Flies going through the insect screen

[Anthony5]

You will have noticed from my other threads that I have an issue with fruit flies inside the house.

After extensive searching and researching, I finally discovered that they fly straight through the the tiny holes in the insect screen, and Mr Google confirms this.

So this is a dilemma of course if you can't aerate your house and particularly the bathrooms anymore because you have to keep the windows closed at all time.

Does anyone have a solution to prevent them from entering?

I'm currently testing with a piece of Camphor, the kind you buy at the supermarkets to put in the wardrobes, attached to the insect screen but it may take a few days to know if it is effective.

On Google I read that hanging a clear plastic bag with water in front of the window also keeps flies away.Is this true.

May be some members on this forum have experience with my issue and can share their findings.

[Brit_Doggie]

Homemade fruit fly trap, made with something sweet or attractive to fruit flies (remember, they're drawn to fermenting fruit). Vinegar, beer, or wine all do the trick. Pour it into a container that will attract the flies but make it tough for them to get back out. A jar with a lid with a few small holes is ideal.

watch the flies fall in and clean when it gets full.

[Morakot]

What kind of insect screen do you have? Made from chicken wire?

The common fruit fly is about 2mm large; how they would pass through an insect screen is not clear.

[eyecatcher]

The beer definately works as i tested it and mentuoned in my post on your previous thread.

Camphor is great for keeping cockroaches rats and mice and chipmunks away.

I started using the camphor balls you see in the gents urinals. They are so cheap and small enough or can cut in half. Maybe even run a wire or string thro one and hang it up.

We put a few in old socks and hung them in our fruit trees to keep the chipmunks away.

Though i cant confirm if it was the camphor balls or my old socks that kept my fruit safe!

[Anthony5]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Homemade fruit fly trap, made with something sweet or attractive to fruit flies (remember, they're drawn to fermenting fruit). Vinegar, beer, or wine all do the trick. Pour it into a container that will attract the flies but make it tough for them to get back out. A jar with a lid with a few small holes is ideal.

watch the flies fall in and clean when it gets full.

The question is not how to catch them, I have numerous traps set up throughout the house and catch plenty of them, but how to keep them out.Look at the other thread in this forum where I posted a picture of my catch.Once they are inside the house you can't catch them all, and at the same time they lay eggs and multiply inside, so I need to find a remedy to prevent them entering through the insect screen

What kind of insect screen do you have? Made from chicken wire?

The common fruit fly is about 2mm large; how they would pass through an insect screen is not clear.

I happen to have high quality uPvc windows with nylon insect screens, but fruit flies go through them.

http://togetherfarm.com/three-easy-ways-to-get-rid-of-fruit-flies/

Making sure all windows and doors have screens is a great way to reduce the number of bugs coming into your house. It won’t keep them all out since some (including fruit flies) can crawl through the screen but it will slow them down.

http://www.mnn.com/health/healthy-spaces/questions/where-do-fruit-flies-come-from

“But all my doors and windows are closed,” you say! “How could they possibly get in?” Fruit flies are so tiny that they can enter through even the tiniest of crevices around windows or doors and can even fly right through your window’s insect screen.

Edited April 2, 2015 by Anthony5

[IMHO]

Cut down all fruit trees in your vicinity

No animal thrives without food

[Anthony5]

Cut down all fruit trees in your vicinity

No animal thrives without food

There is about 30 Rai of what I think is Cassava around my property, and just behind my perimeter is a huge Mango tree.

Your help to cut all that down would be much appreciated.

[maidee]

smear your screen up with peanut butter

[jamhar]

The question is not how to catch them, I have numerous traps set up throughout the house and catch plenty of them, but how to keep them out.Look at the other thread in this forum where I posted a picture of my catch.Once they are inside the house you can't catch them all, and at the same time they lay eggs and multiply inside, so I need to find a remedy to prevent them entering through the insect screen

Have you tried this?

PS Put a small hole in the cap and screw it back on, prior to inverting.

The uncapped opening is too big and the flies will just fly back out.

Edited April 2, 2015 by jamhar

[IMHO]

Cut down all fruit trees in your vicinity

No animal thrives without food

There is about 30 Rai of what I think is Cassava around my property, and just behind my perimeter is a huge Mango tree.

Your help to cut all that down would be much appreciated.

Can my workers keep the produce?

[Dannyboy666]

What kind of insect screen do you have? Made from chicken wire?

The common fruit fly is about 2mm large; how they would pass through an insect screen is not clear.

n Fruit flies can land and then walk to their destination it's not just touch and go, u ever use ur mobile device in the Mooban ,the lil tiny gnats flying around ur Blu screen, definitely annoying.

[PEAP]

Is it possible that you are confusing your "Fruit Flies" with those tiny "Vinegar / Wine flies". Fruit flies are only a tad smaller than the "Normal" House fly.

Not much help I know but it is best to know your "Enemy". - - - No solution I can recommend as "our" little flies prefer to stay outdoors, annoying the S&^%$t out of me.

[Morakot]

What kind of insect screen do you have? Made from chicken wire?

u ever use ur mobile device in the Mooban ,the lil tiny gnats flying around ur Blu screen, definitely annoying.

