Don't read this if you don't like gross - which fix worked?

7 years ago

Our nightmare for the last month and a half has been gnats in the house and trying to get rid of them and to find out why they're here. We've lived here for 14 years and never had this problem before. The first thing I did of course was to spray the whole house with Raid Spray and stopped keeping my potatoes, onions and tomatoes out. Didn't work. Then I started making sure that ALL the trash was taken out every night. Then I started treating all the drains with the enzyme drain cleaners. Then we chopped up a wooden picnic table outside the bathroom window because it was rotten and hauled it away. Then we put new weatherstripping on the window. Then I concocted gnat traps with vinegar (by the way it works to trap the gnats but didn't stop them.) Then I got the clear sticky strips that you put on the windows (had to order online) and caught at least 50 of them each day. I even taped up all the drains and overflows and everything else that looked like a hole in the bathroom. None of this worked. I decided maybe we should just move? Anyway, DH decided to try 2 more things. One was to re-caulk around the toilet on the floor, there were some places where it had come away. Also he replaced the Studor vent under the bathroom sink. The reason why we were concentrating all our efforts mostly on this one bathroom was because this was where we were seeing most of them. So now (thank Heavens!) they are gone. But we don't know which thing fixed it. Any suggestions? Yes I'm ecstatic that they are gone but this kind of thing drives me nuts.

Featured Answer

rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7

7 years ago

rita, drain flies (aka sewer gnats), fruit flies, and fungus gnats all look different from each and can easily be identified with a good photograph. Knowing which of the three possible culprits you were plagued by would likely have solved the mystery right away.

If you can take some good pictures, I'd be happy to have a look. Outside of that, you could take some samples directly to your local county extension office and have someone there ID the critters for you.

By the way, all three of these little pests are types of flies, related to other flies. Though related, each feeds on different substances and breeds in different environments.

By the way, do you have houseplants?

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (10)

raee_gw zone 5b-6a Ohio
7 years ago
It sounds like you had drain flies, not fruit flies or fungus gnats. Here is the info that I found:

drain flies

I am not endorsing this company, btw, just found the info via web search.
User thanked raee_gw zone 5b-6a Ohio
Elmer J Fudd
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
I'm glad you're past this problem, I can imagine how annoying and aggravating it was.

Not that it matters now because what's done is done, but there are mixed opinions about whether the perimeter of a toilet base should be caulked or not. The "do not" view is because should there be a leak or failure of the wax ring (or a more modern equivalent) at the flange, you want any leaking liquid to be visible. With a caulk around the perimeter, it would remain trapped underneath.

If the wax ring is intact and has no gaps, and if the insects were coming from the drain, they wouldn't be able to get through anyway.

