drain fly riddance??

[Sam Seagate]

I've had these annoying flies for several years now and nothing I seem
to do gets rid of them. On the advice of an exterminator, I tried
spraying the drains with a spray called "Bac-A-Zap", but it didn't seem
to do much good and the flies have persisted. They seem to be all over
the house and at times won't leave me or other family members alone.
The best method I've found so far to at least take a bite out of their
quantity is putting up sticky fly paper at various spots around the
house, but aside from annoying the wife with their appearance, even they
don't get them all.

Any ideas would be welcome to get rid of these annoying things.

thanks,
Sam

[J Burns]

They're hard to kill because they are covered with hairs that repel
water. They breed in organic matter in drains.

Pulling any hair out can help. A snake or a drain-cleaning gel can help.
Some say bleach, boiling water, and vinegar don't work.

I like to maintain drains by pouring down a little baking soda, maybe a
tablespoon, adding an ounce or water, and letting it sit. Then I cover
the drain with a flap-style universal stopper and put in a couple of
inches of water. I remove the stopper and use a plunger.

I've had drain flies, but only briefly, so maybe my cleaning method works.

[notbob]

On 2015-08-18, Sam Seagate <sasea...@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Any ideas would be welcome to get rid of these annoying things.

http://bugasalt.com/

nb

[Oren]

Are you sure they are coming from the drain (s)? You can bring in
fruit flies from the market with produce or critters from a garden
center via plants or plants outside that you bring indoors.

Maybe you have P-trap drain pipes that dry out?

[Ameri...@sbcglobal.net]

Bac-A-Zap is simply a deodorizer. I've had success simply pouring water down the drain--lasts for about a week. Adding bleach helps too. Some drains seem to lose the water in the trap rapidly--could be due to a blocked stack pipe, wind blowing over the stack top or suction from another fixture pulling water from the trap. You can also try an indoor insect spray that has residual killing effect.

[Thomas]

On Tuesday, August 18, 2015 at 6:23:08 AM UTC-4, Sam Seagate wrote:
> I've had these annoying flies for several years now and nothing I >seem > do gets rid of them.

I noticed my almost empty coffee cup would sink a few. Just the other day I filled a salad bowl to the very top with a mocha coffee loaded with sugar. It did catch quite a few. More than I thought I had.
Bowl needs to be totally full so when they land on the lip the tension pulls them in. Give it a try.

[honda....@gmail.com]

I was battling drain flies for a couple of years, not knowing what was going on for many months. A few months ago, with a stench coming from beneath the kitchen sink, I took apart the drain piping and found the worms that beget the flies. I tried putting bleach down the drains. I tried vinegar. I tried vinegar and baking soda. I tried overnight soaks, blocking off the drains so I could let the various chemicals sit for several hours. Finally I found a web site that said to use an "enzyme" drain cleaner. From Home Depot, I purchased "Instant Power Commercial Drain Maintainer" advertised on the label as "bio-enzymatic with natural enzymes," made by Scotch Corporation, Product #1510. It has a "100% money back if I fail 'but I won't' " sticker on the gallon jug. It is also called "Instant Power Commercial Drain Cleaner," with the same product number (1510). I stopper'd the drain pipe under the kichen sink and let the pipes soak for 1.5 hours, mixing 1 part of the chemical to 2.5 parts water until I filled the drain pipes completely.

Usually I see half a dozen drain flies by noon. So far I have seen only one.

The staff at Home Depot also recommend the "Green Gobbler" products they have. The above products are among the drain cleaners in the plumbing section.

I paid $14 for the gallon jug at Home Depot.

[gfre...@aol.com]

On Tue, 19 Mar 2019 09:54:20 -0700 (PDT), honda....@gmail.com
wrote:

Septic or city sewer?

[Andy]

On Tuesday, August 18, 2015 at 5:23:08 AM UTC-5, Sam Seagate wrote:

I have a fly strip in each room. They really catch most of them.