The screen on my mobile is pretty good; there might be even an app to keep those little beasties at bay...

Edited April 2, 2015 by Morakot

[koo]

First of all, I do not believe that fruit flies actually go through the insect screens. It may be possible but not very common. They mostly arrive inside as eggs with the fresh produce (fruits, especially bananas) and them develop into flies inside your house.

Make a fruit fly trap: Pour some sweet, frementing juice or beer in a dessert cup. Add 1 drop of diswashing liquid. Cover the cup with clingwrap. Poke about a dozen small holes to the clingwrap with a fork or other sharp object. Place in warm place where the flies are abundant. Wash the cup and replace the liquid when the trap is well populated.

How this works is that when the juice in the cup starts to ferment, it attracts the flies. They land on the clingwrap and walk inside the trap through the holes you poked. To get "lunch", they need to reach the juice, which in their experience normally supports them via "surface tension". Because you added the dishwashing liquid, there is no surface tension, and the fly goes under and drowns in the juice.

[dotpoom]

Just off the top of my head. You can buy the screen mesh by the meter on a role at Home Pro. Just overlap your existing mesh with another layer.

[Daniel Ingalls]

Throw away the chicken wire screen, and replace it with fine mesh wiring such as a woman's nylon stocking. Of course you know, the finer the mesh, the more often they need to be cleaned with a garden hose!

[BadBouy]

Homemade fruit fly trap, made with something sweet or attractive to fruit flies (remember, they're drawn to fermenting fruit). Vinegar, beer, or wine all do the trick. Pour it into a container that will attract the flies but make it tough for them to get back out. A jar with a lid with a few small holes is ideal.

watch the flies fall in and clean when it gets full.

I have also done this, it works well.

[eyecatcher]

Throw away the chicken wire screen, and replace it with fine mesh wiring such as a woman's nylon stocking. Of course you know, the finer the mesh, the more often they need to be cleaned with a garden hose!

Heres a guy with panty hose experience. Listen up.

[asdecas]

Here's a handy tip: DDT is nothing like as carcinogenic as has been made out; why, look at all those Isaan bargirls who survive for years after eating insects and grubs killed with the stuff.

So lather yourself and your dear ones with Monsanto's favourite before going to bed.

I can guarantee you will have no more fruit fly events.

You may also not achieve an erection for some time, but that's beside the point.

[Anthony5]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Is it possible that you are confusing your "Fruit Flies" with those tiny "Vinegar / Wine flies". Fruit flies are only a tad smaller than the "Normal" House fly.

Not much help I know but it is best to know your "Enemy". - - - No solution I can recommend as "our" little flies prefer to stay outdoors, annoying the S&^%$t out of me.

Vinegar flies are fruit flies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drosophila_melanogaster

Throw away the chicken wire screen, and replace it with fine mesh wiring such as a woman's nylon stocking. Of course you know, the finer the mesh, the more often they need to be cleaned with a garden hose!

Any suggestion where I can buy that, no not the woman stockings, because the uPvc window installers in Pattaya for sure don't have it.

First of all, I do not believe that fruit flies actually go through the insect screens. It may be possible but not very common. They mostly arrive inside as eggs with the fresh produce (fruits, especially bananas) and them develop into flies inside your house.

Make a fruit fly trap: Pour some sweet, frementing juice or beer in a dessert cup. Add 1 drop of diswashing liquid. Cover the cup with clingwrap. Poke about a dozen small holes to the clingwrap with a fork or other sharp object. Place in warm place where the flies are abundant. Wash the cup and replace the liquid when the trap is well populated.

How this works is that when the juice in the cup starts to ferment, it attracts the flies. They land on the clingwrap and walk inside the trap through the holes you poked. To get "lunch", they need to reach the juice, which in their experience normally supports them via "surface tension". Because you added the dishwashing liquid, there is no surface tension, and the fly goes under and drowns in the juice.

If you have a room that is locked and all drains blocked off and has no fruit flies inside , with only a 60 x 60 window with insect screen opened, and at 5pm when the sun comes on that window the room is full of those fruit flies where do you think they have entered other then through the insect screen. If the next day you keep the small window from that room locked as well, and there are no flies entering anymore, isn't that another proof as where the entered previously?

Did you read the links to other websites in my post, which claim that they indeed go through the insect screen?

As for the traps, I posted twice already that I have traps and catch them when they are inside the house, but the point is to keep them outside, because you can't catch them all at the same time.

Before yesterday, when I locked all windows 24h a day, I would catch over a hundred a day with 5 traps set up throughout the house.

Since yesterday there are probably about 10 in total in the traps, but I did a test this afternoon where I opened the window ( with insect screen) from one bathroom, and within an hour there were over a dozen flying and crawling over the trap inside that bathroom.

Edited April 2, 2015 by Anthony5

[Smileygc]

We have the same kind of windows with built in sliding 'mosquito' nets.

The sliding doors are left open and the sliding 'mosquito' nets are left closed for ventilation.

The flies we get are very small, not sure what sort they are, they may be fruits flies' but they seemed to get through in the hundreds.

