15 replies to this topic

[BlueLance213]

Ello All, rather grim sounding title but I need some info/help.

 

Recently I had an outbreak of fruitflies, and now I cannot get rid of the things, they seem to just constantly exist. I wake up and find a bunch sitting on my sponge in the kitchen, I have killed well over 100 by hand now. So I am at this point where I am looking at some insect killer spray, and I wanna know, if i spray it in my kitchen, which is about 5 or so meters away and with a door in between, do you think it would be ok to purge my kitchen without it infecting the ants?

[Martialis]

They’re flightless, aren’t they?

[SleepyAsianAnter]

They’re flightless, aren’t they?

When they are captive bred yes, but most wild ones have wings

[Martialis]

I misread somehow and thought captive ones escaped. Oops.

[gcsnelling]

Find the source, if you have fruit flies to that degree there is a source someplace. Get rid of it. Also be sure they are fruit flies and not some other little flying hellion.

[ANTdrew]

We’ve had this issue before, too. Try to eliminate their food sources by keeping fruit in the fridge, for instance. Then make some vinegar traps. Just put some apple cider vinegar in a cup with a few drops of dish soap in it. You can put some old fruit in the vinegar, too, to make it more enticing. Then cover the cup with plastic wrap and poke a few fly-sized holes in it. Flies fly in, but can’t fly out.

[BlueLance213]

I wish they were wingless but no mines are self caught.

 

Sadly I don't have any food left out at all. Ever since I noticed them I have literally cleaned my entire house, but they always appear on my sponge, I have gotten to the point where I put it in a container just to give them one less place to seemingly enjoy.

 

I will try a few vinegar traps and see if that wittles down their numbers, because honestly even when typing this message 2 of them decided to fly by and irritate me XD

[mannac]

The vinegar trap works really well. I just did that last week.

[ANTdrew]

It's the kind of problem that usually just disappears with time. They may come back in phases, though.

[BlueLance213]

It's the kind of problem that usually just disappears with time. They may come back in phases, though.

 

Sadly they just keep appearing, more of them on a daily basis, I honestly will end up with a golden skin for the amount I have killed at this rate haha, gonna try the vinegar, and if not I will move my ants and keep themm covered and spray bug killer around the room that the bugs are in

[gcsnelling]

There is a source somewhere. Also you really need get a firm Id on them in order to figure how to deal with them. Try posting a picture.

[Zeiss]

I recently dealt with some blow flies.  Had over 40 in the apartment that seemed like they were coming from nowhere until I found a dead rabbit outside.  Until you find the source, it will be very hard to get rid of them all.

[BlueLance213]

I recently dealt with some blow flies.  Had over 40 in the apartment that seemed like they were coming from nowhere until I found a dead rabbit outside.  Until you find the source, it will be very hard to get rid of them all.

Thankfully I don't have anything dead near my house, I checked that, but other than my front door there isn't really any way inside my house for them other than the ones that I caught and that got out. So I am pretty sure the original source was me bringing them in, and now they just seem to be multiplying inside the house, I have even bleached my drains etc just incase its from there

There is a source somewhere. Also you really need get a firm Id on them in order to figure how to deal with them. Try posting a picture.

 

I will try posting a picture, but from what I can see its just normal looking fruit flies XD

[Mariaface]

Hey there! We just had a tiny outbreak in our kitchen from some peaches we got at costco...

 

1. Don't leave anything wet/moist where they can find it and drink -- completely wring out your kitchen sponge after each use so it dries out as quickly as possible, which should be done anyway to minimize bacterial growth in the sponge.

 

2. Diatomaceous earth -- keep this crap AWAY from your ants, anything that will touch your ants, any other pet inverts, etc. It's harmless to us, but cuts through insects. Sprinkle this stuff over whatever the fruit flies are eating, wherever they're lounging, anywhere you find them. Slowly but surely, they'll come into contact with it and die off.

[MysticNanitic]

On the sponge eh? They could be Psychodidae, drain flies. They’re about the size of fruit flies but usually appear fuzzier when magnified. Clear the flies out and seal off all nearby drains. If few or none return they’re drain flies living in the crud in your drain and the bleach didn’t do the trick, they can be persistent.

If so, try rounds of baking soda and vinegar, boiling water, mechanical action, etc to clean out of the drain, multiple times. Cap it off in between treatments and a good while afterward. If it’s a disposal, also run hand-fulls of ice through it running, works great at knocking loose the crud and won't hurt it.

On the topic of chemical insecticides, I work as a biologist but have no experience with using them anywhere near a captive ant colony as I am new to the hobby (an aside: there should be a name for a new pastime found in quarantine, some people are making homemade sourdough, I’m caring for “nuisance” insects and stockpiling their tiny wares). Anyhow, I know they can be lethal to insects in extremely minuscule quantities, you can reasonably suspect more so to captive colonies, and I would be wary of application in any shared airspace with my own fledgling colonies.

Edited by MysticNanitic, September 17 2020 - 10:44 PM.

[BlueLance213]

On the sponge eh? They could be Psychodidae, drain flies. They’re about the size of fruit flies but usually appear fuzzier when magnified. Clear the flies out and seal off all nearby drains. If few or none return they’re drain flies living in the crud in your drain and the bleach didn’t do the trick, they can be persistent.

If so, try rounds of baking soda and vinegar, boiling water, mechanical action, etc to clean out of the drain, multiple times. Cap it off in between treatments and a good while afterward. If it’s a disposal, also run hand-fulls of ice through it running, works great at knocking loose the crud and won't hurt it.

On the topic of chemical insecticides, I work as a biologist but have no experience with using them anywhere near a captive ant colony as I am new to the hobby (an aside: there should be a name for a new pastime found in quarantine, some people are making homemade sourdough, I’m caring for “nuisance” insects and stockpiling their tiny wares). Anyhow, I know they can be lethal to insects in extremely minuscule quantities, you can reasonably suspect more so to captive colonies, and I would be wary of application in any shared airspace with my own fledgling colonies.

 

Yeah i am new to the hobby as well! Although I was interested before quarantine, but it gave me reason to try it XD

 

Yeah the sponge, I haven't left food etc out in ages, but it definently isn't drain flies, I have seen the before but I will try to redo the drains anyway just incase, also I cannot get a good picture of them, but they look identical to the flies that show on google.

 

I will only use insecticide as a last resort, In South Africa when we used it even a short spray would kill so many insects even those that weren't where you sprayed, hence why I am worried about using it.

 

All i can say is... I am switching to a different food source after this haha