Happy days!
User thanked Elmer J Fudd
Related Discussions
Foods you don't like now that you liked growing up
Q
Comments (21)
There's not anything that I can think of that I liked as a child but don't like now. But there are a few things that I ate for days on end than now would not be tolerable!!.I drank an egg nog every day for breakfast for years...no cereal, no toast, no egg....just an egg nog and a small glass of orange juice. And I ate ham and cheese sandwiches for years for school lunch. I was a picky PICKY eater my mother said....didn't like most vegetables nor any fruit with much texture. No citrus but for strained juice, no grapes unless they had no seeds and you peeled it. But I loved liverwurst, head cheese, ll kinds of salami, olives, pickles, pumpernickle bread with butter and raw onion, but no squash of any sort, no broccoli, no cauliflower and no green beans....but creamed wax beans were oK...go figure. I like all that stuff now....but although I haven't tried any in many many years I probably would still like a Hostess Snowball and a Hostess Cupcake...but not sure about those brightly colored "twin" sickles" sort of frozen thing.. There are lots of things I used to love....that I can't stand any more...not because I have changed but because the product has...like Swanson's frozen pot pies, frozen breaded fish...used to be real fish...now some of it is like "fish hamburger" formed...ugh! Pot pies no longer have much in them but "gravy"....and frozen pizzas make a big deal of they contain some "real" cheese.
...See More
Don't watch this because you don't want to see it
Q
Comments (24)
Nasty! Glad I watched it though not surprised. Yes, we're germaphobes but better careful than not. My DH, DD and I went recently to High Point, NC for her soccer tournament. Stayed at a very nice Radisson. In our room, we found pubic hair on our sheets the first night and when we returned from the tournament the 2nd day around 4 pm, we found a condom (unused) in our bathroom sitting on the counter. Definitely not ours! Who the heck knows what went on in our room while we were gone. When we told the manager, he smiled and said, "Oh well, come with me...", took us downstairs and proceeded to credit our card $45 dollars for the trouble! Why $45? Did he think we needed the money? We weren't trying to get a discount! He didn't seem surprised. At another hotel last year, our comforter had a small, silver-dollar sized, almost unnoticeable fresh blood stain on it. Almost missed it because of the flower print on the comforter. It was still wet! I make it a point to inspect the room prior to use. This is how I find these things. Yes, I'm sure there's a lot of junk out there on a daily basis that we are exposed to, but if I can avoid some of them then that's better for me and my family. Just because these things are out there or, because as kids we did worse things than this, doesn't mean I have to let my guard down. Also, on airplanes. I had a couple of flight attendants as patients once. They filled me in on all kinds of stuff. From the blankets to the food. The blankets are used by some very dirty travelers who wrap themselves up in them from head to dirty, smelly, shoeless feet. She said they just re-fold the blankets and set them out again. I think the airlines may be doing things differently now. Someone can set me straight if this has changed.
...See More
Please read if you don't like either candidate
Q
Comments (26)
While it's interesting in concept, and it would've certainly solved the gore bush problem in FL, I'm not sure it would solve the larger problem. To me, it seems we got better candidates when they were selected by the party bosses in the smoky rooms. To me, the 17 gop nominees highlights how lousy self-selection is and how poor people are at judging who is best for the job. Clearly t-rump is up because of his marketing skills, not his character or policies or experience. Had the back room guys chosen, it would've more than likely been Bush or Kasich, much more in keeping with the party values. There's a reason why the founding fathers put the electoral college in between the popular vote and the election winner. I think we need more interference at the nomination level too to really fix this issue.
...See More
I don't get it...colors I don't like
Q
Comments (6)
It reminded me of Jonathan Adler..a very colorful guy in all senses..rather, him saying in one of his books he doesn't like neutrals-unless they're from nature, like clay, or yarn, or stone, or wood, or.. When in nature-whatever it might be-we're deeply touched by very different settings ..I don't know why but let's pretend that's because there's invisible hand of the Master that put it all together, and we don't know another worlds, not yet, so we are touched by ours. When in home-if one can get one seventieth of that Master's touch..it changes our general connotations. Because there's texture, variation, light, all this, yes-plus something made by hand, taking this natural things, clay and wood, etc, and working on them, and loving them while working. Simple things-yet they all get to sing. I know this because for example I also have variated terracotta tile in the bath-and it's less variated, just three colors..and it's textured custom too..and we were there when the guys from the shop were working on color and texture , working on samples, showing them to us..we waited with them, we were witnesses to that process, and you see the real excitement and passion that goes into creating and playing with things like that. (they liked the pallette themselves and made a sample of it for the store, and called it "April's". lol) And this excitement, passion and patience is what probably makes what was clay and wood shine under that light. It brings together what they are-natural materials-and what people with passion and patience wished them to be, and got them to be. So. That's why I love my grays and my browns.. Even though my house is pretty colorful-no one will call it neutral It's true, they remind me some scenes from my childhood which I percieve as happy. And all sorts of things. The juxtaposition. Of course I prefer certain grays and certain browns, that's normal. For example I love mostly very warm grays. And (surprize) mostly warm browns)) But also because some of them, I witnessed to be made, I knew them to be painstaikingly made, or I knew nobody made it, it was created like that- and I was just lucky to spot it, like a piece of gray marble with golden rusty streaks..and it makes it a bit more magical. Sense of discovery can come in many shapes. It can be quiet and subdued. And nothing we generaly like even maybe. Yet it still will be a sense of discovery. I would love to do truly neutral room one day, just like a challenge even. yet I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to pull it off..
...See More
User
Original Author
7 years ago
Yeah - I actually wound up buying 2 different brands of enzyme drain cleaners, used them several times in ALL the drains. I plan on using it again. At first I used the ammonia method, it didn't work either. And yes I did a LOT of online research and did read some statements that it's not good to do the caulking but we needed an immediate fix and will look into getting the toilet checked out by a professional. We did a lot of the things I mentioned previously several times, not just once, man what a nightmare. DH runs like a deer when anything is mentioned about DIY plumbing, very shocked that he even did these 2 things. He's a journeyman electrician and knows his way around that and a few other things but he has a bad phobia about anything plumbing-related. The gnats were either fruit flies or drain gnats (not drain flies) but they look similar, I tend to lean to the drain gnats though, but they do like vinegar, and they also like Kombucha and beer, too. I used them all 3 in the homemade traps.
ravencajun Zone 8b TX
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
Yes the plumbers that did all our work said no caulk around bottom of toilet. It should be able to leak out there. If not you risk holding moisture there and rotting out the subfloor under the toilet.. If caulk is put down there should be a gap left to let liquid seep out. A proper fitted wax ring should take care of the sewer seal. There are other opinions to that of course. We have no caulk.
User thanked ravencajun Zone 8b TX
ravencajun Zone 8b TX
7 years ago
https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/68468/are-toilets-supposed-to-be-caulked-to-the-floor

