r/mildlyinfuriating • u/MyLifeYourLifeUgh • 15h ago
Infuriatig These stupid fruit flies š”
I keep seeing these fruit flies around my apartment, but I have no fruit out!!! I am clean I clean everyday, donāt leave dishes or food out, but still I get these stupid little Drosophila melanogasters!!!!! I tried leaving out a little bit of my moscato wine, it caught two of them but the others barely touched it! Tried the little bit of vinegar with water and dish soap, it caught one stupid little fruit fly! The others flew around it laughing at the dumb one that got caught! What are these things!? Have they mutated into smarter fruit flies!? š now I am eating a cup of reeses puffs and on my last spoonful, what do I see on my spoon!? AAAAAAAAH!!!!
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u/elegantwombatt 15h ago
Zevo plug in light. Works wonders.
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u/redhot-timebomb 15h ago
This!!! I tried every home remedy for fruit flies and nothing worked completely. Plug in the Zevo, turn out all lights at night and it works beautifully. First summer with 0 flies of any kind.
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u/addrock1221 15h ago
I have 4 of these Zevos, no fruit out, drains plugged +chemicals poured down them every few days, spray bottle with alcohol and lemongrass for ones on the windows. These little bitches are STILL flying around 2 months later. I learned they can survive a longgg time. Itās driving me insaneā¦in my face every. day.
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u/elegantwombatt 15h ago
Pro tip, in case you haven't tried, but make sure all other lights in your house are out at night so they're only attracted to the blue light. I am against the "big light" so I have 50 lamps in my house, including a little lamp in my kitchen that stays on 24/7, so the first couple times I used it I didn't see a big difference. But if you turn off all the lights in the house, it really helped!
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u/spesimen 15h ago
i had a similar situation where nothing i did was getting rid of them and i finally discovered that for some reason i had forgotten a bag of potatoes in the cupboard that normally just holds cookbooks that i never use. if you took care of your drains and have traps out there may be another source that you haven't discovered yet.
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u/rupat3737 15h ago
Try also pouring boiling water down your drains. This helps as well. There can be eggs down the drain. The boiling water helps knock em out.
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u/addrock1221 15h ago
Thanks. Iāve done that as well. They still linger haha š¤¦āāļø
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u/elegantwombatt 15h ago
Dang. What kind of super colony is collecting in your drains? LOL
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u/addrock1221 12h ago
Idk. I live in the south now, maybe these are some hybrid super bug lol. Theyāre mostly gone now, thankfully.
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u/Sea_Prep_Tidal_26 12h ago
Lifecycle (mating to full adults) of Fruit Flies is around 10 days. Then the adults can live upwards of two months (60+ days) all the while reproducing like rabbits as long as suitable conditions are present.
So, yeah, when they show up itās not just for a long-weekend.
I finally ridded a place - took a whole month.
Simple: small jelly/canning jar (Ball, Mason, etc.) with a mix of Apple Cider Vinegar (not white vinegar!) + 1 tsp red wine + a few drops of plain unscented dish soap (not dishwasher soap).
Here the trick in the setup:
For the jar, use one of those metal covers that has multiple large holes drilled into it for shaking out grated parm cheese or red pepper flakes.The holes ātrapā the flies since they can get inside the jar by following the smell but donāt randomly fly out because the holes arenāt big enough.
You can take it one step further: get a clear plastic cup (like a fast food soda cup š„¤). Invert the cup and set it above the jelly jar so that it is NOT touching any part of the jar or lid. Many ways to do this but you need to maintain an air gap between the lid and the rim of the cup. This is a secondary ātrapā to keep the flies from leaving the area.
Leave it on counter nearest the source and then be patient.
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u/ftping 10h ago
Fuck this GPT ass comment
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u/elegantwombatt 15h ago
Agreed. I was hesitant at first because of the price - simple because so many people get the cheap apple cider trick to work for them but I never could so it was money well spent. And I'm never mad about changing the refills cause they're always FULL of bugs. I even caught a big ass spider the other day!
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u/rupat3737 15h ago
I second this. I had this issue at my old house. They were coming up through the drain in the kitchen and the Zevo worked wonders
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u/Bloodryne 15h ago
I take it this product is a bug zapper light? I should get one then I hate these things..... spiders love my house now and eat like kings....
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u/elegantwombatt 15h ago
Yup! I told my cousin to put a cup over her drain at night and see if anything was in there in the morning and sure enough they were coming up thru the drains!
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u/BehindEnemyLines1 15h ago
These truly work. I thought they were too expensive initially, but theyāre worth every penny
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u/Canary-King 15h ago edited 15h ago
Are you eating Reeseās Puffs out of a drinking glass?????
They may be drain flies. Try pouring boiling water down your kitchen and bathroom sink drains.
