How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies

Step 5 Which is the Best?

I caught one or two flies in each of the first three traps.
The wine bottle wasn't supposed to be a trap. I left it out by accident at the other end of the counter. All the flies flew in there and died.

Now I can't do any more experiments.

Fermentation of wine releases carbon dioxide which is heavier than air. I suppose they flew down into the CO2 and suffocated.

And that's it!
After having a fruit fly infestation for almost a year, an accidental trap wipes them out!!
Here's a photo down the neck of the bottle.

Comments

[BitterBanana]

i use coke bottle.more cheap

[ethermeister]

what kind of wine was it? red or white? in the photo of the outside of the bottle it looks like red wine but the photo of the inside looks like white wine.

[tkjtkj]

a friend once found in her attic an OLD bottle of Lafite Rothschild red wine .. woulda been PERFECT fruitfly bait ..
Seriously! ...cuz we looked it up in the big book .. it said sorta like :
"We are amazed that the Rothschild family had the NERVE actually to sell this vintage to the public!"
so.. poooof went her dreams of millionairedom

[EmmettO]

So the question is, is it the co2 or the alcohol that killed them? A soda bottle mostly emptied would serve as a good test to the co2 hypothesis. I usually use the inverted cone traps but I've never used wine. Maybe a combination of the wine and inverted cone would work even better.

[Minifig666]

Or dry ice, just put some in a bottle. Apparently you can get it in the supermarkets in the US. Not in the UK as far as I know. Does anyone where can you get dry ice in the UK?

[tkjtkj]

as an aside, the CO2 , which is heavier than air, will gather at the bottom, as the dry ice sublimates (turns directly into a gas without going thru a water phase) and stays at the bottom even if uncovered .. for how long before kinetic energy of the CO2 molecules make it disperse, i've no idea ... Easy to test for though!

When i see fruit flies wearing scuba gear, I'll rethink the suitability of the dry ice plan!

[Pilgrimm]

Hi, I do not know of ANY supermarkets in the USA that sell dry ice... but you can sometimes buy it from large wine & beer retailers. Best bet is to check the "Yellow Pages," or google 'dry ice.'

[skd4853]

We actually can buy dry ice in our grocery stores. I just bought some for Halloween at our local Hy-Vee. Self service about 4.99 for a 5 lb block.
:D

[rainger]

Dry Ice is very common at grocery stores. Safeway, Fred Meyer, Albertson's etc. usually have a small cooler in the front near the customer service counter. Some let you pick it out, other stores require an employee to do it. There is a set of thick cotton gloves in the cooler, and you pay by the pound. It's about $0.70/lb. here in Washington. Another source here in town is the welding supply shop. It is used in many mechanical applications.

[Pilgrimm]

Hi again, They say you learn something new every day. The expression on my face, upon reading your reply to my note, could best be described as: "No Kidding??" The stores you mention are not common in the northeast, although I have seen Safeway stores in other parts of the country. However, since you mention them, I must say that I have never, ever, seen a cooler containing dry ice for sale (nor the required heavy gloves). When I have purchased it, on rare ocassions, it was about the same price you mention, but someone always brought it out to my car for me. I was usually buying 150 - 200 lbs for a restaurant with a failed cooler... Your reply was nonetheless interesting. Many thanks!

[MrCantThinkOfAName]

Ive actually seen dry ice "coolers" or containers at Walmart, Krogers,Publix, and a few other places, i live down south, idk where you are, but it may be just more common down here

[TBR]

Meijer for sure has it… the huge 24hr places - pretty sure in NE or even Giant Eagle.

[Sniperslayr]

It kind of makes sense that flies would be most attracted to wine since it smells of fruit. I suspect the reason they fell in is because glass is smooth and because ethanol significantly reduces the surface tension of water.

[dupontsalter]

CO2 HAS to be heavier than oxygen: O2: CO2 has 2 oxygen molecules + 1 carbon molecule; oxygen only has 2 oxygen molecule, no carbon. Anne

[dejure]

Thanks for the potential solutions. We live in farming country and once the harvest season starts it goes through October.

