Drain fly problem.

[Andrew Dwyer]

So, as the title suggests am having a drain fly problem.

Have had this before ( maybe a couple of times over 6 years) but cured it with small moth balls and bleach down shower and bathroom drains, in the basin overflow and using a mosquito spray. But this time it is persistent.

 

3 bathrooms:

1 and 2 have similar usage, 3 is toilet and basin only.

1 and 3 have pretty much zero flies but number 2 is inundated.

 

Have cleaned down the walls with bleach and done the above procedure but a week now and no progress. No obvious signs of access, small window with mosquito net, 2 x drains with the typical Thai shallow trap ( topped up frequently with Haiter ).

 

To get the picture, this morning at 6.30 am had zero flies, at 10.30 am zapped around 10 but just now ( 6.00 pm ) zapped 165 flies, no activity in the bathroom since 6.30 am when the boy showered.

 

While it is quite pleasant zapping these flies with the electronic tennis racket it is wearing a little thin now.

 

Anyone any miracle cure or homemade poison that will cure me of this curse ??

[transam]

8 minutes ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

So, as the title suggests am having a drain fly problem.

Have had this before ( maybe a couple of times over 6 years) but cured it with small moth balls and bleach down shower and bathroom drains, in the basin overflow and using a mosquito spray. But this time it is persistent.

 

3 bathrooms:

1 and 2 have similar usage, 3 is toilet and basin only.

1 and 3 have pretty much zero flies but number 2 is inundated.

 

Have cleaned down the walls with bleach and done the above procedure but a week now and no progress. No obvious signs of access, small window with mosquito net, 2 x drains with the typical Thai shallow trap ( topped up frequently with Haiter ).

 

To get the picture, this morning at 6.30 am had zero flies, at 10.30 am zapped around 10 but just now ( 6.00 pm ) zapped 165 flies, no activity in the bathroom since 6.30 am when the boy showered.

 

While it is quite pleasant zapping these flies with the electronic tennis racket it is wearing a little thin now.

 

Anyone any miracle cure or homemade poison that will cure me of this curse ??

Are your shower drain-outs equipped with a water or flap seal when not in use...?

 

Fly's usually mean something is dead, are there any smells......?

[novacova]

Try using sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) wash about a cup down the drain once a week. Sounds like a septic system?  If so it will get rid of the odor. 

[Andrew Dwyer]

4 minutes ago, transam said:

Are your shower drain-outs equipped with a water or flap seal when not in use...?

 

Fly's usually mean something is dead, are there any smells......?

Yes, each shower has a water seal and another drain in each room has a seal also, I keep them topped up as know the water evaporates quickly.

No smells.

[Andrew Dwyer]

6 minutes ago, novacova said:

Try using sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) wash about a cup down the drain once a week. Sounds like a septic system?  If so it will get rid of the odor. 

Okay, thanks, will try that now.

[transam]

1 minute ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Yes, each shower has a water seal and another drain in each room has a seal also, I keep them topped up as know the water evaporates quickly.

No smells.

Hmmmm, that is unusual. Last week I had a shower drain blockage, went to our local hardware, and he said this will clear it, well it would clear and kill off anything.

 

Sodium Hydroxide (Caustic Soda), dodgy to use, but did the job, 50bht....🤗

[novacova]

24 minutes ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

1 and 3 have pretty much zero flies but number 2 is inundated.

The larvae is hatching from somewhere probably from a cranny you may have missed? Edge of the window screen or ceiling vent?

[Andrew Dwyer]

6 minutes ago, novacova said:

The larvae is hatching from somewhere probably from a cranny you may have missed? Edge of the window screen or ceiling vent?

Yes, believe me i have searched under the sink and in every corner of the room but behind the toilet is the only place i don’t have good access to that’s why i was hoping to discover, via this thread, a spray that is good for these little blighters !!

[scoutman360]

If you live in a condo building you will never eradicate them, you can only reduce their persistance. They are infested in all the pipes. I tried all the remedies, including bleach into the drains. I found that boiling water into the drain once a week did as much a good job as other chemicals. 

[Andrew Dwyer]

5 hours ago, scoutman360 said:

If you live in a condo building you will never eradicate them, you can only reduce their persistance. They are infested in all the pipes. I tried all the remedies, including bleach into the drains. I found that boiling water into the drain once a week did as much a good job as other chemicals. 

Thanks, I am in a single storey house.

 

Last night I put some bicarbonate of soda down what I think is the offending drain and poured some Toilet Duck on top which formed a lovely, hopefully lethal, bubbly cocktail !!

This morning poured some boiling water down both drains in the boy’s bathroom.

 

Only half a dozen present this morning but i have noticed as the day heats up they appear more, will see what happens later on.

[garygooner]

Used to get a number of tiny flies in the corner of the shower by the drain.

Pouring boiling water occasionally did the trick.  

[Andrew Dwyer]

Think I am going to funnel some bicarbonate of soda ( need to buy more ) down each drain and follow it up with some boiling water .

