This works!
Construct a trap by placing a paper funnel (rolled from a sheet of notebook paper) into a jar with a few ounces of cider vinegar or a slice of banana. Place the jar trap wherever fruit flies are seen. This simple but effective trap will soon catch any remaining adult flies which can then be killed or released outdoors.

Here's a good method:*

clicky

You can use a few tablespoons of cider vinegar if you don't have a banana peel handy. If you don't have a water bottle, a jar with a cone made with a piece of paper will do fine.

*Metallic blue fingernails are not required, but may enhance the experience.

You can put a clear plastic bag over your head and tie it tight around your neck, with a string. LOL
Lou
PS: don't smoke.

I use a clear plastic carton - size of cottage cheese. Put fruit in there - mango skin or lemon rind. Puncture small holes in lid. It is like having an ant farm - critters to watch, if you will. They get in but they can't get out. Same idea as paper funnel.

Linda C:
Here's one I put in about a year ago, for house flies or
bee's
Used it on my back deck, while Barbecuing.
All you do is fill it with water for a while, when done and rinse to reuse it.
Weed's might work better for the fruit flies.
Lou

Tonight I'd just have another drink.. : )

That cider vingar thing works for me. I just put some in a bowl cover with plastic wrap and poke some holes in it.

David

Ya talked me into it David....vinegar plastic wrap and maybe just a wee bit of Scotch into my glass.
BUT...I know that they have about a 26 hour lifespan....and the fruit is all gone....so I should wake in the morning and no more drosaphila....right???

I have no idea how to get rid of them, except how I killed mine in high school--forget about them in a sunny window for three days while they're sitting in their little tube filled with the blue food gunk. It's funny what you remember, isn't it? Everything else fades away, and the words "Drosophila melanogaster" stick like glue in your brain.

Do you realize you have the makings of a song lyric, Linda?

They're in my nose,
In my drink,
And making me think
I'm seeing spots before my eyes!
Not using bug spray,
But is there a way . . . ?
In 24 hours I know they will die,
Freekin' Fruit Flies!!!

Or maybe I should go to sleep.

LOL!!! You could write a tune and make millions....and I could be known as the lyricist!
Remember "rana pipens'??
And " On Old Olympus Treeless Tops, A Finn and German Viewed Some Hops"?
They call me garbage brain....not without reason!

LOL

Are they gone, Linda? Mine have been around for weeks. I got rid of the fruit, and I'm killing them by the hundreds in a yeast trap, but there seems to be an endless supply.

Mine are gone in the house.....but there are a million gnats or something just outside my door...I have on a yellow t-shirt and they just landed all over me when I went out with Chabby!...Ewwww! makes me itch to think of it...
I have discovered that when I have a never ending supply of fruit flies, it's because there is something rotten in my closet or the garbage or in a fruit bowl. That potato with a bad spot in the potato bin will do it!.
Linda C

LOL Maureen! Glad your critters are gone Linda...I've found one of those potatoes more than once over the years.

David

I think 2 weeks is a more realistic lifespan, the females cannot even mate until 12 hours. 24 days might even be it, I seem to remember a strain being bred with a ~40 day life span that had a 60% longer than average lifespan.

They go after all you sweet Ladies, like sweet Peaches.

How's that sound !!!!!

They don't bother me that much ???
Lou

Brenda...I think you are right....at any rate they are back!!
I had a cut lemon on the counter for a couple of hours and it was covered with the little beasties!
So I went out and found a rotting tomato and put it with a little cider vinegar in a bowl and covered it with saran, poked holes in the saran....and hope they all dive in there!

My husband built one, after being asked a couple of times. Not the perfect trap but I was hoping it would do the trick. Unfortunately, we must have some smart fruit flies in the house. When I came home I looked at the contraption and there was only 1/2 a piece of old banana peel in it, no flies whatsoever. I thought more peels would be better so I added a couple more then cleaned the jar inside out with soap. I put the trap near the flies' gathering place. I stood across the room to drink hot water and watched.

Finally, some landed on it, walked around the jar, up to the top, even went down the slope, but then they came back up top then flew off! The kitchen was clean, everything washed and covered. Now, why wouldn't the flies go in?? They're too smart to fall for it? LOL

I left the jar where it was and hoped for a better result tomorrow morning.

