Yuck! I have so many little fruit flies in my kitchen! I know they can come from fruit, and they're attracted to fruit, so I keep all my produce in the fridge (though I'd prefer to have it out in a fruit bowl on the table). But they're even in the fridge! Today I found two in my milk pitcher in the fridge!

I also have 2 cats and 2 litter boxes, which also can attract fruit flies. Nasty! And I don't want to spray dangerous chemicals around my food-prep surfaces or where it can hurt my cats. So does anyone have a suggestion? A product, or a home remedy? I've even thought of getting a Venus fly trap, but they're expensive and seem to only "eat" one or two bugs at a time, very slowly.

We bought some little fly traps in the grocery store.

They're for flies, fruit flies, etc. and they've worked really well.

They are little boxes that have 3 or 4 compartments, but darned if I can remember the name of them. Fly hotels, sort of.

People suggested the fly paper strips, but somehow I didn't like them - hair got caught in them and it's no fun looking up at them - rather disgusting, really! lol

Good luck,
Lorace

Have you heard the old saying that you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar? When it comes to fruit flies, the "conventional wisdom" is wrong.

Fruit Fly Trap:

Need: 1) a glass jar, any size, but taller than wide
2) a piece of paper
3) a piece of masking tape
4) a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
5) a piece of decaying fruit

Put the vinegar in the jar and add water so that the liquid is about an inch deep. Add fruit bit. Twist the paper into a cone shape, leaving about a 1/2 inch opening in the bottom of the cone. Place the cone in the jar so that the opening is at least an inch, but not more than 2-3 inches, above the liquid. Tape the cone to the jar rim so that there is no opening other than the one at the base of the cone. Place the jar where there is air movement, as the flies will be drawn by scent. When the liquid starts to fill with dead flies, pour it out and make a new batch.

Fruit flies are attracted to things other than fruit. They like almost any decaying organic matter - like stuff in a compost pail. Check your kitchen to see what is drawing them in, and get it out of the kitchen.

Great info... thanks!

--Bob

Ada,

I don't know how you do it. But no matter what comes up, you always have such great information for us.

Thanks so much, I'm in awe

Lorace

Thanks for the tip! I had heard about using a jar with vinegar and soapy water. Our break room at work is also always full of fruit flies, so I've done the jar there and it catches a TON! But it also looks gross, a jar filled with liquid and dead bloated bugs...

I think they must come in with fruit I buy - and once they're in the house, they stay and multiply! They hang around the litterbox (can't get rid of that, though I clean it more frequently when flies are around), they get in the fridge (I guess with the fruit I put away in there, but they quickly die in the cold), they get in my herbs and catnip plants (although I try to quickly clean up any dead leaves from the plants), they get on damp washcloths I use to clean in the kitchen...

Of course they get in the trash too, and that's the one area I can spray to kill them.

Right now I actually have a sink full of soapy water and vinegar, and it's attracted lots of flies. How weird that they like vinegar!

Hey Ada, do you have any advice for killing fleas? I've treated my cats - but fleas are still biting ME!

1) Yes, the vinegar solution works better if you add a drop or two of soap to break the surface tension of the water. I forgot to mention that.

2) You can always cover the outside of the jar with some nice paper and a pretty bow. The fruit flies won't care.

3) If you have indoor plants, remember that the fruit flies will be attracted to any decaying plant matter, and they will take up residence and lay eggs. The same BTi that kills the fungus gnats will also kill fruit fly larvae in the soil. (Not recommended for litter boxes, though.)

4) Soap/cleaning sprays that contain citric acid (lemon, grapefruit, orange, etc.) are good for repelling both flies and meal moths. They find food by scent, and the citrus confuses them. Citrus cleaners are also good for breaking the pheromone trails used by ants.

5) When you bring fruit in, wash it in water with a mild liquid soap, rinse thoroughly, and let dry before storing. You can also use a commercial fruit/vegetable wash, but a drop or two of dish soap is just as good. I wash fruit in a solution of Grapefruit Seed Extract, which is a good antibacterial cleaner, as well as containing a powerful citric acid.

As for fleas:
If you have carpets, then you can dust the carpet with DE - diatomaceous earth (the garden kind, NOT the kind used for swimming pools), sweep it in well, then vacuum thoroughly. DE looks and feels like fine flour, and it can be handled safely. However, it is NOT safe to breathe it, and not safe for your pets to breathe either. (Though interestingly enough, it will not harm them if they eat it. Or get it on their fur and lick it off. In fact, a lot of the treatments for internal parasites contain DE.) Recommend you corral the cats before using DE, and have good air circulation while you vacuum. Best if you use a vacuum with a HEPA filter. The DE in the vacuum should kill any fleas that escaped it before.