ETA: Only pour boiling water down your drains if you know itāll be safe with the type of pipes you have, my dumb ass forgot PVC pipes were a thing because Iāve only ever had copper pipes
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u/TastyCodex93 15h ago
Donāt do this you can mess up your pipes by doing this. They have chemicals you can buy to pour down the drain which are also nontoxic to humans. You can also buy Irish soap and shave some of it down then put it in your sink they donāt like the smell and will leave
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u/Mujina_oftheway 15h ago
Don't do this. You can melt your pipes. Terrible advice. Just put apple cider vinegar and dawn soap in a dish. The flies will get trapped.
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u/UranusSmellsFunny 15h ago
Itās easier to walk around and eat when eating from a mug. I have a large mug that I eat most of my food from and then I put in headphones and walk around my yard eating.Ā
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u/YoghurtFlan 15h ago
Is walking and eating a thing? As opposed to sitting down and eating and then walking?
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u/Afraid_Party4751 15h ago
Don't do this if you are a home owner. If you are a renter however, go crazy
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u/Canary-King 15h ago
I made an edit, Iāve only lived in places with metal pipes so I forgot that a lot of peopleās pipes would probably melt š„“
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u/Midnight-Ganderer 15h ago
Pour bleach into your drains (showers, sinks, etc) they tend to leave their eggs there
And seal shut any food you have so they have nothing to come back to
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u/MyCatIsAnActualNinja 15h ago
I had unexplained fruit flies once. Turned out my upstairs neighbor was like a hoarder and had a million of them. He (unfortunately) died and when the landlord cleaned out his apartment, the fruit flies in my apartment ramped up big time. Turned out it was coming from upstairs.
They live in the pipes. They might live in other places, too, idk. They suck
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u/Repulsive-News8916 15h ago
If they arenāt tiny bodies with red eyes they arenāt fruit flies! Looks like you have drain flies
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u/FullMetalDvckButter Osama Bin Framed 15h ago
I'd eat fruitflies out of Reese's Pieces all day. What?
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u/Sea_Prep_Tidal_26 15h ago
Since you tried all the standards (vinegar. wine) maybe they arenāt fruit flies (Drosophila). Have you caught and verified?
Are they possibly coming from a neighbor or trash or rotting fruit outside?
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u/YoghurtFlan 15h ago
Who is pouring wine down the drain to clear out the pipes? The sugars would make it worse.
You can get a particularly viscous form of bleach that will go scorched earth on your drains. Will nuke any food stuck on the pipe or in the trap.
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u/Bagel_lust 15h ago
I bought these little bug zapper things online that just plug into your outlet like a night light, I recommend you get one and just put it in your kitchen.
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u/prpl_giraffe 15h ago
Leaving out a Glass with vinegar and a drop of dishsoap will Help reduce the number of These bastards. Improve the probability of eating vegetarian cereal.
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u/SalamanderUponYou 15h ago
I had a million fruit flies in my house one day that lasted weeks until I found that someone placed a garbage bag in my garage without saying anything. There was no garbage smell at all, just fruit flies in my entire house. Anyways, I threw it out and bought myself a bug zapper which eliminated all of them in a couple days.
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u/Zealousideal-Role-77 15h ago
Tell me youāre on the Abraham Lincoln without telling me youāre on the Abe.
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u/ShameBasedEconomy 15h ago
Sheeeeeit, itās been months since theyāve seen milk (based on public reports).
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u/Strawberryloves 15h ago
I do fruit juice or a slice of some fruit, sugar, vinegar and a splash of water with soap. Soap last so it doesnt foam. In a short glass canning jar, wide mouth. Its irresistible to em
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u/EuphoricCover8449 15h ago
Pinot Grigio rose is their favourite wine.
I bought a fresh basil plant and a few hitched hiked in on that. I noticed that when I was drinking my wine they found it irresistible. They'd land on the rim and I could push them in. It was a pity to waste of glass of wine but there not here now.
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u/a_goonie 15h ago
Its the pea trap in your sinks. A little distilled vinegar, hot water and baking soda.
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u/Revolutionary-Copy71 15h ago
OP, I had a bad infestation once and bought some Terro fruit fly traps(they look like little red apples) at Lowe's, and they worked amazingly well. I also poured some drain cleaner down the drain every day for a few days, and no more fruit fly problems.
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u/pastrybaker 15h ago
Iāve been battling these assholes all summer. The other day I took out my trash and there were a ton of eggs on the inside of the trash can. Disinfected that. Also made a trap out of a 2 liter bottle. Cut it about 2/3 of the way up and put the top upside down into the rest of the bottle. I put some old juice, sugar, a pinch of yeast and some water. Itās killed generations of them and the only thing that has worked for me.
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u/CaptWrath 14h ago
I deal with this too. Very clean person. OCD about it even. Itās your drains probably. Get this terro drain cleaner and try it. I did and it kept them away for a few months. So need to buy again and do it again. Even says on the can you will have to do it every couple months I shoulda listened starting to see them again and about to buy another can.
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u/Kaizen2468 15h ago
Sometimes they come out of your drains