In restaurants and bars, fruit flies are often found breeding in obscure difficult to find locations. To the human eye, the area can appear pristine, but to a fruit fly a restaurant kitchen is a land of unbridled opportunity. Restaurant floors are often cleaned by hosing down the floor with a hose. The pressure from the water hose can force organic debris into cracks and crevices on the floor. As this process is regularly repeated, the organic matter accumulates in corners and around the base of table legs, storage shelfs, and appliances. Accumulation of fruit and vegetable matter wrapped around the legs of a prep table can support fruit flies.
The gunk that drips out of a trash bag into the can is enough to support fruit flies. Spilled juice, bar mixers, and alcohol that accumulates under a blender or mixer is paradise for fruit flies. Loose tiles on the floor or backsplash can gather organic matter and harbor fruit fly eggs and larvae. Floor and sink drains, garbage disposals, and soda lines and drip pans are common areas for fruit flies to lay their eggs. In a small business environment, make sure someone is assigned trash and recycle duty. Empty soda bottles and apple cores left around will undoubtedly draw in the fruit flies.
Until all the breeding sites are located and cleaned fruit flies will continue to plague your restaurant or office break room. The adults you see are less than 10% of the total population. Once you know which drains the gnats are breeding in, you must deal with the root of the problem. A solid understanding of drain fly breeding grounds is necessary to completely eliminate these pests. The only way to get rid of drain flies for good is to eliminate their breeding sites.
Particularly in restaurants and bars, the rotting and decaying particles of food and drink are flushed down the drains, both in the sink and the floor drains. In restaurants, the most common moth fly breeding sites are sink and floor drains, grease traps, mops and mop tubs, and evaporation pans beneath the appliances. Rather than sticking to rotting fruits and vegetables favored by the fruit fly, phorid flies also will reproduce in ANY rotting liquidy organic matter.
Their favorite foods also include decaying flesh and feces. While this may seem unlikely in a restaurant kitchen or hospital cafeteria, consider for a moment the amount of raw meat that is brought into these areas every day. If a bit of raw hamburger is caught in the crevices of the prep table and remains stuck for any period of time phorid flies will be drawn inside. To eliminate phorid flies, you must locate the breeding site and clean it of any organic matter. Phorid flies are common both in mausoleums, and in garbage disposals.
Phorid flies are common in sewer pipes and sink and floor drains. They have been found breeding in mop buckets, and in that tight space where tables and large appliances meet the floor. Phorid flies will lay eggs in meat juice that has dripped from a garbage bag.
The gnats that circle the drains and hover over the fruit basket are technically flies. Gnat is a generic term for these small pesky flies that invade our homes and businesses. To understand how to get rid of these pests, it is first important to understand their life cycle. An understanding of how and where they breed is fundamental to controlling these pests both in a residential and a commercial setting. When a customer refers to gnats, they are usually referring to fruit flies, drain flies, phorid flies, or fungus gnats.
Each of these species of flies has the capacity for exponential reproduction if the life cycle is not interrupted. The only effective way to get rid of gnats for good is to eliminate the breeding sites. However, the organic material that fruit flies, drain flies, and phorid flies use as breeding grounds are rarely as obvious as a carcass or a raw meatball. These small flies, often generally referred to as gnats, are attracted to the organic matter that is not so readily apparent.
Specifically in commercial kitchens, the floors should be cleaned nightly with either a mop and bucket or by hosing the floor free of grease and debris. This cleaning procedure tends to push tiny particles of organic matter into hard to reach and hard to clean areas. Organic grime or sludge begins to accumulate in corners or uneven areas on the floor. Organic matter accumulates in the places where the tables and appliances meet the floor.
The floor and sink drains often have layers of goo and grime. These areas stay moist because of the nightly cleaning. Unless these areas are cleaned by hand on a regular basis, they will become prime breeding grounds for gnats of all kinds, phorid flies, drain flies, and fruit flies. Phorid flies breed anywhere moist rotting material is present. Outdoors, in nature, phorid flies breed in sewage contaminated soil, dead animal carcasses, and trash. However, indoors the breeding grounds are much more difficult to locate.
