Little Black Flies

[Lindsay Dive]

Can anybody tell me what these nasty little black flies are that always appear right when you are dropping sweet wort from one fermenter to another?
They want to get right in there!
Is there any way of having a 'lure' aside so they don't get into your brew.
I hate them with a passion. What are they??

 

[delboy]

they are probably vinigar flies.

do you have fruit around your kitcheb when doing your brews or alot of fruit trees in or around you even grape vines ?

anyway if they get in they will only add body? (wings legs) LoL :blink:

get your self a uv bug century from bigw or kmart and turn it on 1 hr before you brew about 10 meters away from where you are working .it works for me .
the bugs like the light and get zapped .

delboy

 

[Lindsay Dive]

We are no where near any orchards and there are not too many fruit trees around our place. And to top that off, I brew under the house in a part of the garage.
Mongrels, I hate them.

 

[T.D.]

Little bastards they are. They will infect your beer with minimal effort. I hate them with a passion! :angry:

 

[DrewCarey82]

Bug zapper and do ur brew of a night, they attracted to it like well....

Bugs to a bug zapper!!!

 

[muga]

Got them around here too, they will smell anything sweet from miles away, they are real bastards.

I remember they did a test by putting a heap of fruit out about 10KM off-shore and they flew all the way out there to get to it, it's amazing that they could pick up the smell from that far away.

 

[PhilS]

I sometimes have one of these buggers stuck in the air lock. Mortein seems to fix them

 

[Peter Wadey]

Lindsay,
Other sources of decaying vegetable matter - worm farms & compost bins.
An overfed worm farm is a great place for a vinegar fly infestation.

Don't know of a lure off the top of my head. If you can't find the source or a lure/ cure an alternative to an open drop from the top of the freezer to the fermenter below would be a tube with a venturi into the 2nd fermenter, and then cover it with a cloth. More washing & sanitising though - & who needs THAT!

Take a sticky over the fence.

Pete

 

[Gerard_M]

Lindsay
Yes there is a commercially available trap for them, we used to have heaps of these little traps under the bar at The Family Inn at Rydalmere. I don't know the name, but any professional pest exterminator will know what you are after.
An insect zapper will wipe out everything, & if you start doing that there will be no insects for the birds to eat. Our new place has a mozzie problem out the back & one remedy has been to attract more birds to the garden!

 

[Lindsay Dive]

Are we convinced that they are in fact Vinegar Flies?

 

[normell]

Catch 1, see if they taste like VINEGAR

 

[yard glass]

I always have 2or3 in the airlock.
thought they were fruit fly.

i will taste one later

 

[Lindsay Dive]

Lindsay,
Other sources of decaying vegetable matter - worm farms & compost bins.
An overfed worm farm is a great place for a vinegar fly infestation.
Pete

[post="91564"][/post]​

Pete, you have clearly pointed me in the right direction.
It seems I have a catch 22 situation here. These little black bastards are obviously breeding in my compost bin which is overflowing from spent grain.
Hmmmm.....it's war time.
Googled the fly...take a look

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2109.html

What are the other alternatives for getting rid of spent grain? Now I need a bloody ute!