You want to get your wife, GF to search the Thai internet as mine did and found a bag of Thai herbs and things that we purchased in the south in a market.

But we have tried looking in Isaan without success.

I think the herbs keeps a few things away, but the flies still came until recently.

Now there are a lot less - Last month they were everywhere - they even slip through the electronic Tennis Bat...

Maybe the herbs worked or maybe they were just seasonal and now the flying termite things are eating them. At least they cant get through the mesh!!

All the best with a resolution.

[The Deerhunter]

Sounds like you have done everything possible. I live on a Jackfruit, Mango & Durian farm so I know all about fruit flies. However at our place I am sure they come in as eggs on fruit because we only get them in big numbers in the kitchen & we do keep and eat a lot of fruit there. The rest of the house is living quarters in an adjacent building, two floors of it and rarely have problems there & windows are open on screens everywhere.

There might not be so many in a high rise in BKK as long as there are no fruit markets nearby.

I reckon you need a new location, a different climate or a more rewarding obsession. Jai yen yen & take up meditation.

Edited April 2, 2015 by The Deerhunter

[Anthony5]

Sounds like you have done everything possible. I live on a Jackfruit, Mango & Durian farm so I know all about fruit flies. However at our place I am sure they come in as eggs on fruit because we only get them in big numbers in the kitchen & we do keep and eat a lot of fruit there. The rest of the house is living quarters in an adjacent building, two floors of it and rarely have problems there & windows are open on screens everywhere.

There might not be so many in a high rise in BKK as long as there are no fruit markets nearby.

I reckon you need a new location, a different climate or a more rewarding obsession. Jai yen yen & take up meditation.

Indeed I think in a high rise in Bangkok there will be fewer fruit flies around as in an area where Cassava and fruits is cultivated., and i can't call it obsession but it is pretty annoying when they fly into you nose holes and eyes while you're writing a post on TVF.

[KonKorat]

You can't do anything to keep them out,These flies were bred by Isis,they are in testing mode at the moment,they are trying to breed them bigger so they can become suicide bombers,soon they will crash through your windows and kapow! all over red rover!

[meatboy]

fruit flies do you mean those tiny black ba--ards that bite.

my answer is get yourself a little mossy zapper[the ones with a floresant light] leave it on in the kitchen for 1night and you will see how many get in.any smell atracts them even around the dogs bum.

[Centrum]

Try cleaning your house more often. I'm getting a picture of beer spills everywhere.

[Anthony5]

Try cleaning your house more often. I'm getting a picture of beer spills everywhere.

Don't try to identify others with yourself.

[Catoni]

Is it possible that you are confusing your "Fruit Flies" with those tiny "Vinegar / Wine flies". Fruit flies are only a tad smaller than the "Normal" House fly.

Not much help I know but it is best to know your "Enemy". - - - No solution I can recommend as "our" little flies prefer to stay outdoors, annoying the S&^%$t out of me.

No... he's not confusing them. Our fruit flies are very tiny.... and love fruit. There are several types of fly called "Fruit Fly" Some larger and some smaller. Some people also confuse them with gnats and drain flies... all of which are separate species... (drain flies actually look like very tiny moths... but congregate around drains.0

You may be confusing Tephritidae which some call a "fruit fly" .... with Drosophila Melanogaster, which is the "common fruit fly."

Probably find these nuisance flies on every continent except Antarctica. I've seen them in both Canada and the U.S. and also the same fly in south east Asia..... I'd bet they are everywhere.

List of flies called "fruit flies" ...some almost the size of a house fly... some much, much smaller:

• Tephritidae, a family of large, colorfully marked flies
  • Bactrocera oleae or olive fruit fly, native to the Eastern Hemisphere and an invasive species in North America
  • Bactrocera tryoni or Queensland fruit fly, an invasive pest species in Australia
  • Bactrocera cucurbitae or melon fly, agricultural pest in Asian countries
  • Vidalia (fruit fly), a genus
• Drosophilidae, a family of smaller flies, including:
  • Drosophila, the genus of small fruit flies and vinegar flies
  • Drosophila melanogaster or common fruit fly, an important model organism in modern biology
  • Drosophila suzukii or Asian fruit fly, native to southeast Asia and an invasive species in North America
  • - Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_fly

[Smileygc]

Hey Anthony5, I have to admit, we found our cause. we tend to recycle and store used cans and bottles in a box near the back door. All cans, bottles, yogurt cups etc, are rinsed before they go into the box... But it seems, a fruit juice bottle, used and still with its plastic and metal ring pull cap was put the the box before being rinsed.

It was full of eggs and flies, but I still don't know how they got in and out with the cap on...

But they are small little blighters...

[eyecatcher]

You can't do anything to keep them out,These flies were bred by Isis,they are in testing mode at the moment,they are trying to breed them bigger so they can become suicide bombers,soon they will crash through your windows and kapow! all over red rover!

I normally appreciate good humour and press "like"

But the humour or sarcasm is completely lost when you have to suggest that it is a joke.

The idea of a joke is actually for the poster to see who understands the joke.

To laugh at yourself....dont....makes you look a right w...

I was going to like otherwise.