But, in order to get rid of these troublesome gnats, these locations must be tracked down and cleaned of the organic matter. Even a small area of grime, can support thousands of phorid fly larvae. It is not always accurate to assume that the breeding site is near where you observe the adult phorid fly. While they are not strong fliers, they tend to follow air currents and scatter about the location. In an infested structure, phorid flies often have more than one area where they lay their eggs. Do not stop looking once you have located one phorid fly breeding site, there are likely more sites close by.
Remember, that phorid fly larvae can only survive in moist conditions. In addition to the usual places such as garbage disposals and trash cans, carefully inspect plumbing and drains in both kitchens and bathrooms. Carefully inspect crawl spaces, wall voids near plumbing issues, and basements where moisture issues are known. Phorid fly breeding grounds can be notoriously complicated to locate. When people complain of gnats, they may actually be speaking of drain flies. Drain flies are also called sewer flies, sewer gnats, sink flies, or moth flies.
Sometimes phorid flies and fruit flies are incorrectly called Drain flies because they can come out of a drain. Drain flies do not bite, but do present an unsanitary appearance in your home or business. Drain flies also risk the spreading of pathogens and bacteria around your home or business. Drain flies are most commonly found resting on the walls of a bathroom with a seldom used sink, shower, or floor drain.
Female drain flies lay their eggs on the side of drains in the slime that accumulates on the surface. Without this slimy organic environment, drain flies cannot reproduce. In nature, moth fly larvae normally occur in aquatic habitats that experience intermittent submersion.
They reproduce in polluted, shallow water or highly moist organic solids where they feed on decaying organic material in mud, moss or water. The flies are poor fliers and usually are found close to the drain or area of origin. Moth fly larvae are known to live in drain traps, garbage disposals, toilet tanks, sides of drains and overflow pipes in homes, septic tanks and moist compost. They have also been found in dirty garbage containers, rain barrels and tree holes and other wet situations where organic material accumulates. Moth flies do not bite and are not known to transmit disease of any sort.
They're drawn to the sweet fruit smell, and when they try to land in the bowl the vinegar kills them. Sewer gnats are feeding off decomposing organics, which is one more opportunity to set a deadly trap for them. Like other gnats, drain flies develop through complete metamorphosis, meaning they complete egg, larvae, pupae, and adult stages. The drain fly can complete its life cycle in as few as eight days, but may take longer depending upon the conditions.
The female moth fly, or drain fly, will only lay her eggs on nearly saturated organic matter. She prefers the slimy gelatinous film common to overlooked drains. Once the eggs have been laid, they generally hatch in about 48 hours and emerge as drain fly larvae. Drain fly larvae cannot be disposed of by running water down the drain.
They have the unique ability to capture air bubbles and survive underwater for about a day. It is in your business' best interest to hire competent and professional support to combat and prevent drain flies from infesting your business. The single most effective way to prevent drain flies from returning is to use a drain cleaner regularly. Drain cleaning helps remove hair and other objects that have gotten trapped in your drains. These trapped organic materials are food for drain flies and it's what separates a clean drain from a drain fly breeding ground. It's important to remove their food source, so your drain doesn't become infested with drain flies.
For those critters, you'll want to check out our guide for how to get rid of gnats. Fruit flies usually appear light or dark brown in color with red eyes. If you're sure you've identified the critters correctly, then try one of these effective remedies to get rid of fruit flies in your kitchen. Most of the fruit flies in my home are coming from the kitchen and bathroom sink drains. I've used commercial (non-toxic) traps to catch the ones that have already hatched. To stop the eggs from hatching in the drains, I pour baking soda and vinegar down the drain.
I let that sit for a few minutes and then pour boiling water down the drain. Once that it done, I keep the drains closed to stop the ones that aren't killed from being able to fly out. When you spot any insect inside your house, it's best to take action immediately before they get a chance to multiply. Just like pesky fruit flies, annoying gnats, and even fleas, drain flies are another common household insect that, well, bugs us. Measuring a teeny one-eighth of an inch, drain flies tend to congregate around standing water.
Gray or taupe in color with small, rounded wings, they're also called moth flies, sewer flies, or filter flies. And contrary to what their name suggests, they don't actually "fly" as much as they hop from surface to surface. Drain flies surprisingly can live for up to three weeks, and new eggs can hatch every 48 hours or so.
