PrintAlcoholic Bugs?
Every time I pour a glass of wine in my new apartment, I've been noticing it gets swarmed with these tiny little fruitfly-like bugs! They literally drown themselves in the glass or hang out on the rim. I have not noticed them hanging out on any of my food, but I did see one on a bottle of rubbing alcohol in my bathroom. What are these alcoholic bugs and how do I get rid of them?!
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11 Comments:
They *are* fruitflies. My local bar has trouble with them too. All you can do is wait for a frost.
BaHa at 3:48PM on 10/10/07
Don't leave any sugars around for them to eat...drops of wine in a glass in your sink overnight, aging fruit, etc....they'll mulitply quickly. Check out any busy bar, bakery counter, etc.....same little fruit flies
Kim Nyland at 3:49PM on 10/10/07
Fruitflies indeed. While I know that they are very stupid creatures, they can't be THAT dumb if they're attracted to a glass of wine ;)
A good tip to getting rid of them is to in fact leave a little bowl of red wine sitting out. The trick is to mix in a dab of liquid soap (the detergent make it hard for the flies to get out) and also to cover the bowl with plastic wrap and then poke small holes into it - the flies can get in but between the detergent and the plastic, there's no way they're getting out.
charm city cupcake at 4:29PM on 10/10/07
I find that a beer/cider bottle left out with a little hard cider or other sweet but not viscous alcohol makes and excellent trap. Also try pouring drano or something down your kitchen sink -- they love to breed in the drains.
thepictsie at 5:35PM on 10/10/07
Nonono. Don't drano, and don't put red wine out on the counter. This is the only thing that works in Louisiana (and trust me, we know our bugs):
Take a pint glass or other tall glass, fill with about 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup cider vinegar. Tape (very important to seal tight!) a piece of plastic wrap around the top and poke ONE small hole in the top.
This works like a charm, I promise. While you don't necessarily need to clean your kitchen to the extreme, you should try to eliminate standing food on your counter, such as fruit, bread, etc., for some time until the population dies down. Also, make sure that NO food goes down your drain, unless it's through the garbage disposal, followed by some white vinegar.
Good luck!
kmnola at 7:21PM on 10/10/07
When I moved into my home, I had a nasty fruit fly infestation. I managed to totally eradicate them by sucking them out of the air with the hose attachment of my vacuum. I looked like a total nut chasing flies with a vacuum, but I managed to get entire swarms in a few seconds.
They must have spread the word, because they have never returned :-)
Dominic
the zen kitchen
dvchurch at 9:59PM on 10/10/07
Funny...there's a little pesky knat flying around me and glass of Pinot Grigio ~ kept blowing it away and now it's gone
paris221966 at 12:27AM on 10/11/07
I was infested with these nagging little creeps myself so I sat out several bowls of sugary liquids hoping to drown every last one of them however this only made them multiply by the hundreds!!! They were everywhere...the message was out...it was a fruit fly feast in my house....so I discovered the more stuff I laid out the more flies I had so after cleaning the kitchen and the rest of the house like a wild woman and not allowing any food of any sort to be left out they disappeared. There was not anything for them to dine on so maybe I starved them to death???? I still get a few but at least my house is clean! note..I never put the plastic wrap over my bowls...will try that next...or the vacuum idea..I am laughing already at what I am going to look like chasing a microscopic fly around with a vacuum hose!!
tswickey at 8:03AM on 10/11/07
Thanks everyone! This is all very helpful!
K at 8:38AM on 10/11/07
kmnola and Dominic have the methods! The pinhole into cidar vinegar works very well, and to get rid of a sudden infestation, the vacuum is *the* tool to use. I find certain produce tends to carry fruit flies home. Peaches are the worst. Sometimes they live in soil, too, so if you have a lot of house plants, check there.
Kelly Spitzer at 12:51PM on 10/11/07
Also, make sure that you leave no standing liquid around - not even droplets of water in the sink, and cover all your booze: fruitflies can even eat fumes.
zapatista at 2:12PM on 10/12/07