Fruit Flies Will Get In Your Drain Too
Drain flies arent the only pests who will set a colony in your sink. Fruit flies will, too, attracted to rotting food that can get caught in your drain when you do dishes. They will lay their eggs in that decaying food that makes a gunky buildup in your drainpipe.
Discover easy ways to get rid of fruit flies in your home with clever tips and traps.
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How To Get Rid Of Drain Flies For Good
First things first: dont panic. Like as mentioned before, youre not the only one with sewer flies or a drain fly problem. And although they munch on the gross organic material that lurks in your drains and drain pipes, these little critters arent going to kill you. Moth flies are not as alarming as mosquitos and standing water. And they arent going to endanger the structure of your home either, so drain fly issues are not to be a cause for panic. They have been known to trigger asthma symptoms within sufferers if inhaled at the very worst.
So, theyre not really that much of an emergency plumbing situation. There are far worse plumbing problems out there.
If youve discovered small flies or fly larvae in a shower or bathroom drain, it is most likely that is where they will be going to lay eggs. Even if your unused bathroom appears clean, without using or thoroughly cleaning it regularly, youre laying the groundwork for a stagnant accumulation of the slimy stuff and stagnant water that the drain flies find so tasty. And if you can visibly see mould in your bathroom, its time to get out the rubber gloves.
Drain Fly Remedy #1: Trapping Drain Flies
Regularly cleaning and flushing your drains is a great way to prevent drain flies. But that solution will not help you get rid of drain flies that have already made their way into your house.
Drain Fly Remedy #2: Boiling water.
Drain Fly Remedy #3: Go The Extra Mile.
Red Wine Fruit Fly Trap
A bottle with an inch or so of red wine or beer makes an excellent trap for fruit flies. Stick a kitchen funnel or roll a piece of paper to form one and insert the narrow end into the bottle. Tape it in place if needed. Fruit flies will go down the funnel but wont be able to get out of it, so theyll drown. Change daily.
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Where Does Drain Flies Come From
Finding and removing the drain flies water and food sources is the key to preventing them from getting into your house. You can accomplish this by setting up easy-to-set traps utilizing an insect adhesive board or a plastic cup.
When using the plastic cup technique, lightly cover the interior of the cup with petroleum jelly or vegetable oil before inverting it over the drain where you think flies may reside. Check on it every day while leaving the cup in that spot for several days. Flies will start to gather on the inner surface of the cup if there are any residing in the drain.
Making a cardboard frame to hold a glue board over a drain where you think drain flies might reside is another option. Place an upside-down insect glue board on the frame. Check the board every day while leaving it in place for a few days. Most likely, flies coming out of the drain will stick to the adhesive board.
Whichever style of trap you choose, be sure to inspect it often. Set the trap to some other potential location if no flies are found there after several days. Take your hunt to the outside and look for any regions with moisture and rotting material if you are unable to discover a supply inside the house.
Why Are Fruit Flies In My Bathroom
These tiny insects are attracted to moist places, so they are often found near sinks, showers, and drains. The fruit flies lay their eggs in the damp areas and feed on organic matter like hair and soap scum. Without the help of a professional pest control company, it can be hard to get rid of fruit flies.
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Prevent A Future Fruit Fly Infestation By Taking These Steps
Prevent fruit flies by thoroughly checking the produce you buy to make sure there are not cracks or nicks where fruit flies could be hiding. Wash and dry unrefrigerated produce as soon as you bring it home to remove any eggs on the surface. Fruit flies lay their eggs on anything sugary or fermented, so make sure you regularly clean up spills, take the garbage out, and clean your sink drain.
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Will Fruit Flies Go Away
Fruit flies will only go away if you make your home inhospitable for them. They usually do not simply go away without intervention. Even if you kill the swarm flying around your fruit bowl, they may have already laid eggs in your drains or garbage area. In addition to placing traps, remove all food sources or space ideal for breeding that we listed above.
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How Do You Get Rid Of Them Naturally
Treehugger / Alexandra Cristina Nakamura
To rid your pipes of drain flies without using pesticides or harsh chemicals like bleach or drain cleaner, try these methods:
Once drain flies are gone, keep sink drains cleaned weekly by pouring ½ cup of baking soda down the drain followed by lots of warm water, or pour a cup of white vinegar down the drain weekly and let it sit 30 minutes before flushing with water. Squeeze half a fresh lemon down the drain for odor control.