For these very reasons, you should act fast to eliminate drain flies for good using DIY home solutions or store-bought products. If the source of your gnat issue was a dirty sink or floor drain, consider using an enzyme based drain treatment to keep it clean. By preventing the slime from accumulating in the threads and grooves and turns of the pipes and fittings, flies will have no place to develop and mature. A high quality enzyme drain cleaner is often a vital step to keeping your home or business free of flying gnats. These products come in various formulations, thick viscous gel that coats the drain, foam in an aerosol can, and a liquid cleaner that can be added to mop water.
These products contain live microbes and enzymes that eat the organic debris. These products usually have a pleasant citrus smell, and when used regularly, prevents grease and grime from accumulating. These all-natural microbial products are labeled for use in food prep areas, drains, dumpsters, kennels, and urinals. This versatile product is easy to apply wherever odor and organic sludge is a problem. Fruit fly infestations are not limited to a rotten potato or banana in the fruit basket.
When dealing with a fruit fly infestation a thorough inspection is necessary so that all of the breeding sites can be eliminated. After the inspection, a thorough cleaning of the cracks and crevices of the kitchen is often deemed necessary as well. Fruit flies are attracted to fermenting fruit and vegetable matter. Food prep areas of restaurants are packed with potential fruit fly breeding sites. Finding the breeding sources of phorid fly infestations is necessary. Finding these breeding sources is difficult, but removing breeding sources is the only viable long term solution.
Will Bleach Kill Fruit Flies In Drain This solution may include something as simple as throwing away a piece of rotting fruit found under the stove or cleaning a floor drain. The regular cleaning of floor drains crucial in preventing infestations of phorid flies and several other flies. Bleach and hot water WILL NOT eliminate fly larvae breeding in a drain. When small flies or gnats invade your home, you must locate the breeding site, clean it, and ensure it stays clean. It could be as simple as fruit flies laying eggs in the rotting peaches that are in your fruit basket. The problem could be that phorid fly larvae are thriving in the drip pan under the refrigerator.
Drains should be free flowing and clean of organic grime and gunk. Whether you are battling, phorid flies, drain flies, or fruit flies, the truth remains, eliminate the breeding location, you eliminate the gnat. One of the more common "gnats" found in the kitchen is the fruit fly. The fruit fly is strongly attracted to the smell of fermenting fruit. A beginning stage fruit fly infestation will make itself known when you open a bottle of wine.
Have you ever walked away from a glass of wine, only to come back a few hours later to find gnats, or fruit flies, floating on the surface? New research indicates that fruit flies use both their strong sense of smell, but also their eyes to locate the rotting or fermenting material. Fruit flies not only breed on fruit and vegetables, but they can breed in beer bottles, mops and cleaning rags, and garbage disposals. Due to their specific attraction to fermenting materials, fruit flies are often called vinegar flies. Vinegar traps are also a common way of initially reducing fruit populations. There are many different ways to get rid of drain flies.
The most effective at-home method is to use ammonia. Other ways to eliminate these nuisance insects are specialized drain cleaners, soaps, bleach, baking soda, vinegar, borax, salt, and professional pest control companies. We will explain each of these options in detail to help you rid your house of drain flies. Then it's time to really clean out that drain and remove anything that the flies are using to live in. It makes sense that the toxic solution with a lot of health warnings will kill tiny living organisms. However, it's also removing the food source which will in turn kill the flies.
Instead of Drano, use an enzyme drain cleaner, such as those highlighted below. The conditions that allow gnats to proliferate in a commercial kitchen also breeds roaches, ants, large flies, and possibly rodents. Any restaurant is at risk for pests in the kitchen and should invest in regular professional pest control service. Fly lights are always recommended for commercial kitchens. They not only help to catch an occasional fly that makes it past all other barriers, but they can act as a canary in the coal mine.
While fruit flies are not attracted to these fly lights, phorid flies can be. By regularly maintaining and checking the glue boards, you will know if a specific pest is increasing. With this knowledge, specialized treatment can begin before the infestation is severe. Small homeowner versions of fly light traps will be more effective for trapping adult phorid flies in the home. However, any trap or device for gnats will only capture a portion of the adults.
