Drain flies somebody please help me!

[Twitchy15]

We moved into our place June 2023, I don’t remember having them but busy with move and baby.

We had some small bugs I thought it was just from our plants. Then started to notice the bugs were around sinks and after looking into it figured out they are drain flies.

I’ve tried baking soda vinegar , drain fly gel cleaner bs, boiling water daily. Sometimes it gets a bit better but has been worsening lately and haven’t been actively doing these things cause it seemed better for awhile.

Seems like when it’s cold out we don’t experience as much of an issue. Has anyone dealt with this before? What’s the best way to deal with them. We don’t have that many but it’s enough that it’s frustrating and gross. Lately since it’s worsening could kill like 10 ish a day maybe more.

Our house is old so was thinking first step is hiring someone to clean all the drains professionally. We have them usually in the kitchen our master bedroom bathroom our backdoor? Which is strange basement as well that has two sinks and shower and floor drain.

Any opinions or ideas?

[getbak]

I've used these: https://www.amazon.ca/Green-Gobbler-.../dp/B0B61XHRVM

You drop the sticks down the drain and it's supposed to eat up any organic material stuck in the traps. It seemed to work well for me.

[ken0042]

For the boiling water, did you hit ALL of the drains? I missed a couple; including the one in the floor by the furnace.

We also bought one of these:
https://www.amazon.ca/YISSVIC-Electr...CT2GYMMP/?th=1
We leave it on all the time on the stand. We put a piece of white paper underneath it to count the bodies.

[Twitchy15]

Originally Posted by ken0042

For the boiling water, did you hit ALL of the drains? I missed a couple; including the one in the floor by the furnace.

We also bought one of these:
https://www.amazon.ca/YISSVIC-Electr...CT2GYMMP/?th=1
We leave it on all the time on the stand. We put a piece of white paper underneath it to count the bodies.

Some drains we don’t use often and I’ve straight up painters taped them shut lol. So no I didn’t hit every single drain. The ones that we barely use of just tape shot in the floor drain I did not put boiling water on that one, but I did take a #### last night most of the times I’ve been dealing with it before I hadn’t done anything with it. Did the boiling water eventually work? I’m hoping to get rid of them forever if that’s even possible or do you just have that zap or noun? How many of them do you have or just have one single one?

[Twitchy15]

Originally Posted by getbak

I've used these: https://www.amazon.ca/Green-Gobbler-.../dp/B0B61XHRVM

You drop the sticks down the drain and it's supposed to eat up any organic material stuck in the traps. It seemed to work well for me.

What I’ve been looking for products that this product has come up, so maybe I’ll try it out if it if it’s worked for you thanks for the suggestion.

[bizaro86]

I had a tenant midnight move on me and leave a place totally gross. All the drains had flies.

We made apple cider vinegar traps that worked well. Basically just apple cider vinegar in a bowl with some dish soap. Then cover with plastic wrap and poke holes. They can get in but not out, and when they touch the vinegar the soap means they drown.

Combine that with constantly cleaning the drains and you should get them. I'd do baking soda/white vinegar treatments on each drain, then boiling water every day.

[Wormius]

Do you have any indoor plants too? Might need to toss them or repot with clean soil.

[SutterBrother]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

I had a tenant midnight move on me and leave a place totally gross. All the drains had flies.

We made apple cider vinegar traps that worked well. Basically just apple cider vinegar in a bowl with some dish soap. Then cover with plastic wrap and poke holes. They can get in but not out, and when they touch the vinegar the soap means they drown.

Combine that with constantly cleaning the drains and you should get them. I'd do baking soda/white vinegar treatments on each drain, then boiling water every day.

TL;DR - call a pest control pro.

I did all the DIY stuff listed here.

Apple cider vinegar traps are satisfying as the body count piles up... but you never get ahead. Used them for like a year.

Boiling water didn't do anything. I assumed they were coming out of the overflow drains as well which was more difficult to hit, and after you splash yourself with boiling water a couple times, you get tired of it.

Zapper traps - similarly satisfying, but don't get you ahead of the problem.

