I thought I’d tackle it with a couple of suggestions, and then open it up to you peeps.
Two things: First, if the vinegar isn’t working and it is winter, there is a slight possibility they are not fruit flies, but rather, fungus gnats. They look very similar, but are kind of impervious to vinegar traps. Second, if they are, in fact, fruit flies, I personally would spray the leaves of the plants down with a water/dish soap mixture–kind of like treating aphids outdoors. Spray the leaves, the soil, the stem–everything. If the plant can tolerate it, you can set the plant outside in the cold for a couple of days–and that will kill any clingers.
If it is actually fungal gnats, do the same soap and water spray, but also place a layer of gravel, small rocks, etc. on top of the soil of the plant. They like to breed in the soil, and a nice layer of unfriendly breeding ground should shut it down.
Unfortunately, that’s about all I got, so without further ado, can any of YOU help Arlys out? Just leave your suggestions in the comments!
I just had this problem develop over the past week. I put out the vinegar trap, but then noticed that they seemed to be really attracted to a spray bottle of cleaner I’d made from orange peels soaked in vinegar. The peels themselves had been disposed of. So, I poured a little of that cleaning solution in a small, shallow dish (about the size of a cupcake – forget what you call them). The next morning, I had about 50 of the flies in the bottom. I did that for two days more with the same result. This morning there were no flies in the solution, but I still see a few around. This has worked better than anything I’ve ever tried.
I found that my organic Braggs didn’t work but the cheap store brand apple cider vinegar with a drop of dish soap worked best. And always cover with plastic wrap with a few medium size holes.
Sadly, I had to learn how to deal with this when I left my college kid home while we went on a 3 week road trip and she forgot about the bananas in the fruit bowl!!
Step one: vacuum (or shop-vac) all visible fruit flies. The can’t survive the suction.
Step two: clean out your drains with baking soda/vinegar mix, followed by a kettle of boiling water. Apparently, they lay eggs down there. Egads.
Step three: The saran wrap /vinegar trap works. Make sure you use a thickish dishwashing liquid and add a little bit of honey to the solution.
I’ve always used a bit red wine for fruit flies. Works every time.
sadly I just had this problem and tried the vinegar soap trap which worked but didn’t eliminate the problem. I believe I had the fungus gnats. ended up throwing out the plant. wish i would have tried the gravel on top of soil trick.
I had a big problem this spring with my indoor veggie starts. I did not sterilize the new potting soil in the oven first! I have heard some good ideas about control: yellow sticky bug straps or fly paper stuck around your potted plants, reduce watering, cover potting soil with 1/2 inch coarse sand, replant in fresh perlite (after rinsing roots), and Bt sprinkled on soil. I used the Mosquito dunks crumbled up and sprinkled around the top of the pots. Seemed to help. I was going to just wrap the small pots in thin plastic and put a twist tie around the stems, but wound up setting them outside where natural predators controlled the population. Good luck!
Beer. Works every time. I’ve never had the fungal flies, but the beer trick works better for me than vinegar. Same procedure, just with beer.
Diatomaceous earth worked for us to kill off fungus gnats. We paired it with flypaper strips to snag the adults, but the diatomaceous earth sprinkled on top of the soil prevented the new ones from getting out of the dirt (for them it’s like trying to crawl through broken glass – they don’t make it) and prevented any stray adults from laying new eggs in the dirt.
The first year I brought my tropical plants inside (gardenia, plumeria, hibiscus) we had the fungus gnats and first thought they were fruit flies from the compost bucket under our sink. We have great success using vinegar for the flies and now use a layer of sand on the top of any plants brought inside for the winter. Sand worked great for us last winter. Good luck!
Use the diatomaceous earth and also add some yellow sticky traps. They look like plant tags but sticky and yellow. The yellow color is supposed to attract them. We found the traps at the local nursery.