Beer Flies

[benchick]

Ok, just moved into a new house, have put down a couple of batches over the last couple of months and now iv got beer/fruit flies buzzing around the house, in particular my fermentors, beer in glass, coke etc. iv tried everything except professional spraying. have bleached the drains (this worked well but they came back in a couple of weeks) , got rid of all fruit, cleaned house and pantry out of any spills, have used a bug zapper and a mist sprayer which do nothing at all, checked and sealed all my grains, but they keep coming back, my missus is going nuts. anyone else had problems with these before? i have brewed for years and have never seen anything like it. could it be the trub that i flush down the drain as bleaching definately slowed them down.

 

[JestersDarts]

Sounds like theyre there to stay.

Move house again.

 

[razz]

Have a look over at your neighbours chicky, it maybe something in another yard.

 

[nickel]

Sounds like vinegar flies I have them at my too at my place, When I was a cellarhand in the wine game we used chloride once a week too scrub the floors clean any wine or juice residue that might be hiding on the floor. And they don't like sulphur as well.

 

[barneyb]

Ah fruit flies, my nemesis. The bad news is it is pretty much impossible to get rid of them forever, but you can get pretty close.

Get a short glass (the size of the glass you get at the pub with your rum + coke) and fill it up a centimeter or two with cider vinegar. Put a drop or two of dish washing liquid into the vinegar.

Next cut a circle out of paper, and cut a slit halfway down the middle of the circle and move one side of the slit over the other to make a funnel. The circumference of the funnel should be at least as big as the lip of the glass. Tape the funnel together and cut a little whole in the bottom, big enough for a fruit fly to go through. Next tape the funnel to the glass so the only way in is through the small hole you cut in the bottom.

Now the fruit flies will smell the cider vinegar (it's quite potent), find their way into the hole but won't be able to get out. When they eventually land on the vinegar they will fall in and drown as the dish washing liquid will have broken the surface tension of the vinegar.

Whenever we had fruit fly outbreaks I would set a couple of these up and there would be 50 of the buggers in each in the morning. I had tried everything to get rid of them but this was the only thing that worked, and it works brilliantly, it is fruit fly genocide.

While this will get rid of them for the time being, chances are they will come back, but just set some traps again and they will be gone. Of course make sure you don't leave any fruit out in the open, either keep it in your fridge or in a tupperware container etc.

 

[benno1973]

Thankyou thankyou thankyou....

Will try the vinegar traps. We have a compost bin inside (temporary storage before it gets taken to the outside compost) so there's no way we will ever be rid of them, but I'd like to at least 'control' the numbers. I have 2 floating in my airlock at the moment. An alternative to the glass/funnel is cutting the top off a PET bottle (coke bottle etc), turning the top upside down and fitting it back into the base of the PER bottle, and taping it up, kinda like this...

 

[benchick]

awesome, will give the vinegar a shot, i initially put some banana in a container with small holes in it to see what i was dealing with and they went nuts on it, it also seems like they breed in the drains on the trub i wash down their, if they arnt buzzing around the fermentors air lock they seem to be around the sinks a fair bit, and they definately like the malt in my brews as i have to cover my glass to keep them out, really is doing my head in. would getting pest control in be able to kill the problem perminately? or maybe some kind of pest bomb? iv done thorough searchs on the net and farmers have to spray with pesticides to control their crops but for me that would be a last resort.

 

[Yob]

just a small tip, I always head down the road a but to rinse out the trub... down to the drain at the bottom of the street and get rid of it there, at least that way if they come for it they only annoy my neighbours .. I also have a mozzie net I hang under my yard umbrella so when I need to do stuff I can at least drop the mozzie net to sheild me a little..

good luck
:icon_cheers:

 

[benchick]

thanks for all your help, just went and bought some apple cidar vinegar and some more bleach, will set 3 traps with 2l coke bottles and re-bleach the drains, fingers crossed it works, the last thing i need is the missus having an excuse to stop me from brewing.

 

[benchick]

The trap is set......

 

[WSC]

They don't like Basil either.

I put fresh basil in our compost bin and it deters them, doesn't completely get rid of them but they have stopped landing in my beer.....which was really shitting me off

 

[barneyb]

Good luck, let me know how it goes!

 

[zabond]

I just tell em the kegs run out & they go home!! opps sry wrong beer fly's

 

[benchick]

So it worked. Better than expected too. Have caught about 200 flies in 6 hours in 1 trap alone, the little buggers cant resist apple cider vinegar by the looks of it. Will put some fresh traps out over night and im guessing it will be problem solved for the time being. Who would think something so simple would be so effective.

 

[QSR]

Is your beer in kegs by any chance?....or bottles. The reason I ask is that if I don't clean the drip tray out after each session, I get swarmed with the buggers. For me, a clean drip tray = no flies on me!!

 

[benchick]

Its the airlocks on the fermentors that they love and any glass of beer i pour, i have to skull my drinks before they fly into it which probably isnt a bad thing really, and they seem to hang around the sinks a fair bit too.

 

[benchick]

Is your beer in kegs by any chance?....or bottles. The reason I ask is that if I don't clean the drip tray out after each session, I get swarmed with the buggers. For me, a clean drip tray = no flies on me!!

oh and yeah i keg my beer but my drip tray is always clean so thats not a problem, i ferment in my spare room which is where they have been infesting mainly.

 

[QSR]

Just a thought from my own experience

 

[MHB]

The thing to remember about fruit flies is that they eat yeast; so naturally they are attracted to fermentation products because they think food will be where the smell are coming from.

One of the best baits for a trap is a bit of fermenting beer.

MHB

 

[barneyb]

So it worked. Better than expected too. Have caught about 200 flies in 6 hours in 1 trap alone, the little buggers cant resist apple cider vinegar by the looks of it. Will put some fresh traps out over night and im guessing it will be problem solved for the time being. Who would think something so simple would be so effective.

Good to see another successful fruit fly extermination. Those buggers gave me hell for years!

I'm no hippie (not that there's anything wrong with that) but I'm honestly starting to believe that there is a simple and organic solution to most pest problems.

Snails/Slugs in garden - beer traps
Caterpillars in tomatoes - Garlic and vinegar spray
Those small german cockroaches - sticky paper traps
Fruit flys - cider vinegar.

All these problems I first tried with chemicals to no avail, except for the tomatoes as I don't like the idea of spraying my food with insecticide!