The hoverflies have been really bad. They're just annoying.

 

I had never heard of a hoverfly but as soon as I saw your post I thought of the little sweat bee looking pests. I had never really noticed them prior to this Summer but they were all over the place a few weeks ago.

I had never heard of a hoverfly but as soon as I saw your post I thought of the little sweat bee looking pests. I had never really noticed them prior to this Summer but they were all over the place a few weeks ago.

 

Those pesky things would be hoverflies. They're annoying. I spend nearly every night at a soccer field, and when we're on the grass, I spend half the night swatting them out of my face.

Have not seen hardly any this year. That is, until last night. I helped set up for St Mary's festival. They had supplied the workers with pizza. The flies were all over the boxes like a scene from amityville horror.

Picked up a 3-pack of low-grade flyswatters from DG yesterday. Took a break from the office to sit on the back porch. Slayed 5 in 35 minutes. They just keep coming.

 

I have one of those swatters that electrocutes them. It's pretty sweet.

I have one of those swatters that electrocutes them. It's pretty sweet.

 

Why does this not shock or surprise me?

Why does this not shock or surprise me?

 

May not surprise you, but I'm thinking it will shock you a little.

Typically in late spring and early summer I start having trouble with fruit flies hitch hiking on bananas from the grocery store then breeding like crazy.

 

I like my bananas to ripen naturally, but once this problem begins I have to settle for storing them in the refrigerator until the warm month are over. I'll take one out at a time daily so that it will be ripe and ready for me for breakfast

 

Once the infestations gets out of control, I'll leave a clear plastic wide mouthed bottle on my counter with a banana peel or a strawberry inside, and every fruit fly in the house will think that it's party time inside of the bottle.

 

When I wake in the morning I'll creep quietly into the kitchen and carefully place the lid on the bottle so as to not to disturb them, assuring that the entire party of flies are trapped, and then I'll discard the bottle.

 

With this method it really only takes a day or two to rid my place of every fly in the house no matter how many. You give them what they want and they won't think twice about it, though they're not aware that they are headed for certain suffocation with no escape.

 

Though it seems hard to believe, when I inspect the bottle there are literally a hundred or more flies inside which tells me that the problem was way worse than I had even realized, and would've gotten even worse if I hadn't tried to do something about it.

 

Swatting at them just isn't enough and store bought fruit fly traps are worthless. The method that I use works brilliantly and quickly, and when you wake to a bottle filled with an entire colony you get the satisfaction that the genocide is in full effect.

 

We are always having bananas, cherries, peaches and tomatoes. Gnats or fruit flies my Mother would call them, are terrible this year. Wonder if the plastic bottle would catch them? I'll give it a try. I don't like the chemical strips but I may have to resort to them. And spiders, Papaw sprayed some sort of concoction around the perimeter of the house and at each entrance and some window areas. Hope it works.

Flys, gnats, miosquitos....if it flys and bites, it's in my back yard. Since I have 3 dogs at this point, I'm reluctant to use fogger and such. However, I found a line available at Target and on Amazon that's pretty danged effective. The Eco Smart line is made from botanicals. The mosquito fogger, for instance, has rosemary oil, peppermint oil, & wintergreen oil. It works for about 8 hours. And it smells really good.

 

 

I have herbs in planters on my front porch, which explais why there are markedly fewer there. Next year I'm going to try to grow some in the back yard, but I don't think there's enough sun.

No trouble at all with flies.

 

We had problems with wasps for a few years in my house. I eventually found that they were nesting inside an old window and getting in that way. Sprayed the hole they were coming out of and that was it.

 

I have no idea how flies nest, but maybe they found a place to nest after they got in the first time.

No trouble at all with flies.

 

We had problems with wasps for a few years in my house. I eventually found that they were nesting inside an old window and getting in that way. Sprayed the hole they were coming out of and that was it.

 

I have no idea how flies nest, but maybe they found a place to nest after they got in the first time.

