The heat is on and the flies are... well, flying

[crowdog66]

Drinking coffee, eating oatmeal, trying to get my motor running enough to work. I have to finish 20 pages of MM by late tomorrow. It's recon work, so it's not like I have to create color from scratch, but the pages have complicated color and recreating it will be... fun.

We have a hellacious (in the sense of both "bad" and "amazing") fruit fly problem right now; there must be at least a couple hundred of them in our kitchen and every so often they show up elsewhere in the apartment. We've cleaned up the dishes in the sink, which was probably what was sustaining them, but the little beasts live a few weeks, so there's no light at the end of the tunnel.

By any chance, does anyone know a quick fix for a fruit fly infestation?

Comments

[aries-ascendant.livejournal.com]

They could be drain flies. Pour some bleach down the drains - bathtub and sinks - and see if that helps.

[chimera452.livejournal.com]

You can make a homemade fruitfly trap. All you need is a medium-sized empty jar (like the kind you get jam, mayo or relish in), some plain paper, adhesive tape, and apple cider vinegar or wine vinegar. Take the paper and make a funnel with it using the tape. The hole at the point of the funnel should be very small, about fruitfly-size, the wide part of the funnel should be wider than the top of the jar, and when you put the funnel in the jar the point should reach about halfway down into the jar. Pour some vinegar (I've found that red wine vinegar works the best) into the jar. Make sure that the funnel is not in the jar when you do this. You're not meant to pour the vinegar through the funnel. The level of the vinegar in the jar should be close to where the tip of the funnel will be when it's in the jar, but not touching it. You then need to tape the wide part of the funnel to the rim of the jar, making sure that there are no gaps between the funnel and the rim where the fruitflies could escape. Put the trap some place in your kitchen where the fruitflies seem to congregate and where it won't likely get knocked over, making sure not to let the funnel get wet with the vinegar. The fruitflies will be attracted by the smell of the vinegar because they feed on rotting fruit, and that's pretty much what cider or wine vinegar is made from. They will go down the funnel into the jar and not be able to come out, and will eventually fall into the vinegar and drown. I've actually made this type of trap twice, when we've had fruitfly infestations, and it really works.

[cockatiel-art.livejournal.com]

I second the apple cider vinegar approach! I suggest fly paper or mouse trap paper which is better than tape, or so my experience has taught me. Stick the cider under the paper and when the pests decide to breed they land on the paper and get caught :-D

I also like to go in with Raid on their usual landing pads and blast them good. The bastards don't last long..maybe 2-3 days.