Dinner at smoky's, anyone?

Also had a fruit fly infestation. It seemed like hundreds at the time. I bought a contraption in Germany for this. Its a small bottle of a fruity vinegar with a wick that allows the smell to spread. Next you install a small awning around the bottle from a piece of sticky paper. The flies are attracted to the vinegar...they fy in....go to land on the awning and can never move again. About 2 dozen were captured in 2 days and since then I havent seen a single one anywhere.

There is a homemade solution that I will try next year. Get a small jar of this type of vinegar. Put some clear plastic wrap at the top and fasten with a rubber band. Next cut a long fold in the wrap so you build a small bridge down to (but not into) the vinegar. The flies will fly in but will have a harder time escaping and will eventually die

Had the same experiment with the microwave...placed a glass of vinegar inside, waiting in patient like a lion stalking a prey...the moment came and a fruit fly entered...close door..full power...opened the door to watch its body, and the **** was flying out in like a horse, this is scientifically interesting! how come a microwave could not cook its body!

The thing is though, referring back to my last post, mine are all dead (unless they are just hibernating ), it's just that there have been hundreds of them dead on our patio for every morning for the past three days.
All I can think is that maybe they were nesting in the outlet for our neighbour's fan which comes out onto the balcony. Perhaps he's making wine in his bathroom?

Sorry, but has this sneaked
(snuck?) in here from another thread?

It`s all linked ..... sort-of, like life, generally Or it can be moved, obliterated, nuked, or moderated.

A fruit fly has a very short life-span, which makes them idealy suited to adaption. They go where others fear to tread. Not meaning your balcony, per sè, but places like the aftermath of nucleur explosions.

Can't say I've noticed any nuclear explosions in the night, but I do tend to sleep pretty soundly. Hubby did visit the bathroom in the early hours though .

Typically, the fruit flies that you get in your house are from the Drosophila species.

These fruit flies target decaying fruit for their larval food source when breeding.
As fruit begins to 'turn' it releases an acid scent (vinegar) that attracts the flies.
The flies lay their eggs into this fruit and the entire breeding process takes place beneath the skin so the first thing you see is the adult fly.

I wouldn't suggest any form of chemical control to keep them at bay, it will be next to useless. Much of the fruit in Switzerland is imported and is already a few days old at the minimum. Not even the supermarkets seem to be able to keep these under control, so I doubt you could.
Your best method of control is hygiene.

a) Don't wash your fruit when you bring it home. It is usually pre-dipped in a mild fungicide to prevent fungal decay... it's the decay that will attract the flies to breed.
Wash your fruit only when you need to eat it.

b) Keep fruit in the fridge where possible in order to slow down any fungal or insect lifecyles.
This will only help, not solve the problem.
Wash out the containers in your fridge on a regular basis to control the build up of fungal spores.

c) Seperate your fruit and vege's.
Some fruits continue to mature when they are picked, and others not.
When fruits don't continue to mature, keep them as cool as possible to slow down their rate of maturity..... it's easier to just treat all fruit as if it continues to mature though. Just remove the fruit from the fridge as you want it to mature, or eat.... remember, only wash the fruit just before you eat it.
In particular seperate Banana's from ALL the other fruit.
Banana's release a plant hormone called "Ethelyne" from the skin as it matures. Ethylene speeds up the ripening process, and can over-ripe fruit in patches if too close (hence creating an entry site for the fruit fly).
On the other hand, banana's can be used to speed up ripening of other fruit if they are a little early (use a brown paper bag, and keep in a dark cool cupboard for a day).

d) If you do have fruit flies, it's going to be hard to keep under control unless you just sacrifice the fruit you do have. You have no idea what sort of population you may have, so the best thing is to just use up all the fruit where the skin has to be removed anyway.... make your own judgement call on the rest.... and throw away all the rest of the suspicious fruit.

To be quite honest, this is an excellent idea as a 'trap' to monitor the level of the infestation in your house, but it won't substitute as a control mechanism.

You need to remove all the fruit from the house (including washing the bin etc.) if you are to effectively reduce the population.

You won't control fruit flies by killing adults, they will lay a lot of eggs before you take them out.
The larvae will be inside the skin of the fruit where you can't get them.
The pupae can remain dormant, or impervious to chemicals.
....... As I said - Hygiene is king.


Here is a diagram of a typical Drosophila fruit fly lifecyle. Note that the diagram is split into 'minutes', 'hours',and 'days'..... it is a fast lifecycle.



[QUOTE=hannah'sauntie;1701011]The thing is though, referring back to my last post, mine are all dead (unless they are just hibernating ),[QUOTE]

Not too far from the truth.

Temperature affects the rate of development. The colder conditions get, the slower the rate of development (or in the pupal phase, it can remain dormant).
The warmer (summer) the faster they develop.

If they were just dormant, there are probably thousands of flies waking up in our communal compost bin thinking they have died and gone to heaven!

Just swept up more dead flies, on our balcony and neighbour's outside kitchen windowsill!
What's going on??

For those of you you couldn't possibly part with your wine, grape juice also does the trick!

why oh why did i read this?!

this isthe first i heard of thewine trick. ill keep it in mind. last year i used beer and that seemed to do the trick.

The easiest way and the trick that solved my problem was like this:

In a small glass or deep container (usually I use yogurt container, well washed) I put few peeled banana (nothing more than 1/4 of the container). Then I cover the opening of the glass with a single layer of plastic foil and make a small hole on it, just big enough for fruitfly to enter into the container. I let the container/glass nearby fruitflies and as soon as one goes inside it, other follows and soon you will see fruitflies trapped in the glass. And this works fine, try couple of times and then you catch all.

Hope this helps! Good luck catching!!

To avoid them follow all the rules above but once you get them:

Place a sacrificial piece of banana in a glass add the cheapest balsamic you can find until it just about covers the fruit, then add some washing up liquid/dish washing detergent and watch the party

I'm currently experiencing some sort of biological mystery at the moment.

We're invaded by a weird sort of bug that looks exactly like a fruit fly, but doesn't seem to fly well at all. Moreover, they seem to come out of our windows wooden frames, and then go running everywhere on our window panes. They have wings, are the same size and shape as fruit flies.

What the heck are they, and more importantly, how do I get rid of them???

I've discovered that in August we often have lots of flies. An elderly Swiss neighbour told me to pick lots of herbs from the garden - like thyme - and hang them up and apparently this should deter them.

I used to get them - they'd easily get into my bin which was under the kitchen sink in a cupboard. The wonderful Swiss-designed lid that rose automatically as the cupboard door was open didn't close anywhere near tight enough.

Since removing that pile-of-metal-rods shit contraption and using a proper bin, the problem went away.
http://webshop.ottos.ch/de/pressboy-...tung-35-l.html

Put some Apple cider vinegar and washing up liquid in a glass on your kitchen counter, by morning you will be fruit fly free! It needs to be changed every 2-3 days. I swear by this, I have it permanently in my kitchen all summer. Good luck!

That's really weird! It's only with the resurrection of this thread that I realized we have had far fewer fruit flies in our house this year (hardly any). We do have a new cat which has been confined to quarters for the last two weeks to settle in, so the windows and doors have remained generally closed.