Keep The Kitchen Sink Dry
Every time you use the kitchen sink, dry it off as best as you can. This is because fruit flies are quite prevalent in the presence of standing water. In fact, the flies only need a tiny bit of moisture to breed. By keeping your sink dry and clean, this will help to minimize your fruit fly infestation problem.
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Examine Your Plumbing Systems
Try checking your P-trap, which is located below the piping and fixture. This P-trap is a self-sealing water trap that stores water in a U-shaped bend. If there are cracks in the pipe, the water could leak out, which also means odours and flies might escape. The fruit flies might seem like they keep coming back, even though theyre really trying to escape from the P-trap.
Getting rid of fruit flies in your kitchen sink drain may require professional expertise. If there are still flies hovering after youve tried the above methods, it might be time to contact a professional drain cleaning service. The plumber will ensure your plumbing systems are free of clogs, debris, and fruit flies!
What Temperature Kills Fruit Flies
Fruit flies are seen all across the world. They make their way indoors in habitats where there are plenty of fruit trees. But these flies need a specific warm temperature to survive.
Fruit flies are mostly seen in the summer when they have the fruits and the right temperature to survive and multiply.
A temperature lower than 60°F kills fruit flies. Cold weather also delays the hatching of fruit fly eggs. Artificially lowering the temperature using air conditioning might kill fruit flies or cause them to fly out of the house.
Fruit flies hate low temperatures. Research shows they fall to the ground when theyre trapped in a room with cold air, mainly where air conditioning is running at low-temperature settings.
They remain inactive at ground level until the temperature rises again. Fruit flies die whenever this temperature stays low for a couple of hours.
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What Is The Fastest Way To Get Rid Of Fruit Flies
If you need to get rid of a fruit fly infestation without delay, call your local pest control company. This is the quickest method for properly identifying and eradicating fruit flies. If this isnt an option, remove all itemslike fruit and garbagefrom out in the open and set up one of the DIY fruit fly traps listed above.
Apple Cider Vinegar Fruit Fly Trap
A shallow bowl of apple cider vinegar left on the kitchen counter attracts fruit flies with its scent. Cover the bowl with a piece of plastic wrap in which youve poked a few small holes with a toothpick. This method gets rid of fruit flies by luring them in and then trapping them. Change the vinegar daily.
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Wipe Down Surfaces That Are Potential Breeding Grounds
- Wipe down all cabinet surfaces thoroughly.
- Clean the interior of all household trash cans. Make sure that your trash cans do not have any food residue stuck to the interior walls it should look like it did when you first bought it. Always use trash bags and throw the trash bag away at the end of the day. If the bag isn’t full and you don’t want to toss it, at least make sure it’s always covered.
- Wipe down any fruit or vegetables ripening on your countertops. To wipe the fruit, use a clean towel that you have dipped in slightly soapy water. After wiping, rinse and dry the fruit. You can also use a combination of water and apple cider vinegar in place of soap to wipe the fruit .
- Put the fruit and veggies in an empty paper bag. This allows them to continue to ripen.
How To Get Rid Of Drain Flies With Chemicals
Since drain flies often live in or around your pipes, common cleaners and substances for clearing drains can also get rid of drain flies. When you do use chemical cleaners, always read the instructions, and do not mix them with other chemical or natural cleaning products.
Traditional Drain Cleaner
After flushing your drain with warm water and giving it a pass with a metal pipe brush, you can clean out the remaining residue with products like Drano and Bio-Clean. Be sure to check if it is safe to use these products more than once if necessary and whether they can be used in drains outside of the bathroom.
Chemical Sprays and Repellents
Many common pest control killers, typically for fruit flies or gnats, can also be used to kill drain flies when the pests are listed on their labels. Since many of these contain caustic chemicals, check if you should keep them out of the kitchen area and be extra careful about damage to your drains.
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Can Fruit Flies Make You Sick
Unfortunately, fruit flies can easily pick up filth and contaminants from the objects they land on especially since many of their favorite food items are found in our waste receptacles.