Watch for cat bedding, too. Fleas love to live there. When you clean the bedding, add some citric acid to the wash. Fleas don't like citrus either.

Ada

Those are lots of brilliant suggestions! Thanks!

Ah, Ada. Here I go again.

Now we're having roof rat problems. This is an area in Arizona where these things started being a terrific problem. They subsist on fallen oranges, but now in the summer, the oranges are gone and they've started coming into homes and stealing food and water.

We managed to trap one of them in a sticky rat house, but, unfortunately, he had brothers. We're afraid of poison because of the dog and grandchildren.

We have a storage shed out back and there are traces showing that they've been there, so we've baited a trap with poison out there as we can lock it.

Do you (or anyone) have any other suggestions? We are truly
sick about these things.

Lorace

I don't have roof rats here, just Norway rats. However, my Norways managed to do more than $1000 worth of damage to my truck (tucked away in a closed garage) by eating out the wiring, so I have no love for rats.

You can try rat traps (like oversized mouse traps) or the live catch traps. In my experience, rats are too smart for these traps. You might catch one, but the others will then avoid them.

I haven't found anything but poison that works. The safest of these is a compound with Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol), because the amount needed varies with weight. The rat-sized baits won't seriously harm a larger animal like a dog unless they eat a lot of them (like 30-40)at once, so they are (relatively) safe. The other advantage is that any scavenger that eats the rats won't be harmed. You can find this type of bait under several names. Rampage makes one that I have used successfully.

The other (relatively) safe poison is warfarin. It is an anticoagulant that has a cumulative effect, so you have to resupply your bait stations for several days to make sure the rats get a lethal dose. This has worked for me, but I have read that roof rats are a bit harder to kill with warfarin than the Norway rats. Like the D3, warfarin won't seriously harm a larger animal unless they get a large amount of it, and the rat carcasses are (relatively) safe.

There are anticoagulants that are stronger than warfarin (brodifacoum, bromadiolone), but they are also much more dangerous to larger animals if they eat them (or eat the dead rats.)

If at all possible, you need to block the access routes the rats are using to get into buildings. Definitely not easy with roof rats. Where the rats nest, you are likely to get other "visitors". I've come nose-to-nose with a copperhead while trying to clean out a shed and rid it of rats. Fortunately, copperheads are rather lethargic and not especially mean-tempered. If I remember correctly, the Arizona desert rattlesnakes are neither sweet-tempered nor lethargic. (And I have reason to remember, as one had taken up residence in a foxhole I was supposed to occupy during a training exercise. He was not inclined to share, and was very outspoken about it. I decided not to argue the point.)

The most "organic" solution to my rat problem came in the form of a couple of nesting barn owls, which took up residence in an old rat-infested outbuilding. Owl boxes are a good investment, if you live where they are allowed.

Ada

Last summer my kids left some bananas in our camper van. One heat wave and two weeks passing equaled many fruit flies. LOL. I cleaned. I vacuumed. I sprayed. But the buzzing pests remained. With some searching I found instructions on how to make your own fruit fly traps. If you have orange juice and a pop bottle you have a cure!

http://deadeasy.com/hometrap.htm

Thanks for the info!

--Bob

Ada,

I'm glad we don't have Norway Rats --that's so horrible. We've lost water hoses and had water all over our utility room from the holes they've chewed, but, thank heavens, they don't seem to go after the electric wires.

Thanks for all the great information, again. I wouldn't wish an infestation of rats on my worst enemy! It's just horrible.

Lorace

This started 2 years ago in the Phoenix area and it's become a super problem out here.

Hi there!

I think I have a solution here. After some research on the web I see the little things are also named vinegar flies and drain flies. Whatever they are called I found a way to get rid of them for good. These homemade fruitfly traps worked for us.

http://fruitflytraps.com/hometrap.htm

Joe

Read all info, just jumped up and made my gnat trap (pop bottle and vinegar- caught 3 before I sat back down!!
THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!!

I have what I thought were fruit flies as well, but they don't have red eyes- I'm thinking that they are just gnats. There are TONS on them that fly around our outside door and then come in our house that way. And I did notice them around some of our house plants. Will the orange juice thing work outside? Or should I spray something else?

And, Ada, what was the chemical you said to use on houseplants, and where might I be able to get some? Thanks so much!!!

Have you written a book on this stuff, Ada? If not, you should. You'll have a lot of thankful readers out there.

--Bob