# Fruit flies!



## bugs4life (Oct 13, 2005)

Fruit flies have started getting attracted to the food and moisture in my AGBs' terrarium. They're so annoying!  Has anyone else had this problem?  Is there any way to get rid of them, or at the very least, reduce the numbers???

Funny little side-note, a cucumber seed sprouted in the peat of my millipedes' home, I let it grow for a few days because I thought it was cool.  Finally pulled it out today lol.


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## Stylopidae (Oct 13, 2005)

bugs4life said:
			
		

> Fruit flies have started getting attracted to the food and moisture in my AGBs' terrarium. They're so annoying!  Has anyone else had this problem?  Is there any way to get rid of them, or at the very least, reduce the numbers???
> 
> Funny little side-note, a cucumber seed sprouted in the peat of my millipedes' home, I let it grow for a few days because I thought it was cool.  Finally pulled it out today lol.



Toss a house spider in there? Won't hurt the millis.

I know that you can set a shot glass full of liquor out and it'll trap the flies


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## luther (Oct 14, 2005)

A film canister, taped inside the roof of the tank.  Put a little fruit inside and smear the insides with vaseline.  Instant fruit fly trap.

Or keep a few small mantids above the tank.

I quite like the small house spider idea too.


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## Kid Dragon (Oct 14, 2005)

*Another solution*

Just add poison dart frogs


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## Wade (Oct 14, 2005)

Bury the food just below the surface. Millipedes will still find it, but it will cut down on the flies.

Wade


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## Tony (Oct 14, 2005)

OT fruit fly meander
Scuttles, I know em, I hate em...But all of a sudden I have a new type here.
Much Larger, and sort of striped....Think they came in with a collection I am watching. NEVER saw them before. Worried they are a true danger...
T


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## Kasha (Oct 15, 2005)

I did a complete substrate change and that got rid of all but one, and its been awhile since I saw that one.  I am assuming he got lonely and moved on to greener veggies.


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## bugs4life (Oct 15, 2005)

I did the "vaseline fly trap" thing and so far it's caught one...well I guess I'll leave it overnight and see what happens.


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## The_Monk (Oct 15, 2005)

Evil Cheshire said:
			
		

> Toss a house spider in there? Won't hurt the millis.
> 
> I know that you can set a shot glass full of liquor out and it'll trap the flies


Is the liquor thing true??


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## bugs4life (Oct 16, 2005)

Yes it's true...but if I end up doing it, I'll probably set it just outside the millies enclosure lol.


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## Stylopidae (Oct 16, 2005)

The_Monk said:
			
		

> Is the liquor thing true??


Yup...the friut flies are attracted to the liquor and the high alcohol content kills them when they ingest it.

I've only heard of it being used to control phorid flies, but I'd imagine it would work on friut flies just as well if not better because friut flies are attracted to sweet scents more so than phorid flies.


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## NiGHTS (Oct 29, 2005)

OK, I tried both the alcohol method and the fruit/vaseline method.  There were both tried out in one of my millipede tanks that has an especially nasty infestation of fruit flies.  Here are my results.

Alcohol - I used cooking wine, mixed with a tiny bit of sugar in an old pill bottle (about the size of a film canister).  I taped the container to the side wall of my millipede cage, and after a week, there were just 2 flies floating in the alcohol.  The cage was still infested with flies.

Fruit/Vaseline - Same set up as the alcohol.  After 1 week, about 15 flies had become trapped in the vaseline.  This method worked better than the alcohol for me, but it still seemed pretty ineffective, since the flies in the aquarium were still breeding and causing problems.


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## Thoth (Oct 29, 2005)

For the alcohol method (fruit juice and vinegar work just as well) the best thing is also put an inverted cone made of paper (or whatever you want to make it of) with a hole just big enough that the fly fits through. So basically its a funnel leading into the bottle (or what ever container you're using). Just seal around the edges with tape. The flies crawl in but cant get out again, same principle as lobster traps. Works best with clear containers.

We used similar traps in the lab to catch escaped fruit flies from other labs.


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## NiGHTS (Nov 1, 2005)

I'll give the cone method a try and report back on my success.  Seems like the cone method is mimicing the behavior of the carniverous Pitcher Plant.  Has anyone tried using carniverous plants to control fruit fly outbreaks?


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## Wade (Nov 2, 2005)

Carniverous plants require very bright, full spectrum light, very soggy conditions, and straight peat substrate. Not good conditions for millipedes.

Fly paper strips are annother good control. You can't use them in the cages of course, but hanging them over the cages can significantly reduce the numbers. Works well for nearly all flies, actually.

Wade


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