Fruit Fly Eradication

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AlFulchino

Winemaker of 30+ years
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just a quick note to discuss eradication of fruit flies...somewhere along the line, here or elsewhere i mentioned a new fruit fly had invaded the northeast from elsewhere in the country....this one lays its eggs on fruit and the larvae burrough into good fruit.....so some extension agents have advised grape growers to consider harvesting fruit earlier than normal....so we now have two fruit fly enemies old and new......but really to my reason for writing...since the harvest time was so wet this yr we had more fruit flies than normal..... anticipating the problem during harvest tasks we set up a high power fan in the area for production....ahead of time....within two hours of placement and operation we noted thousands of dead fruit flies in front of the fan on the ground...we cleaned the area and each time interval we noted less and less until it was nothing more than a simple nuissance

thus one day later when we began crush we had really no issues at all

the flies have their wings broken because of the fan and the general force of air.....just wanted to pass this along...we all use fans to keep flies away from bottling areas etc when flies are in season...but using a high powered fan ahead of time is a pre-op against this enemy really really works better than the traps etc
 
one item i left out because my memory is getting worse and worse, to those who use food grade brutes for fermentation...the lids do not seal well enough to keep the fruit fly out...get some white linen and cut to fit over the opening and then place the brute lid over and close....the linen lets in air for the yeast and provides a good fruit fly barrier because the linen makes for a breathable gasket
 
Great news, thanks for sharing Al. Last year when they got bad in my cellar I would attack with my shop vac and that worked quiet well for short term. This year I don't seem to have many fruit fies. I like your idea though and I can see how it works.

Also good info on the Brutes as I have three of them all different sizes.
 
This year sucks for fruit flies, I normal have a dozen or so the whole year. I can't seem to get rid of them this year.

Even my parents have complained about them after they made apple sauce and jelly.

I hope I get ahead of them soon, They are driving me nuts!!
 
Husband left 2 buckets of raspberries on the counter all day a while back... I came home to a swarm of the buggers. Happens almost every year... grrrrrr
I'm sick of them. I've tried many things... but usually just have to wait it out. They stop reproducing... eventually... maybe by Feb.

Debbie
 
A Good Idea

AlFulchino's suggestion of using a fan seems to be a good idea. I'll have to give it a try.
 
Al, love the fan idea and the linen. I was using cheese cloth over my 20 gallon fermenter and some of the persistent little buggers were trying to burrow through it. Linen would work much better and my wife does not use that table cloth that much anyway!
 
Cool idea. So they get their pesky little wing broken...
Wonder if one could put a little cup of nice, sweet grape juice as a bait at the fans intake side, just to entice those little guys.

Thanks for the idea.
 

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