How would you totally eradicate a winter infestation of fruit flies in kitchen?

[Grasswire2]

Egad.
It's been weeks now.
The usual efforts have not been successful. A sticky fly strip, keeping everything wiped down and covered.
They are even in my fridge.
I'm tired of them.

[Lifeafter70]

1. Do you flush your sink drain with vinigar or disinfectant?

They tend to breed in the drains.
At work we would get them in the mop sink. Our plumber suggested doing this on a regular basis. We use a sanitizer but vinegar should work.

[Grasswire2]

5. no, and that likely points out a flaw in my response

I am in the habit of putting a dirty dish awaiting cleaning in the sink. I don't have a dishwasher, and usually wash dishes once a day.
But I don't see the buggers in the sink. I see them on the fresh fruit bowl (even though the fruit is covered with a towel. Wow they love bananas.

[Pisces]

2. A jar with apple cider vinegar with holes poked thru the lid. Put jar by the infestating 24 hr later should

Be cleared up

[CentralMass]

6. Yes. This works exceptionally well. Id suggest adding a small amount, a few drops, of dish washing liquid to the vinegar

It will change the surface tensi9n of the vinegar.

[OAITW r.2.0]

7. Wow, I wish I knew this last fall. Don't know why....no fruit exposed, just potato's/onions.

I will try this out next year.

[Marthe48]

9. They like onions

and probably, if the potatoes are going they like that too

[Grasswire2]

14. that was my very first action, weeks ago

Didn't work this time.

[Lovie777]

3. Irish Spring soap....

Graded. Put the graded chips in open small containers around the kitchen. That may help plus it smells good to humans, not so much for gnats, flies and fruit flies.

I hope it helps.

[CentralMass]

4. If you have something like dixie cups or small containers, put

some apple cider vinegar and just a little dish detergent into them. Then cover the opening with either saran wrap or aluminum foil abd puch dome hole in it with a toothpick.
Place them all over the place. The vinegar will attract the fruit flies and they will enter into the holes that get trapped. This works really weill.

[Native]

8. This worked great for me

and it doubles as a night light. I have a counter top compost bin on my kitchen counter. This is the only thing that has really worked for me. They have these at Walmart, Home Depot, etc.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/2407345071?sid=eca1d2de-b138-43fb-9360-dcdb4aeb1bbd

[Lulu KC]

10. Hand vacuum cleaner

Works very well. The one I had, I would then have to go outside and let them out of the machine because I was afraid they'd find their way out.

I also did all the things you did before I got desperate and tried it. You might have to do it daily for 3 days, but they have pretty short lives so it doesn't go on forever.

However, last year I discovered that some had decided to set up a household in a house plant! Go figure. For that, the sticky traps and some diluted hydrogen peroxide did the trick.

[kimbutgar]

11. Great suggestions I'm bookmarking

I had them also where I live but when the weather got colder they went away!

[sinkingfeeling]

12. I have a Zevo that takes care of all inside insects. You can

alao find those little apple shaped traps by Terro in almost all grocery stores.

[July]

20. Seconding this.

I’ve used a Zevo trap for while, and we had a bugless summer for once.

[Marthe48]

13. The vinegar works

or stale beer, or sweet pickle juice. Putting some bleach down your drain will help if they are drain flies. Rinsing your dishes will eliminate a food source.
I wash all of the fruits and vegetables I bring home, because even if you don't see the flies, there might be eggs on the produce and they hatch fast. If I see fruit flies in the produce section of a store, I buy produce somewhere else.
If I wash bananas, I lightly dry them, and put them in a rack to air dry a little more. Then I store them in the microwave or oven.
A last resort would be to put the wand on your vacuum and vacuum up as many as you can. My daughter gets cluster flies in the fall, and we all are pretty good at reducing the population in the house.

There are some things I don't like in the house and flies of any kind are No. 1 on the list.

Hope some of the advice helps.

[tulipsandroses]

15. Bright yellow gnat/ fly traps - they work a lot better than regular fly strips.

I had a gnat infestation from hell after buying a new house plant a few months ago. Beautiful peace Lilly. I ended up getting rid of it but man the gnats took over. Had to be about 500 in the house in a few days.
I bought the gnat traps on Amazon a few months ago. The whole pack was about $5 and there is way more than you will need in the pack - I have never seen them in stores but they can probably be found online somewhere other than Amazon if you are avoiding Amazon.
I didn't think it would work but I was shocked at how effective they are -I attached about 6 to paper cups, added vinegar in the cups and set them at different locations around the house - they are more attracted to Apple Cider vinegar. I tried regular vinegar first, didn't work as well as the Apple Cider. In less than a week they were all gone, stuck to the bright yellow traps.

I tried vinegar alone before I got the gnat traps, only a few would end up in the vinegar. But pairing the vinegar with the yellow gnat traps was the trick.

[forgotmylogin]

16. I bought plug in UV traps.

It’s like a plug in night light with a UV bulb to attract them and a replaceable sticky card to trap them.

https://www.saferbrand.com/safer-home-indoor-fly-trap-sh502

[Tetrachloride]

17. dry ice

anteater

brussel sprouts

expecto patronum

[Grasswire2]

18. brussel sprouts made me laugh so hard I scared the cat

LOL

[Midnight Writer]

19. Boiling water or bleach down the drain. That is where they nest. Usually wipes them out in a couple of days.

May have to repeat a few times, but it works very well.