Tiny (fruit?) flies, moths & maggots


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Old 10-10-11, 08:34 AM
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Tiny (fruit?) flies, moths & maggots

Hi,
I'm kinda freaked out because, all of a sudden, in the last month or so, we've had our first pest problem. We have a corridor at the back of our apartment, in which we're now finding 10-20 tiny black flies (they look like fruit flies) per day. They're generally dead or dying (our place was sprayed several months ago). [photo] You can see, we temporarily taped up a crack around the door frame, to see if it was relevant - no help.
In addition, we're finding a moth and maggot or two here and there, including in kitchen and corridor cupboards. The corridoor cupboard has food in it, as do some of the kitchen cupboards.
We've been through/behind all the cupboards, and haven't found a source of the infestation(s). They seem to be coming from the back door, but we can't really imagine where they could be living.
Can anyone offer any suggestions as to what's going on and/or how to solve it?!
Thanks,
Paul
 
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Old 10-10-11, 02:53 PM
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Welcome to our forums!

Small fruit fly type insects can often be found on moist and often sweet waste, they can also be found in potted plant soil.
We have had this problem and have pretty much wiped them out with a home remedy.

We took some sliced banana and placed in in a glass then covered the top securely with kitchen stretch wrap.
We then poked a few small round holes in the top of the wrap with a sharp pencil.

The fruit flies were attracted to the odor of the banana as it decomposed and found the holes to get into the glass.
For some reason they were unable to find the holes to leave and we collected dozens over the period of a couple of days.
If you try this place the glass with caught flies in the freezer for a few hours and then put it back out to catch more.

Ours has been out for about three days with the original banana and still catches a few.
We've torn the house apart and conclude they must be getting in from outside.
 
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Old 10-10-11, 02:54 PM
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The maggot is a moth larvae, the moth is an adult. You need to check infestible food products such as flour, cereal, nuts, pet food, corn meal, and throw away all infested boxes. Don’t stop when you find some, go thru all the products. Then clean the shelves, racks, etc. No need to spray them. If you have fruit flies in the same area, I would look for leaking cans in the cupboards. Tear into everything; it will take time, but don’t stop until all of it has been gone thru.
 
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Old 10-10-11, 08:51 PM
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terro makes a fruit fly trap. it looks like an apple and works great. We also use a pantry pest trap, looks like a box but uses a lure that last a decent amount of time. you really need to clean the pantry out and get rid of flour products, also you can be buying product with moths in them already.

My local Ace Hardware has the traps
 
 

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