The flies are a nuisance, but they come and go.

Andy

[honda....@gmail.com]

On Tuesday, March 19, 2019 at 12:19:24 PM UTC-6, gfre...@aol.com wrote:
> Septic or city sewer?

City sewer.

[gfre...@aol.com]

On Wed, 20 Mar 2019 07:58:03 -0700 (PDT), honda....@gmail.com
wrote:

>On Tuesday, March 19, 2019 at 12:19:24 PM UTC-6, gfre...@aol.com wrote:
>> Septic or city sewer?
>
>City sewer.

I suppose you could put a little insecticide in each trap to knock
them down. Once you break the cycle they will usually stay gone a
while but they are living in the sewer pipe. Be sure your traps are
staying full of water (no bad vents)

[honda....@gmail.com]

On Wednesday, March 20, 2019 at 10:43:28 AM UTC-6, gfre...@aol.com wrote:
> On Wed, 20 Mar 2019 07:58:03 -0700 (PDT), honda.lioness

> wrote:
>
> >On Tuesday, March 19, 2019 at 12:19:24 PM UTC-6, gfre...@aol.com wrote:
> >> Septic or city sewer?
> >
> >City sewer.
>
> I suppose you could put a little insecticide in each trap to knock
> them down. Once you break the cycle they will usually stay gone a
> while but they are living in the sewer pipe. Be sure your traps are
> staying full of water (no bad vents)

Thank you, Andy and gfre...@aol.com for sharing your experiences. I use all drains regularly, so I believe the three traps (in my small condominium) are staying full of water. The daily count of flies-that-go-to-heaven is down to about one-third of its recent peak. The temperatures have also dropped where I am, so my study may be biased.

Eggs laid, 30-100 per female fly. Hatch in two days.
Larva stage 8 to 24 days. Larvae can survive in low oxygen conditions.
Pupa stage one to two days.
Adults breed only once, usually right after emerging from the pupa.
Adults die after 3 to 4 days with no food. If food is available, they will live around 7 to 21 days with liquid carbohydrates available.

https://agrilife.org/extensionento/publications/drain-flies/

I have a couple of plastic containers near the drains with a mixture of apple cider vinegar, sugar and a drop of dishwashing soap (for fragrance) that usually catch a fly or two each day at this point.

I have repeated once so far the multi-hour soaks of the piping upstream of the traps, using the Home Depot bio-enzymatic drain cleaner. I have been using the bulb of a turkey baster and a hose clamp to stopper off the drain pipes and do these soaks, just above where they join the u-traps. This approach is a little easier than taking apart all the drain piping beneath the sinks and scouring with a brush. (I have dis-assembled and scoured in the recent past.)

[scienti...@gmail.com]

>
> Eggs laid, 30-100 per female fly. Hatch in two days.
> Larva stage 8 to 24 days. Larvae can survive in low oxygen conditions.
> Pupa stage one to two days.
> Adults breed only once, usually right after emerging from the pupa.
> Adults die after 3 to 4 days with no food. If food is available, they will

No wonder the suckers are so hard to get rid of.
:-)

Andy

Need to find a way to trap them and make them turn a wheel and generate some electricity.

[honda....@gmail.com]

Andy, yessir.

In addition to treatments with the aforementioned drain cleaner, I also now:

-- cover all three drains in my condo , per the advice of this fellow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px_f0JbwIrU&list=UU4bKk4PGekB_Wzqg5I1v8QA&index=1&feature=plcp


-- run the dishwasher once a week. The principal locale of infestation a few months ago was the 7/8" dishwasher drain hose, running from the dishwasher to the in-sink garbage disposal. I replaced the hose with a new one cut from a roll at Ace Hardware. The hose has printed on it that it is for dishwasher drains.

I now see maybe one fly every couple of days. I will cut back on all the treatments in a month or two and see what happens.