In my zeal to introduce Aaron to the joy of real fruit (as opposed to fruit from a jar marked Gerber), I bought a bunch of bananas.
The bananas spawned a fruit-fly infestation the likes of which I’ve never seen. The little bastards are everywhere. I cleaned the kitchen thoroughly, and found a collection of what may have been maggots. (in my defense, this was on and under a plastic-wrapped picture frame on my countertop, so how they got there, I haven’t a clue.) At any rate, my countertops are now sterile, but I’ve still got the damn flies.
Pesticides are out unless it’s something that clears out quickly.
Remember those obnoxious things that were essentially long narrow strips of flypaper coiled in a little tube, which you pulled one end off, and it was a string and tack by which it could be hung, and then the weight of the tube dangled the flypaper in a helix down from there like a model of DNA? They still sell them in general stores and farm-supply stores.
We have an active crop field and a horse pasture within a short distance of our house, and have had our experience of the breadth of Order Diptera expanded greatly in the past few years. Including fruit flies, which are small enough to fit through any crack, with which our old house is well supplied.
Those strips catch and eliminate fruit flies marvelously well, and hang high enough that Aaron cannot possibly reach them (even with the ingenuity of the classic toddler, which I don’t discount!).
We’ve used them every summer since we found them, with near-elimination-of-bugs results. (BTW, non-aerosol pesticides can often be used safely except near food preparation areas, unless there’s a strong chance of allergies from having them ambient in the area.)
They’ll die off on their own in a week or two, but here are some things you can do:
Pour a little bit of bleach solution into your kitchen sink’s drain. This will kill any that may be breeding down there.
Take a wide-mouthed glass or jar, like maybe a highball glass. Fill it with water, then mix in some sugar and liquid soap. The sugar will attract the flies; the soap will bring down the surface tension of the water so the flies fall in and drown instead of walking on the surface.
Hang one or two no-pest-strips over your sink and your trash can.
I work with fruit flies in a lab setting. You wouldn’t believe the infestations of escapees we have. What we do is fill a bottle with fruit fly food (failing that, baby food, apple juice, apple cider vinegar, etc., will work wonderfully) and then make a funnel of paper, invert it, and tape it to the top of the jar. Make sure the opening of the funnel is large enough that they can get in, but small enough that they can’t easily get out. (about the size of this “o” should work great). Good luck!
Thanks! I live close to a farm-supply store, and will get some of those strips.
Overnight, though, the problem seems to have abated somewhat. I dumped the trash and put it outside, which seems to have helped. I also put the fruit I just got into the fridge so they won’t be affected.
I second what Fiver said: Don’t discount the drain just yet. We had an infestation last year and they kept coming back and coming back before we discovered they were breeding down there.
So it can’t hurt to pour bleach down there - make sure you cover the drain hole to prevent escape. (I felt horrible doing that, by the way.)
And here is a third to the bleach down the drain. We deal with them occasionally here at the hotel. The first thing the chef does is the old bleach down the drain. It’s what the exterminator asks about too when he comes in.
Apple cider vinegar is an excellent fruit fly trap. The smell entices them and the acidity poisons 'em as they try to take a drink. Unfortunately, there are some who won’t go for it. Your only ultimately best bet is to make sure there is nothing around for the next generation to eat. Eventually, they will all die out if there is no food for them.
Fortunately, fruit flies, unlike house fly species, are not known to carry a great number of human pathogens, so they’re more icky than dangerous.