Good discussion with both sides lol.

I did have a toilet leak that had caulk except for the gap and water was squirting out of the gap. Only way I knew it was leaking. That's why we agreed with our plumber not to caulk.
User thanked ravencajun Zone 8b TX
pudgeder
7 years ago
Were they little heart shaped gnats? Bigger than fruit ones, but not as big as a fly?

We've had a few of those in our bathroom too! Now I'm really concerned it'll get worse!
User thanked pudgeder
User
Original Author
7 years ago
We don't have a sub-floor, it's concrete slab underneath the vinyl flooring we have in the bathrooms. Also yes I looked at all the pictures online, the two that look similar are the fruit fly and the phorid fly, and I suspect it's the phorid fly. The pictures of the drainfly on the link supplied above is not the one. I just wish we knew which of the 2 last things did the job, the grouting or the replacement of the Studor vent. Maybe I should have posted this on the plumbing forum. Too late now, I don't know how to go back and do it after the first post.
wildchild2x2
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
It could be none of your solutions solved the problem. Occasionally gnats simply swarm seasonally. Then they mysteriously leave.

Drain flies don't tend to fly out all over the house. Mostly you would see them around the sinks and tub. Gnats don't generally originate in a house. They come in from the outdoors. Spring, warm weather, open windows and here come the gnats. They are often small enough to slip through screens.

But Elmer is right about the toilet,. No way could they come through there unless the seal was compromised. IF that seal is compromised then caulking added a very expensive hindrance to identifying any leaks which could cost you much more than a new seal in the future. Like a whole new damaged subfloor, even concrete can get mold issues, since the leak won't be as apparent with the caulk hiding it.
Michael
7 years ago
I believe one of your cleanings may have eliminated the drain fly habitat. It was none of the mechanical fixes.

Fact Sheet

Don't read this if you don't like gross - which fix worked?

rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7

Comments (10)

raee_gw zone 5b-6a Ohio

Elmer J Fudd

Related Discussions

User
Original Author

ravencajun Zone 8b TX

ravencajun Zone 8b TX

pudgeder

User
Original Author

wildchild2x2

Michael

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Don't read this if you don't like gross - which fix worked?

Comments (10)

Related Discussions

UserOriginal Author

UserOriginal Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

User
Original Author

User
Original Author