you could put a little insecticide in each trap to knock them down. Once you break the cycle they will usually stay gone a while but they are living in the sewer pipe. Be sure your traps are staying full of water (no bad vents)
Thank you, Andy and snipped-for-privacy@aol.com for sharing your experiences. I use all drains regularly, so I believe the three traps (in my small condominium) are staying full of water. The daily count of flies-that-go-to-heaven is down to about one-third of its recent peak. The temperatures have also dropped where I am, so my study may be biased.
Eggs laid, 30-100 per female fly. Hatch in two days. Larva stage 8 to 24 days. Larvae can survive in low oxygen conditions. Pupa stage one to two days. Adults breed only once, usually right after emerging from the pupa. Adults die after 3 to 4 days with no food. If food is available, they will live around 7 to 21 days with liquid carbohydrates available.
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I have a couple of plastic containers near the drains with a mixture of apple cider vinegar, sugar and a drop of dishwashing soap (for fragrance) that usually catch a fly or two each day at this point.
I have repeated once so far the multi-hour soaks of the piping upstream of the traps, using the Home Depot bio-enzymatic drain cleaner. I have been using the bulb of a turkey baster and a hose clamp to stopper off the drain pipes and do these soaks, just above where they join the u-traps. This approach is a little easier than taking apart all the drain piping beneath the sinks and scouring with a brush. (I have dis-assembled and scoured in the recent past.)
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