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!!

They are fungus gnats and I reckon they come in with supermarket potted herbs. They are clever little buggers I'll give them that.

Clearer for IDing if possible!!

I have a mini swarm in the kitchen. Dh keeps leaving manky veg peelings about and today I found a tin in the recycling pile which I thought was empty still had kidney beans in and that had loads in (dh again).

Bleach down the sink and vinegar traps here make a difference until dh pulls another stunt and sets me back!

oh and I found a shrivelled potato in the cupboard which wasn’t helping.

Definitely fruit flies inmho

You can try yellow sticky sticks that stand in the plant pot. And to trap the eggs in the soil and kill them, you can buy fine stones that go over the soil and kill them off. I’ll get a couple of links.

I also think mine have possibly come in on bananas!!

When it uploads, here's the good work one of my spiders is doing for me...

Have you got kids? I was baffled a while back by an invasion, got rid of all fruits, cleaned absolutely everything, still plagued 😭
School starts back up, get rucksack ready and there's a banana that's been festering in there nicely over the holidays 😭 🤣 🤢

Reading this thread, you all need to hoover around the area where they bother you. Please trust me on this x

I was plagued by these breeding in my food waste bin. Nothing got rid of them except Ardap. I now give the bin a quick spray when it's empty and I haven't had any more problems. it's so effective I dread to think what's in it. https://www.pricerunner.com/pl/347-3210633463/Garden-Outdoor-Environment/Ardap-Universal-Pest-Control-750ml-Compare-Prices

Some plonker parked across the access to the bin room in my son’s apartment block.
The refuse couldn’t be collected and thus a plague of flies and fruit flies ensued!
🦟🪳🪲
His apartment is above the the bin room door so you can imagine what happened.
He's been trying all the vinegar traps etc to no avail.
We have an electric zapper like they have in chippies so I sent him a mini version.
Fingers crossed 🤞🏻 it’s doing the job!
Good luck everyone!

I’ve also scrubbed the underneath of the outside of my upper kitchen cupboards as they liked sitting (upside down) there and I was worried they were laying eggs or something

Sticky traps and nematodes.

Water your plants with nematodes - give it 48 hours and you'll be flabbergasted. You can buy them on Amazon.

I put diatomaceous earth on the top of my houseplant soil, with some decorative gravel on top.
Got rid of an infestation quite quickly.

We had this, it was a house plant! As soon as we got rid of it there were no more

Yes definitely look like fruit flies, I’ve had fungus gnats before too. They are a pain and sounds like a bad infestation for you. I can’t kill things like that though so I just do my best to keep everything clean, empty kitchen caddy often, and wait for them to go when it’s cooler again. They don’t actually do any harm apart from being annoying.

Just wanted to report back as I can’t believe the difference in only a few day!! I definitely think it was the drain!!
I got loads of sticky traps on Amazon and dotted them around everywhere. Not a single thing came from any of the plants, but loads around the kitchen.

I did frequent kettles or boiling water down the sink and overflow of all sinks and kept sink plugs in.

Did a change over of traps and stickers early morning and came home to nothing for the first time in weeks!!

Think I’ve finally turned the corner and thank you all!! There will be no bananas in this house for a while!! 😂

Me too! I’ve chucked out some fruit that’s gone over but they’re everywhere!!

Off to boil the kettle!

I use Super Ninja traps .The are not cheap but they do work. Use a couple in each room you have the problem in .
Super Ninja Fruit Fly Trap - 4 pack, Highly Effective Fruit Fly Killer for Home & Kitchen, Up to 3 Weeks of Performance per Bottle, Child & Pet Friendly : Amazon.co.uk: Garden

This thread was a life saver. We were overrun with them on Sunday. Boiling water and bleach down the drains has saved my sanity. The difference it’s made. From 30+ in each trap we’re down to about 3 or 4 a day!

I’ve also got loads of fruit flies so I’m going to do the boiling water thing and hope it helps!

The long yellow hangy things, only thing that works

The ones in the roots of houseplants are fungus gnats. The water treatment is nematodes, a natural predator to them, and I found it worked a treat.

It won't work on fruit flies though, if that's what the OP has got!

I get this to a varying degree at the end of every summer. Boiling water down the sinks regularly does help.