[Andrew Dwyer]

Actually just found a thread from a couple of years ago and it appears bicarbonate of soda ( also known as baking soda apparently ) and vinegar is the way to go !!

 

 

Will report back.

[Dante99]

18 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Yes, believe me i have searched under the sink and in every corner of the room but behind the toilet is the only place i don’t have good access to t

You can easily determine if the problem is in the drain by sealing it closed for a period of time like a day.  Seal it with a cover or by stuffing plastic bags in it.  This can tell you for sure is it the drain or not.

[novacova]

On 11/23/2024 at 12:22 PM, Andrew Dwyer said:

Actually just found a thread from a couple of years ago and it appears bicarbonate of soda ( also known as baking soda apparently ) and vinegar is the way to go !!

 

 

Will report back.

So these are fruit flies opposed to diptera house flies? Your fruit fly problem is most likely originating from fruit in the kitchen and food waste trash then migrate to the bathroom. Keep the fruit stored outside, and store the food waste in the freezer or outside will solve the issue.

[mdr224]

I had this problem in thailand, fortunately it was a rented house and we just left. The flies would lay eggs in the shower drain and the bathroom would have caterpillar larvae crawling everywhere

[Andrew Dwyer]

32 minutes ago, novacova said:

So these are fruit flies opposed to diptera house flies? Your fruit fly problem is most likely originating from fruit in the kitchen and food waste trash then migrate to the bathroom. Keep the fruit stored outside, and store the food waste in the freezer or outside will solve the issue.

While that thread does indeed state fruit flies in the title it then goes on to determine that the op is talking about drain flies.

Mine are definitely bathroom based.

[Real Name Hidden]

I had this problem when I moved into a new condo building.  I poured a mixture of baking soda and white vinegar down the drain, problem solved.

[Andrew Dwyer]

55 minutes ago, Real Name Hidden said:

I had this problem when I moved into a new condo building.  I poured a mixture of baking soda and white vinegar down the drain, problem solved.

Thanks, yes that is what i am in the process of doing, too early to say if working but i have my fingers, and toes, crossed.

[loong]

On 11/22/2024 at 7:20 PM, novacova said:

The larvae is hatching from somewhere probably from a cranny you may have missed? Edge of the window screen or ceiling vent?

In the past I found the larvae were actually under the tiles where the grouting wasn't so good. Re-newed the grouting and problem solved.

[Andrew Dwyer]

1 hour ago, loong said:

In the past I found the larvae were actually under the tiles where the grouting wasn't so good. Re-newed the grouting and problem solved.

Blimey, hope it doesn’t come to that.

Am trying the bicarbonate of soda and vinegar/ boiling water method right now but with 2 teenagers using the bathroom it is not easy to maintain a routine.

[PETERTHEEATER]

On 11/23/2024 at 1:14 AM, Andrew Dwyer said:

Thanks, I am in a single storey house.

 

Last night I put some bicarbonate of soda down what I think is the offending drain and poured some Toilet Duck on top which formed a lovely, hopefully lethal, bubbly cocktail !!

This morning poured some boiling water down both drains in the boy’s bathroom.

 

Only half a dozen present this morning but i have noticed as the day heats up they appear more, will see what happens later on.

Be aware that the blue plastic pipe used in Thai plumbing can soften and collapse if boiling water is trapped for a short time especially if the pipe run is long and unsupported.

[Sup3rfarang]

In my condo one of the showers has this problem.  I hang a Hunter's Fly Strip up high in the corner of the shower.  It's a glue strip that traps them with no effort on my part.  I also keep an inverted plastic bowl over the drain opening when the shower is not in use.  I kick it aside at the start of a shower and move it back at the end.  In addition I keep a bottle of glass cleaner spray to shoot down the one or two enemy I might see during the shower.  These measures keep the problem well in check but don't resolve it.  I'll give the suggested vinegar and baking soda a try.

[LOS1]

Have the same problem. It seems to come and go. Interestingly, whenever my wife cleans the shower walls (she uses cheap laundry soap) they disappear for up to a month. They gradually come back after awhile. 

[JimTripper]

On 11/22/2024 at 7:03 PM, transam said:

Fly's usually mean something is dead, are there any smells......?

Yes, my neighbor. I used to call him "the man of many smells".

[Andrew Dwyer]

So, just for those interested, I got rid of the drain flies and probably took around 8 days to  see them off.

 

All cheap materials:

Used baking soda and vinegar mixed together in a plastic bottle and poured down 2 x drain and 1 sink in the kids bathroom. As the mixture effervesced quite strongly next time I decided to pour the baking soda into the drains and then add the vinegar to give maximum effect.

 

I would do this mixture every other day  and alternate with boiling water.

 

After 4 or 5 days they appeared in another bathroom so i included that in the routine.

 

Last couple of days i started putting those small moth balls down the drains ( 2 sinks, 2 shower drain and 1 bathroom drain ) and pouring boiling water on top. Not sure if this worked or they were already near the end .

 

Strangely during this time we had no more than 10 in the kitchen or our bathroom while in the 2nd bathroom there were literally hundreds probably thousands ( i killed 165 in one sitting ) at its peak !.