I tried the Jar Trap and the plastic wrap over a bowl trap, side by side .
The Jar got 2 flies but I'm going to wait til the morning.
My son said there were flies around this morning,
so I'll see what happens
Later , LOU

No new ones this morning....
Maybe they all dived into the bowl over night.

Hmmm. Perhaps I have some unknown rotting food. . . that's a disconcerting thought. I think I'd smell it though.

If the traps aren't catching anything, try a cup with warm water, sugar, and yeast. Cover in plastic wrap and poke holes. They go NUTS for multiplying yeast-- I have wall-to-wall dead bodies in my yeast trap.

I don't know, I made a bunch of corn relish and put the cobs and shucks into the back of the Jeep to take to the farm for the cattle and horses.

the Jeep was just full of fruit flies, hundreds of them. I took the doors off and drove home and they all blew out, there don't seem to be any in the house.

Maybe they're all afraid they'll have to ride with me in the Jeep?

Annie

This is a delightful thread .......it makes me realize once again that I am not terminally unique......we all attract fruit flies!!!!! I hate it when they are flying by just as I am inhaling. Up the nose w/ a fruit fly. (One time I yawned just as a moth was flying and it went all the way into my trachea - gag, gasp, croak).

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When it comes to fruit flies in our homes, the idea of spontaneous generation seems to be in play. Fruit flies seem to magically appear around fruit and other foods quickly and without fail in an otherwise insect-free kitchen. Of course, modern science has proven that spontaneous generation is impossible, so the question remains; where do fruit flies come from?

Fruit flies are tiny winged insects that boast a meager length of 0.2 inches (3mm). They are brownish in color, with striped bodies and relatively large red eyes. They are perfectly adept in smelling food from great distances. With their great sense of smell and tiny bodies, fruit flies can maneuver into your kitchen through window screens, door jams, or any other crack in your home. Occasionally, they may catch a ride in your grocery bags or hatch from eggs laid in less than fresh food brought home from a grocery store.

A congregation of fruit flies can become a nuisance. Fruit flies feed on alcohol, which is produced when fruits and vegetables begin to ferment. The alcohol in wine, beer, and other alcoholic beverages is also appealing to fruit flies. Fruit flies not only feed on these foods, but also lay eggs in them that hatch into larvae in a matter of hours. In almost the blink of an eye, fruit flies can infest any kitchen.

Removing the food source is the first step to eliminating fruit flies. Some non-food items, such as wet mops, dirty dishes, and old sponges, are able to support fruit flies, so be sure to clear these from your home as well. The remaining fruit flies can easily be trapped by constructing a paper funnel and placing it in a jar or bottle containing a small amount of wine, beer, or decaying fruit. The fruit flies will enter the funnel to reach their feast and will not be able to find their way out.

Although fruit flies are a pesky nuisance to most people, these tiny insects have made a gigantic name for themselves in the field of science. Fruit flies, or Drosophilae, have been invaluable to the field of genetics. The short, ten-day life cycle of the fruit fly, its avid ability to reproduce, and its large chromosomes make the insect an ideal specimen for laboratory experiments in heredity.

Fruit flies have also been a source of fuel for the creation vs. evolution debate. Creationists, who oppose the generally accepted theory of evolution, claim that the use of fruit flies in the laboratory, specifically the attempt to create new species of fruit flies through the mutation of chromosomes, has yielded no surviving results. Evolutionists rebuke the claim with the fact that fruit flies have too few chromosomes to provide an evolutionary advantage when manipulated. Basically, evolutionists hold that fruit flies are successful just as they are and have no reason to change.

LOU

Nope. Ours doesn't work. Hubby used a 2-liter milk jug to make the trap. I saw one in it this morning and later on it was gone! This afternoon as I was doing washing up in the kitchen a few of the them paraded themselves in front of me and above the trap like a bunch of show-offs. I finally saw one walked right to the bottom and I thought "Ah-ha, gotcha!" The next thing I knew, the sucker was walking back out! Think the opening of the milk jug's too big? Our spring water bottles are too small and 2-liter milk jug is too big... maybe I need to go to the store to get a 1-liter soda bottle. We don't drink soda but if that will take care of these suckers I am willing to get one just for that purpose.

athe:
The water bottles will work if they are round and
seal tight around the top edge, when inverted.
Or else they will climb up the side and out.
Lou