In April, the asparagus was in. Now, in May, the combines just harvested the first of the sweet pea crops. Cherries are next and it will just keep going. Dehydrating and canning mean any dreams of a "clean kitchen" is a fools dream. The only solution is battle, which, sometimes, requires the use of the shop vac.

As an aside, I collect the shop vac tubes at garage sales and can extend mine out about twenty feet. When I come across a hornet or wasp lair, I set the tubes up against the entrance and turn the vac on for an hour or two. This seems to work best toward the end of the day, when they are returning.

If you do vacuum wasp and hornets, it goes without say that opening the vac too soon may not be the best plan. On the other side, a large nest dead in your vac can get surprisingly "ripe" (words of experience).

[kerry07]

exactly this worked for us as well - the red wine! (we did it with a glass that we had to cover for moving it with tons of drunken fruit flies in there; a bottle might even work better as you described!)

[gregnjny]

So what about Method 1 (inverted cone) with wine at the bottom...?

[umbepo]

Isn't CO2 not heavier than air? If it were, global warming wouldn't be caused by CO2.

[EmmettO]

You're thinking of ozone depleting gases. co2 does not have to be high in the atmosphere to trap heat. If you ever get a chunk of dry ice, put it in a cup and let it sit for a while. Then light a small candle and pour the invisible contents of the cup onto the candle and it should go out. At the very least you'll see the flame deform under the falling gas.

[orksecurity]

CO2 is heavier than the usual atmospheric mix. Diffusion, and normal airflow due to winds etc., keeps the atmosphere pretty well mixed. And global warming is an effect of the total column of air, not just the uppermost layers.

[rhaver]

CO2 is heavier than air. This is what enables us to ferment wine, beer, cider, etc. You put your mushed grapes in a container, then as the yeast converts natural sugars into alcohol, the by product is the CO2 which sits on top of the mush/liquid preserving the grapes by way of a CO2 buffer... Otherwise, all you would have is rotten grapes at the end of 8 weeks.

[alex-sharetskiy]

I think Co2 in the atmosphere is heated hotter then normal air, so it rises, or not, i'm not a scientist

[dredawg]

I think that you "caught" more in the wine bottle because simply put, they had time to breed in it. Sure some werent so lucky and died but for every dozen that you caught, another 100 had an opportunity to escape. I had no fruit flys one day and because of an almost empty bottle of wine, had an investation overnight. Best solution is to clean your damn house first, take out the emptys and gargage, beer bottles, cans, pop bottle, etc) then proceeed to hunt the buggers down. They fly slow and predictably land high up on walls and cupboards. Use a newspaper / magazine / flyswatter and have at them. Theres only a finite amount but it may take a while depending on your speed (and your family getting annoyed at all the smashing sounds). Once you think you have most of them (and trust me this method wont get all of them sneeky basterds) then use the inverted cone method, in a CLEAN kitchen (since this is usually where the infestation begins).

[sires6]

Fruit flies don't breed in alcohol. You had another source than your bottle of wine and were seeing the second generation coming out. They are attracted to the fruit in the wine, but the alcohol content kills them since, technically, alcohol is a poison. And if you have little random annoying flies flying around, vacuum them up. Just take the hose and such them out of the air... it's very efficient and your family won't fuss quite as much as they think you are actually cleaning.

[selena_1977]

i did the vacuum cleaner thing but with limited success. I swear the little buggers learn to hide at the sound of the vacuum. After the first few attempts to suck the little buggers up I stopped finding them until after I put the vacuum away. I made a home made fruit fly trap with a banana, vacuum cleaner and packing tape. Problem solved.

[TimAnderson]

Post pictures! you made your vacuum into a trap?

[selena_1977]

well, it's not really that exciting. I just taped the hose end to the counter and placed a peice of banana in front of it. The flies came to the banana and I'd stealthily switch on the vacuum, and aha! Flies got sucked into the vacuum cleaner. It only took around three tries before the flies completely disappeared and never came back. That was a few years ago before I could afford a camera of any sort. SO sorry, no pics.

[9.6 Volts]

have any suggestions for flies around compost?

[dredawg]

Flies around compost are natural, and part of the process that decomposes organic material. If you have one though, it should be as far away from the house as possible so they dont migrate indoors. Outside flies shouldnt bother you.

[bchuck]

Thanks! (for helping dirty college students)