Our house is infested with small “fruit flies”. They are mostly in the kitchen and landing waste basket. We’ve tried using flying bug insecticide. But it only helps a little. I’ve also put up sticky fly pest strips. This catches alot of flies, but there are apparently still alot of flies left afterwards. This is esp. troubling since my family and I have other things to worry about now.
Does anyone know how we can deal with this problem?
Thank you in advance to all who reply 
Fruit flies are attracted to and eat the yeast on fruit. One easy way to catch them is to get some grape juice and put it in a bowl. Put an inverted funnel over the bowl–one made out of paper will do. tape around the edges so they can only enter at the top portion. Or, you can try covering the bowl with plastic wrap and punch a small hole in it. The flies will fly in to follow the scent, and most won’t be able to escape. I put a little drop of dishwashing liquid in to reduce the surface tension and kill the flies.
And discard/ wrap up any fruit and all other garbage around the house. You should see a noticeable decrease in the population in a few days. I usually pour a little bleach down the sinks for good measure, just to make sure no larvae will hatch down there.
To clarify–the funnel should point downwards, towards the liquid. A vase is ideal for this purpose, but a soda bottle will also work.
I’d also recommend scrubbing out your wastebaskets with bleach water, just to make sure that there’s nothing icky in them drawing the flies in. I had a fruit fly infestation in the spring, and it turned out that there was mashed peach residue in the wastebasket. I scrubbed it out, and problem solved.
You’ll also want to take the garbage out every night, if possible. I know I like to wait until I have a full bag, but that’s not always the best idea.
“Absolute cleanliness” is the best way to get rid of 'em, I’ve found. This means don’t leave dirty dishes around overnight, keep the sink clean and free of glurge in the drain, keep the counters clean, scrub out the garbage can as mentioned, don’t leave food (especially fruit, although they also eat bread) uncovered on the counter, and take out the garbage every night, or else seal the bag closed with masking tape or a piece of string or a rubber band (wrap it around and around the opening, closing it off completely.)
We’ve also had a problem with fruit flies. Just when you think they’re gone, bam, there they are again.
What this means is, you have to be diligent about doing all the things suggested in this thread (especially absolute cleanliness) even if you think they’re all gone.
Can use a vacuum cleaner to get rid of the immediate problem, but to solve the underlying cause, follow the advice of the previous posters.
To clarify. You want to use the vacuum cleaner attachments to get rid of them. Don’t try to get them with the brushes engaged while running around holding the upright in the air and screaming like a maniac. The neighbors called, er, I mean, will call the cops on you.
I second this. It’s how I deal with them.
Also, keep your cat boxes (if you have any) freshly scooped. They like this too.
FYI, they can also live and breed in the scum inside your drains. To eliminate any possible ones living in there, pour a tiny bit of bleach down all your drains.
One more thing. Since they are crazy about yeast, they love empty beer cans. Keep the empties in a sealed bag or out in the garage.
These critters are also called vinegar flies. Here’s information about them, including how to make a trap.
I’ve always wondered where do the fruit flies just “appear” from? Are their fruit fly eggs hidden in our food or something. . .
Basically the same question, got zero replies. I think we’ve got a bunch of dummies around here. 
Try to find out what’s attracting them, and get rid of it. Much easier said than done, of course.
Look in your cabinets for spoiled food. I had an infestation of fruit flies once that I traced to a bag of potatoes that I had put in a cabinet and forgotten about until they went bad.
Try keeping any fruit or vegetables in the fridge instead of on the counter or in cabinets.
If you’re feeding your pets canned food, try switching to dry if possible. We had an infestation of fruit flies that turned out to be going after the cats’ canned food.