 

Some get into my house, but that's controllable. What I can't control are the massive amounts outside. I have been thinking about it, and I think the issue in my neighborhood is the number of vacant, overgrown lots, and vacant, unkempt houses. The houses around me all do a pretty good job of keeping their yards kept up. But there's still a lot of overgrowth not very far away.

The hoverflies have been really bad. They're just annoying.

 

If you are noting dragonflies, yes I've noticed this as well this summer. Seeing a lot of them in places I've never seen them before.

We are always having bananas, cherries, peaches and tomatoes. Gnats or fruit flies my Mother would call them, are terrible this year. Wonder if the plastic bottle would catch them? I'll give it a try. I don't like the chemical strips but I may have to resort to them. And spiders, Papaw sprayed some sort of concoction around the perimeter of the house and at each entrance and some window areas. Hope it works.

 

My late papaw had me scared of his homemade concoctions. Some of them he would spray and some of them he would inbibe, then go off somewhere, and mamaw wouldn't see him again for the rest of the weekend.

If you are noting dragonflies, yes I've noticed this as well this summer. Seeing a lot of them in places I've never seen them before.

 

Nevermind, completely different. Hoverflies kind of look like a bee.

We are always having bananas, cherries, peaches and tomatoes. Gnats or fruit flies my Mother would call them, are terrible this year. Wonder if the plastic bottle would catch them? I'll give it a try. I don't like the chemical strips but I may have to resort to them. And spiders, Papaw sprayed some sort of concoction around the perimeter of the house and at each entrance and some window areas. Hope it works.

 

Once I eliminated the problem I had to settle for no longer letting fruit sit out on the counter until we get past the warmer months. If this is not an option then it would be effective to always have a wide mouthed plastic bottle sitting out as well with discards from fruit sitting inside of it as bait. I recommend a wide mouthed bottle because it's easier to stuff a banana peel inside of it.

 

It may appear that you're attracting a problem by doing so, but at least you'll be centralizing the problem right inside of the bottle, which you can always throw away after putting the lid back on, and start with another plastic bottle to keep the problem contained.

 

The fruit flies will be more than happy to go directly towards a used banana peel to start nibbling and stay put in the bottle, which to them seems like heaven until you cap the bottle and throw it away.

 

They'll ultimately be more attracted to a banana peel than an unopened banana because it allows them to immediately get down to business. You give them what they want to keep them all in one place.

 

You've probably noticed that if you don't have a solution in place they'll gravitate all over the house, and especially where it's moist like your kitchen or bathroom drains. Then when you sit down for a meal, they also seem to like to take a seat at the table right on your plate, or annoyingly flying around your head.

 

With them always having access to what they want right in the bottle, that it where they will likely stay put.

Once I eliminated the problem I had to settle for no longer letting fruit sit out on the counter until we get past the warmer months. If this is not an option then it would be effective to always have a wide mouthed plastic bottle sitting out as well with discards from fruit sitting inside of it as bait. I recommend a wide mouthed bottle because it's easier to stuff a banana peel inside of it.

 

It may appear that you're attracting a problem by doing so, but at least you'll be centralizing the problem right inside of the bottle, which you can always throw away after putting the lid back on, and start with another plastic bottle to keep the problem contained.

 

The fruit flies will be more than happy to go directly towards a used banana peel to start nibbling and stay put in the bottle, which to them seems like heaven until you cap the bottle and throw it away.

 

They'll ultimately be more attracted to a banana peel than an unopened banana because it allows them to immediately get down to business. You give them what they want to keep them all in one place.

 

You've probably noticed that if you don't have a solution in place they'll gravitate all over the house, and especially where it's moist like your kitchen or bathroom drains. Then when you sit down for a meal, they also seem to like to take a seat at the table right on your plate, or annoyingly flying around your head.

 

With them always having access to what they want right in the bottle, that it where they will likely stay put.

 

Thanks. It's definitely a solution I'll try because some foods keep their flavor at room temp.