Further, their larvae, which develop in the fermenting fruit they prefer to eat, can cause stomach distress or illness when unintentionally consumed by people. Even larvae can transfer contaminants from their parents breeding site to fruits and vegetables.
Why Are Drain Flies In My House
Drain flies are attracted to small amounts of stagnant water they find in plumbing pipes, sinks or other drainage areas. The flies feed on tiny amounts of bacteria, algae and sewage, so you can find them gathering around kitchen and outdoor sinks, shower and bathtub drains, basement sinks, sewers and septic tanks. Drain flies love sinks and drains that dont get used much, so if you have a guest bathroom or a shop sink in a garage, drain flies are more likely to find the pool of dirty water they need to feed and breed. They come into your house from the outdoors when they smell water and they set up shop in a drainpipe.
The presence of drain flies doesnt mean you have a dirty house or mucky pipes. Drain flies can pop into a clean kitchen while you are away on vacation. All they need is a little undisturbed water in the crook of a drainpipe and a few days with no human disturbance.
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Why Fruit Flies Breed In Drains
Often, fruit flies come into your home through direct contact while at a grocery store. You may have picked up produce that was overly ripe or fermented. Fruit flies like to lay up to 500 eggs on overly ripe or fermented produce, leaving you with an annoying task of getting rid of them once hatched.
If these fruit flies hatch inside your home, chances of reproducing are high, even if you dont have any produce inside of your home. Fruit flies, also known as drain flies or gnats, are attracted to stagnant pools of water, particularly in pipes and other drainage areas. They feed on and breed in the sewage left by consumers in uncleaned pipes. Organic material can build up along the sides of drains quickly, allowing drain flies to continue being a nuisance to your home.
What To Do About Fruit Flies In Your Sink
Theres nothing worse than a kitchen swarming with bugs. Theyre unpleasant, theyre irritating and theyre unclean. Fruit flies and other small kitchen flies hang out around decaying material and can spread bacteria throughout your home. The sooner you can get rid of them, the better. To do it, learn what attracts them and then take steps to eliminate the problem.
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Apple Cider Vinegar Trap
Apple cider vinegar is one of the best natural methods for getting rid of fruit flies. Its also one of the simplest since all you will need is a bowl and apple cider vinegar. If you want to make this trap even more effective, you can make sure you have some plastic wrap on hand as well. Heres how it works:
First, you need to start by filling your dish or bowl halfway with the apple cider vinegar. Next, use your plastic wrap to cover the bowl, making sure that it fits snuggly over the top and that there are no loose edges. Then, you can take a toothpick or something of similar size and poke a few holes in the top of the plastic. And there you have it your apple cider vinegar fruit fly trap.
This trap works by drawing the fruit flies in by the smell of apple cider vinegar, which smells similar to rotting or fermenting fruit which is what they are most attracted to. Once they climb into the bowl through the holes on the top of the plastic wrap that you made, theyll become trapped unable to find their way out. The fruit flies will then drown inside the bowl.
Dont worry if you dont have any plastic wrap to use. This trap will still work, it just may take a bit more time for the flies to drown in the apple cider vinegar, but at least while you wait they will be drawn to the bowl instead of around you or your food.
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What Causes Fruit Flies In The House
Fruit flies are attracted to ripe, rotting, or decayed fruit and produce . They are also attracted to fermented liquid like wine, beer, and liquor. Some fast facts: Females are able to lay 500 eggs at a time, which hatch within 24-30 hours! The lifespan of a fruit fly is 40-50 days. No wonder these pesky little bugs are so hard to control.
Fruit flies tend to breed in drains, garbages, and compost bins.
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Issues Of Flies In Drain
There are various issues associated with the presence of flies in your drain. The first one would be that it can be an embarrassing experience, especially if you have guests over the weekend.
To be specific, the presence of a drain fly is enough to show that part of your home lacks proper hygiene. Plus, its also enough to lead to various health issues, particularly when the flies land on your food.
They can transmit pathogens and dirt that will contaminate your meals. The presence of these winged insects is also likely to lead compromise the value of your property, as it might indicate hygiene issues to potential clients.