Covered some drains, never seemed to make any difference. Would have them flying around in rooms with drains that were covered.

Eventually I called a cousin who works for a pest control company, and they came out and sprayed some stuff that required us to be out of the house for a couple hours.

Haven't had a problem since. Cost a couple hundred bucks. Worth it IMO. If I ever have a problem again (outside of the first year which is under "warantee") I'm just calling and getting it handled.

[Trojan97]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Do you have any indoor plants too? Might need to toss them or repot with clean soil.

This was the answer for us when we ran into a similar problem to OP. We swapped out the soil and bought some of those cheap sticky traps to catch the rest and the combination worked for us 100% after a couple weeks.very annoying problem until we figured it out

[Titan2]

Originally Posted by SutterBrother

TL;DR - call a pest control pro.

I did all the DIY stuff listed here.

Apple cider vinegar traps are satisfying as the body count piles up... but you never get ahead. Used them for like a year.

Boiling water didn't do anything. I assumed they were coming out of the overflow drains as well which was more difficult to hit, and after you splash yourself with boiling water a couple times, you get tired of it.

Zapper traps - similarly satisfying, but don't get you ahead of the problem.

Covered some drains, never seemed to make any difference. Would have them flying around in rooms with drains that were covered.

Eventually I called a cousin who works for a pest control company, and they came out and sprayed some stuff that required us to be out of the house for a couple hours.

Haven't had a problem since. Cost a couple hundred bucks. Worth it IMO. If I ever have a problem again (outside of the first year which is under "warantee") I'm just calling and getting it handled.

Give cousin's company a shout out.

[RichieRich]

Originally Posted by Trojan97

This was the answer for us when we ran into a similar problem to OP. We swapped out the soil and bought some of those cheap sticky traps to catch the rest and the combination worked for us 100% after a couple weeks.very annoying problem until we figured it out

similar here, also put the home-made traps out, and put stuff down the sinks, AND most satisfying of all was getting the vacuflo out with the long wand and 2-3x daily going around the house and sucking them out of the air... from windows, plants, sinks, ledges, etc...


OH, and we also found that fruit/veggies kept in the pantry/countertop also was a bad idea so those were removed for a couple weeks.


Did I mentioned how satisfying (and effective) the vacuum system was?

[Twitchy15]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Do you have any indoor plants too? Might need to toss them or repot with clean soil.

we have lots of plants.. I was thinking they bred in the drains can they breed in plants to? That might be the next step getting clean soil but I guess if they come from the drains to they might just end up in the clean soil again

[Blaster86]

Stop being such a messy slob, you messy slob.

[Twitchy15]

Originally Posted by SutterBrother

TL;DR - call a pest control pro.

I did all the DIY stuff listed here.

Apple cider vinegar traps are satisfying as the body count piles up... but you never get ahead. Used them for like a year.

Boiling water didn't do anything. I assumed they were coming out of the overflow drains as well which was more difficult to hit, and after you splash yourself with boiling water a couple times, you get tired of it.

Zapper traps - similarly satisfying, but don't get you ahead of the problem.

Covered some drains, never seemed to make any difference. Would have them flying around in rooms with drains that were covered.

Eventually I called a cousin who works for a pest control company, and they came out and sprayed some stuff that required us to be out of the house for a couple hours.

Haven't had a problem since. Cost a couple hundred bucks. Worth it IMO. If I ever have a problem again (outside of the first year which is under "warantee") I'm just calling and getting it handled.

We did look into this but didn't love spraying chemicals where ever in the house and being out for a few hours we have a toddler and two little dogs. But might end up coming to that, randomly they have been slightly better last few days but still around

[Sr. Mints]

Originally Posted by Twitchy15

we have lots of plants.. I was thinking they bred in the drains can they breed in plants to? That might be the next step getting clean soil but I guess if they come from the drains to they might just end up in the clean soil again

If they're in the plants, go buy some of these. Break a chunk off and soak it in a jug of water for 24 hours, then water your plants with that water. It will kill them all. Murder-Death-Kill.