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.
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.
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."
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.
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!
Get rid of whatever they are eating, and use a vacum cleaner to suck the
clouds of them out of the air, or wherever they gather. (They love sunny
windowsills.) Due to short reproductive cycles, it will take doing this
every day for 3-4 days. Make sure the vac has some dust in it to suffocate
them, or else they will just fly back out. A real common problem with
bannanas and warm weather, especially if the bannanas were not properly
sanitized in transit.
aem sends...
Some food for thought that I heard somewhere:
Those bug zappers, ain't they neat!
Blast the critters into tiny particles!
(That hang in the air.)
Really super for a picnic! NOT.
David
Make a paper funnel (conical shape) and place it in a jar, leaving at least
half the space in the bottom. Put some cider vinegar in the bottom, abaout
1/2" is plenty. Flies will get in, but not be able to get out.
This is surprisingly effective. Flies and other bugs cannot "take off" straight
up. They cannot escape once they enter. There are instructions all over the
internet for making a great fly trap from a plastic soda bottle.
http://www.thelaziestman.com/flytrap.htm
I recommend a clear bottle rather than the green one this guy used.
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
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/
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.
http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef621.asp
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.
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.
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