How do you control fruit flies?

[DoctorCosmonaut]

What do you do to manage fruit fly populations? I clean the food out of my tort's cage, and the cage is brand new and brand spankin clean as of two weeks ago. The cage smells clean and looks clean, but as soon as I put fruit in there I notice fruit flies around the room its in. What method do ya'll use to get/control them buggers?

 

[Crazy1]

Jordan here is a site that has info on some different types of flies and how to get rid of them.
http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/fruit_fly.htm

 

[Yvonne G]

Here's a kind of sickening thought: I THINK that the fruit comes with eggs of the fruit fly. Because, like you, I can have a clean, fresh habitat and as soon as I place fruit in it, VOILA! fruit flies.

Thanks for that link, Robyn!

Yvonne

 

[DoctorCosmonaut]

Great site! Thanks! (And yes... I do think that some pests come on our food)

 

[Madortoise]

I'm not sure if these were fruit flies but we had an infestation of gnats at my work last year. It even migrated from one site (LA) to another (Long Beach) and we were all so annoyed for months. We figured that they were laying eggs in pot of soil with plants.
In LA office, they threw out all the soils from potted plants and repotted them. That eliminated most of the flies. In LB, we tried trapping them w/a half of cut potatoes put in pots of plants and plastic sandwich bag over it...this yielded some success with flies suffocating in a bag but it was kind of gross. Many of our staff couldn't deal with chemicals so we dealt with these flies like this for many months and eventually they were all gone.
So, I wonder if those flies' eggs are in your substrate??

 

[Meg90]

I try not to let them bother me. They stay in the humid parts of my tort cages. But they stay away from my torts, so I don't mind. I've got em in the crested gecko tanks too. I figure, they are a part of nature, if they don't harm anything, I let be.

 

[Maggie Cummings]

Get rid of the fruit ...they hang around where it's more wet then dry and wouldn't that describe your substrate?

 

[DoctorCosmonaut]

Well having a redfoot some fruit is kinda a necessity, as is higher humidity

 

[Maggie Cummings]

Well having a redfoot some fruit is kinda a necessity, as is higher humidity

I know it, I was trying and failing I guess to be funny...

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Well having a redfoot some fruit is kinda a necessity, as is higher humidity

I know it, I was trying and failing I guess to be funny...

 

[DoctorCosmonaut]

haha my bad. I fail at jokes all the time! My girlfriend never thinks I'm funny.