Lou, I think you are talking about the control of flies of the genus musca rather than fruit flies of the genus drosophila.
It would be a huge over kill to put out a water bottle trap for fruit flies, just a small bowl with a bit of rotting fruit covered with saran with a few holes in it works.
Getting the pears out has helped a lot.
Now if only I can get the apples done before they hatch a new batch!!
Linda C

If you're drinking inside your house and the fruit flies are everywhere, here's a bit of consolation (albeit undocumented with proof). My friends, who had to move out of their home for months and spent upwards of $40,000 to remove mold from beneath their relatively new house because of an undetected hot water line break) were told that if you have fruit flies in your house you don't have mold. Apparently they don't go into houses with mold. So lift your glass to those little fruit flies and kiss your lucky stars. They'll be gone soon enough anyway. I was about to crawl under our house when we were suddenly ambushed by fruit flies as well. They're everywhere this year!
Annie1971

Linda C:
The sketches I put in were for House flies but I used the one on the right,
with out turning it over on the sticks.
It worked, plus I used the bowl and plastic wrap on top.
Put Bananna peels on the bottom.
Lou

Lou, the 2-liter milk jug hubby used was not round. It had four ridges with a small handle. He did put the top upside down and tape seal the edge though. Not sure how the shape of the bottle will affect the effectiveness of the trap.

I have some single use (2 cup) water bottles but when I watched the movie clip she said the smaller ones wouldn't work. That's why I am thinking 1-liter soda bottles. If the small bottles will work I won't even bother to get the larger one. I checked the one hubby made, this morning, and found a few crawling all over, in and out of it. I actually killed a few of them with my fingers. They seemed to be a lot slower as they tried to get out. Drunk? LOL

By the way, glad to know that we don't have mold in our house! :-)

Why don't you just put out a few bowls of cheap wine!

Annie, in my house SOMEONE would drink the cheap wine, and it wouldn't be fruit flies, LOL.

The Other Annie

Lou, I think you are talking about the control of flies of the genus musca rather than fruit flies of the genus drosophila.
It would be a huge over kill to put out a water bottle trap for fruit flies, just a small bowl with a bit of rotting fruit covered with saran with a few holes in it works.
Getting the pears out has helped a lot.
Now if only I can get the apples done before they hatch a new batch!!
Linda C

Linda C :
You said that before, 7 threads up.
Lou

I had forgotten about the trick with the bowls covered with cellophane with holes in it - I'll have to try that again. It seems that Linda's fruit flies have migrated to Southern California, and they are bothering me no end. They only arrived last month. I'm hoping that they will leave when we go to Texas for holiday. They enjoy Kevin's bathroom but haven't gotten into mine. I wonder if they eat soap. I only have papier-mhé fruit in the dining room, and so I'm not sure what attracts them.

Lars

Lars, I wonder if you have those ones that like the drains?

The fruit flies here had all died by September because it began to get cold. Our weather this weekend is brutal between -21C and -28C for highs (have not factored in wind-chill). We barely survive let alone the fruit flies. Al

So easy to get rid of fruit flies.

Get a small container with a little bit of rotting fruit. Let it collect a quantity of flies.
Cover it quickly and microwave the container 10 to 20 seconds.
Do it a few times and you have no more fruit flies, unless you don't have insect screens for your windows.

dcarch

Stacy, I do have the kind that likes the drains, and this appears to apply to the bathrooms as well. I think we are just going to have to do some serious drain cleaning. They especially like the drain in the kitchen that has the garbage disposal.

It's difficult to imagine cold weather in September, since that is our warmest month here. It's difficult enough to imagine freezing weather. Everyone here freaks out when it dips below 50°, which is below normal for us. Kevin had business associates visit from Wisconsin a couple of days ago, and they were not phased by the 60° daytime high with rain. I, however, was wearing long underwear.

All our windows have screens, as well as the sliding glass door, but the front door and the kitchen door do not. We never leave those doors open, and so it doesn't seem to matter, but we did install a screen door to the sliding glass door (which goes to the patio and back yard) because it is difficult to open and close sliding doors. Also, we wanted to be able to take advantage of the cool ocean breezes in the summer, but the screen is such a fine mesh that it blocks most of the breeze.

If I do the rotten fruit bit, I will put cellophane over the top and make tiny holes with a toothpick. That worked before. Fruit flies were a bigger problem in Venice because I had so many fruit trees, but I'm not so lucky here - yet.

Lars