I am overrun with fruit flies and I do t know what else to try!!

[littleflieslittleflies]

They are in my kitchen and living room, thankfully nowhere else in the house but there are hundreds and hundreds and I can’t find the source and it is really getting to me!!

Every day, twice a day I set up 4 vinegar traps, they quite quickly get around 20-30 flies in each one.

I have cleaned the place top to bottom a million times. I have thrown out all fruit and veg. Only have what can live in the fridge. I keep the plugs in the sinks. Empty bins. I have a couple of plants these don’t seem to be the source, they don’t really go near them.

I am at my wits end! It is really starting to get to me. I’ve just been trying to read a book and they are all in my face!!

is there anything I might not have thought of to try? I have sticky traps coming from Amazon tomorrow. But the thing is I am catching them but there are just so many more every day!! The living room seems worse than the kitchen and I just can’t see why, no food, and cups taken straight to be washed when finished!

please if you have any top tips let me know!!

Boiling water down the drain to kill the nest.

It sucks I know. If it’s any consolation they’ll all go when its cold again.

Stick the plants outdoors and see what changes?

Any pets who could have smuggled something grotty in? Checked under furniture in old bags, jacket pockets etc in the living room too?

As already said, they do eventually go!

Saracenia carnivorous plants. Are brilliant, also drossera are good for the little gnat type ones.

easy to look after just keep topping up with rain water and much prettier than the yellow sticky papers.

They are actually corpse flies, I found out one year. It will be the drains. Boiling water or some proper drain cleaner down there.

No pets, nothing in bags or under furniture! The place has genuinely never been so clean!!!

The stench of vinegar is overwhelming but at least that is catching them!

I am going to go and pour boiling water down all the drains right now! I thought plugs in would be enough but that makes sense.

I will pop all the plants outside tonight to see if that helps and investigate the plants that keep them at bay. Thank you!!

I had loads in 2020 during COVID so experimented making traps. One of those small bottles of red wine with an inch or so in the bottom and a tiny bit of dish soap worked best for me! Boiling water down the drain too as others have said

The vinegar traps were the only thing that got rid of mine. Weirdly I read on a forum to use balsamic vinegar! 😂 I tried it with a big squeeze of washing up liquid. Set up 3 of them in cereal bowls. Kitchen stank of soapy vinegar but worked a treat 😂

I had this, it was flies in the soil of my houseplants. Sticky traps were black within days.

I ended up with a treatment you use in the water, had to be repeated a few weeks but killed them off after a month (reproductive cycle).

i had a brief spell working in a fruit fly lab, if the vinegar spell bothers you too much you could try mixing up some activated yeast into a paste and the putting into in bottle, or a little pot in a sandwich bag. You can then seal the bag/screw the lid on and freeze them (which does sound a bit cruel). Sorry I can’t help with the source but the drain is a good option, also making sure any cloths and sponges are changed regularly or kept away.

quick edit to add that if you do bring fruit in to wash in in cool water before putting it away to clear off any eggs (bananas are a particular issue).

We’ve had loads tonight. They were living on my basil plant on the windowsill. Hope you get rid of them, it’s a nightmare in the warm weather!

Are they brown OP? I feel your pain!
I have them too and have set up the traps which are full on a daily basis. I put all of my houseplants together and the trap there is the fullest. If you move the soil a little you might see them fly out. I read that if you overwater plants then this can attract them but also if the plants are too dry so goodness knows what the answer is. I'm going to try the boiling water down the drains now too.

They're arseholes aren't they? I cannot fathom where they are coming from. Going to pour boiling water down the sink.

Bleach and boiling water down the drain. Clean your bin with disinfectant every time you change the bin bag. And, this sucks, but you need to pull out your appliances and have a really good clean behind them all.

We had them around our food waste caddy even though it was new, used with a liner, emptied and wiped out every day. Then I read that they lay eggs in crevices like the hinges so I put it through the dishwasher and that sorted them.

BANANAS????!!!!!! 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️I ALWAYS have some out in a fruit bowl as I thought you shouldn't refrigerate them. So now I have another problem that is where do I store my bananas 😂
I know they're called fruit flies but for some reason didn't think of bananas....arrrggghhh.
Some people call them thunder flies I think too?

Mine too. It was from a bag of soil is bought. Riddled with them.

Tried replanting the plants but some had to be thrown away. I did leave the plants in the shed for two weeks - it was winter and freezing out there. That largely killed them.

They lay eggs in the soil. I bought fish tank gravel and put it over the soil of all my houseplants to stop them hatching and stop anymore being laid.
Didn't take long for them to go

Could well be fungus gnats in the compost in the plants. They seem to be a much bigger problem now with peat free composts. Putting them outside to see is a good idea. If it is that, water only from the bottom of the pots so the top layer of compost is dry and/or put a layer of grit over the top of the compost. Yellow fly papers will catch loads but they are a bit gross.

If they are fungus gnats, only water the plants from the bottom. They need a damp top layer to the compost to continue the life cycle...

But true fruit flies (Drosophila) are a pain and do love anything fruit or veg related and at this time of year if you are a fruit and veg lover it's hard to avoid them. It's why I am good friends with all my arachnid housemates - they start to earn their keep now.

Edited because I can't spell Drosophila

I am in the same boat OP and it happens every year and the usual traps aren't working and I've run out of vinegar!

Hoover. All the vinegar traps etc do not work. Just find where they hang out and hoover them every day. In a week you will thank me

I have just been rooting around in my plants! There’s not a single 1 anywhere near the plants. So odd!

so in the half hour or so since I last posted I have reset all my apple cider vinegar traps and even threw in a mushed up strawberry in each one! Cos why not! In the half hour there’s already about 20 in the living room one!!! There is nothing and nowhere they can be coming from in here! 😭😭😂

sorry to hear others are having issues too but it’s nice to have some companionship! Hopefully we will all be rid of them soon!! 🤞🏻

Fruit flies have red eyes (unless they’re mutants) if you need help with identification. The females have big white bums and the males less so.

This was after the half an hour! Even more now!!