Fruit fly type bugs always appear in the kitchen when the weather heats up

pest-control

I have lived in my house for two springs/summers now and each time when the weather heats up it seems like the fruit fly type bugs just start spreading around the house like crazy, mostly from the kitchen. I have a regular pest control guy and he suggested pouring bleach down the drains. That, combined with a trap using apple cider vinegar seems to contain them sort of well, I have to pour the bleach down the drains on a regular basis and redo the trap as it fills up quickly. Also, I make sure to put away all food so it's not like I have a bunch of stuff out on the counters.

They obviously hang out/breed in the drains and my kitchen has a sink with two drains (really both meet up and go down the same pipe) and I don't have a garbage disposal.

Would a disposal help at all? Is there anything I can do to keep this from being a problem again? The weather is heating up again and I really don't want to deal with this another year.

Best Answer

These small flies are very hard to keep out because they are so small, so I think looking for what is attracting them is a better long term solution. This is a guess, but I think that using bleach in the drain is probably masking the scent of what is truly attracting them. A small flying insect making it's way through a water-filled P-Trap under the sink is unlikely, and unless you also have a sewer smell coming from the sink, the P-trap is probably working correctly.

Look for dead portions of houseplants, fruit or veggies that have fallen behind a cabinet or the fridge or in the cracks next to the stove, etc. Clean, clean, clean. Pull out the stove and the fridge and clean. Empty out the cabinet under the sink and clean that very well. Pull out everything from the pantry and get rid of the expired stuff, and clean.

I'm in Texas as well and anytime we have had tiny little flies at our house or my mother in law's, its been from potatoes that were forgotten or something else that was leaking or rotting out of site that we didn't know about.