How To Get Rid Of Fruit Flies In Drain: Guide
- Fruit flies rank as one of the most common household pests. Most people experience them during warmer months; they appear out of nowhere, especially when food or water is present, and tend to usually appear in kitchen drains. If you are asking how to get rid of fruit flies in the drain, well done; you are not alone. The same pest, although often overlooked in these situations, is the drain fly, or sink fly, also known as a moth fly, and they also thrive in warm, damp organic environments such as sink basins.
- We’ll discuss various techniques for killing fruit flies and drain flies, explain why they love to hang around drains, how to recognize them, and, above all, how to get rid of fruit flies in drains and other secret breeding places. So, let’s get started!
Fruit Flies and Drain Flies Explained
- To let you know how to eliminate fruit flies in areas around your drainpipes, it first helps to know a little about the insects. What are fruit flies?
- Fruit flies are about 1/8 inch long, with red eyes and a tan or brownish body. They are interested in fruits or vegetables that have become too ripe or fermented, or in organic matter of any sort. Fruit flies lay eggs in decaying food, so it is not surprising that you often find them hovering over trash cans, compost bins, or fruit bowls.
What Are Drain Flies?
- Drain flies are often called moth flies, and are a little bigger than fruit flies, but rarely exceed any size more than 1/4 inch in length and have a fuzzy, moth-like appearance. They live anywhere that holds standing water and organic debris, for example with drains or septic tanks or in any other location where moisture tends to collect and stagnate. Just like fruit flies, drain flies are attracted to organic matter but like a more damp, decaying environment
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Why does Fruit Fly and Drain Fly like the Drains?
- All that an infesting pest requires to survive – moist environment, warmth, and organic material – one finds in a drain. And that is the organic debris that gathers in a drain, from food particles to soap scum, an ideal breeding medium for the flies. What is more, wet conditions in a drain are also ideal for laying eggs.
- Having understood why these flies require a home in your drains, we’ll head over to discuss the how to get rid of fruit flies in the drain and techniques you should use to get rid of these pests.
How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies in Drain: A Step-by-Step Guide
Step 1: Locate the Source of Infestation
First, identify the source. Check your drains but also check your trash cans, compost receptacles, or whatever place you keep or dispose of food. Having now established it as your drain, it is time to start eliminating them.
Step 2: How to clean your drains like a pro
In fighting how to get rid of fruit flies in the drain, you begin with making your drains fruit fly-free breeding grounds. Yearly, food waste and biological material accumulate in your pipes to become the best possible breeding ground for both fruit flies and drain flies.
So, here’s how you should clean your drains effectively:
1. Obvious debris removal: remove the obvious debris visible around the opening of your drain, starting with food debris or hair. All these are immediate sources of food for the flies you may want to get rid of.
2. Clean the Drain Use a long brush or a pipe brush to scrub the inside of the drain. Be sure to get down into the pipes that make the drain and clean out any buildup that may have taken place in those pipes. Special drain cleaning brushes can be found at most home goods stores.
3. Baking Soda and Vinegar: Baking soda and vinegar are a natural cleaner, which would break down organic matter as a source for fruit flies to colonize. Pour half a cup of baking soda down the drain, followed by half a cup of vinegar. Allow it to fizz and be there for 15 to 30 minutes, and then rinse through hot water. This loosens all of the organic buildup probably attracting fruit flies.
4. Drain Cleaner If it becomes too viscous then you will be obliged to buy a commercially available organic material-specific drain cleaner. Use an environmentally friendly as well as non-toxic one that will not hurt your pipes and the environment either.
Step 3: Seal Off Entry Points
Step 3: Eliminate Standing Water
Lastly, since flies are attracted to moisture, removing any standing water in your homes will be key when you want to know how to kill fruit flies in a drain. If you have other causes of standing water in the house, like a clogged sink, bathtub, or shower drain, clean them out.
Step 5: Bait traps to catch existing flies
Now that you have cleaned out your drain and closed every possible entry point, now comes the management part of the adult fruit flies. Installing a few traps will catch any remaining fruit flies and drain flies.
Fruit Fly Traps:
1. Apple Cider Vinegar Trap Use one small bowl. Fill it with a little apple cider and let the tiniest little dish soap fall into it. Fruit flies are attracted by the apple cider vinegar but end up trapped in the liquid when they land on the dish soap.
2. Red Wine Trap: Fruit flies also become attracted to red wine. Take some little red wine in a bowl and mix a few drops of dish soap. Leave overnight.
.3. Paper Cone Trap: Roll up a paper cone and place it inside a jar with apple cider vinegar. Flies will come but cannot get out of it.
Step 6: Schedule and Act for Regular Maintenance Clean
After getting rid of the flies, keep following a strict hygiene regime so you do not let a re-infestation happen again. Clean your drains once a week with boiling water and sometimes baking soda and vinegar, and remove food waste immediately so there is no source of standing water in your house.
Step 7: Professional Assistance
If all these do not result in eliminating fruit flies in your drain, then probably you should call in a professional plumber. Chronic infestations usually arise from deeper blockage or some problem in your plumbing that is merely acting as a breeding ground for fruit flies and drain flies. A plumber will clear those deeper blockages so you can enjoy the proper working drains again.
Drain Flies Control: Other Control Methods
It may be not fruit flies. Maybe, just maybe, the culprits are drain flies. If so it happens, then apart from all the treatments mentioned above do this:
1. Bio-Enzyme Cleaners Bio-enzymatic cleaners would do the job with ease, breaking down organic matter in pipes. It is some of the products used which take time to work over time. They’ll kill the organic buildup that drains flies reproduce in.
Regular flushing of your drains. An occasional flushing of your hot water or a mixture of vinegar and baking soda in the drains will help keep your drains free of organic buildup.
3. Covering the drains overnight: In case the infestation is extreme, you might cover your drains overnight when it comes to preventing the flies from entering. You will also know the source of the flies, especially if they are attracted to the drain at night.
4. Checking the Plumbing for Leaks: There should be no leaking pipes in the plumbing system. Leaks from pipes mostly create damp conditions. Such conditions promote the multiplication of drain flies.
Conclusion
The zones of the drain area fruit flies need more than cleaning and caulking to be eliminated. Instead, all the sources of moisture and organic debris source must be removed. This would rid the fruit flies out of the process and away from infesting you with any potential fruit fly or drain fly infestations in the future. Regular maintenance, vigilance, and traps should ensure that these pesky invaders do not make your kitchen and bathroom infested with them.
