little fruit flies are in my kitchen while I am doing my wine. I have
not seen any in my must or secondaries, but I feel like I am playing
with gasoline inside a torchlit room. does anyone have some
suggestions? I am using flypaper right now which is catching them, but
more still apear.

not quite clouds of them, but enough to have me ask here.

we always get fruitflies too, though we keep our hobby in the basement.
Nonetheless, the little *******s are an annoyance, but just part of the
process. Make sure you keep some kind of a cover over primaries- a sheet,
towel, old tablecloth, whatever, to keep those buggers out. If you're using
whole fruit to ferment, this is very important. Whenever I punch down the
cap, a few flies invariably turn up. I usually just stock up on the sticky
rolled up tubes of flypaper from Home Despot & hang 4 - 6 of them around the
primary fermenter. The good news: as soon as the food source (sweet must)
disappears (ferments to dry) so too do the little varmints. Be scrupulous in
your cleaning - wipe everything down & mop thoroughly. We do our best & just
ride it out... HTH regards, bob


"Tater" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> little fruit flies are in my kitchen while I am doing my wine. I have
> not seen any in my must or secondaries, but I feel like I am playing
> with gasoline inside a torchlit room. does anyone have some
> suggestions? I am using flypaper right now which is catching them, but
> more still apear.
>
> not quite clouds of them, but enough to have me ask here.
>

On Sep 9, 1:46 pm, Tater > wrote:
> little fruit flies are in my kitchen while I am doing my wine. I have
> not seen any in my must or secondaries, but I feel like I am playing
> with gasoline inside a torchlit room. does anyone have some
> suggestions? I am using flypaper right now which is catching them, but
> more still apear.
>
> not quite clouds of them, but enough to have me ask here.

Last year I hung up fly papers like you said , but attached a couple
pieced of orange peel too the paper....seemed to chum em' in . I found
these strips at Lowes...they look like the old Shell no pest
strips....kills them just fine , but should be used in a pretty open
area ( Toxic in food prep areas). If you can get pyrethrin spray ,
it's certified organic , very effective , and one would assume less
toxic to people and wine. Another trick is a small jar with a little
hole in lid with a sip of beer or wine it ...buggers fly in but not
out. We've pretty much gotten used to drinking our wine with a coaster
sitting on to between swigs. Good Luck.

I learned this from a wine making store in Dover, Ohio.
I put a small glass - with angles sides - like 45-60 degrees, with 1/4
inch of red wine in the bottle. These fruit flies end up in the wine and
drowning. This also works around fruit. It takes a couple days, but
works. I use like high-ball glasses with angled sides. It works, not
sure if the angle matters, but I don't experiment with success. :*)

And cockroaches - learned this from a Navy retired dude from WW II who
used it on ships and subs, mix a paste of Boric Acid powder with water -
so it's almost toothpaste consistency. put into a shallow small
container (even a plastic milk carton lid) and put on the floor several
places. Cockroaches are gone in a few days to a week. Even if infested.

That last one has nothing to do with wine making pests, but thought I'd
share - it sure worked for me in many places.

Anyone know how to get rid of squirrels from bird feeders? Just kidding,
let's stick to winemaking. haha.

DAve

Tater wrote:
> little fruit flies are in my kitchen while I am doing my wine. I have
> not seen any in my must or secondaries, but I feel like I am playing
> with gasoline inside a torchlit room. does anyone have some
> suggestions? I am using flypaper right now which is catching them, but
> more still apear.
>
> not quite clouds of them, but enough to have me ask here.
>

I have this problem every year too. If you search this group, you'll
find lots of good suggestions. The best way to limit them is to crush/
destem in a sepearte place from your wine cellar (outside,
garage,...etc.), and keep everything super clean after you use it.
Then fill a bowl with juice and add some dish soap. The little flies
can't seem to leave the soapy juice, so you're just left with a bowl
of dead flies. Good luck! -David

On Sep 9, 11:46 am, Tater > wrote:
> little fruit flies are in my kitchen while I am doing my wine. I have
> not seen any in my must or secondaries, but I feel like I am playing
> with gasoline inside a torchlit room. does anyone have some
> suggestions? I am using flypaper right now which is catching them, but
> more still apear.
>
> not quite clouds of them, but enough to have me ask here.

> Anyone know how to get rid of squirrels from bird feeders? Just kidding,
> let's stick to winemaking. haha.

Just one off-topic post ... mix your seed with ground red hot pepper.
You can buy this pre-mixed a lot of places. Birds don't taste it and the
squirrels are funny to watch the first time or two, then don't come back.

Derric

I have a decent-sized fan that I keep in my garage for cap-punching. When
the covers (sheets) are on my fermentors, I don't care how much the fruit
flies are around if they cannot get into the must. When I pull the sheet to
punch, that fan is on high and pointing at an upward angle from one edge of
the container to the other.

The idea is that if they get interested or sucked in, they are blown up to
the ceiling, away from the must.

"David D." > wrote in message
ups.com...
>I have this problem every year too. If you search this group, you'll
> find lots of good suggestions. The best way to limit them is to crush/
> destem in a sepearte place from your wine cellar (outside,
> garage,...etc.), and keep everything super clean after you use it.
> Then fill a bowl with juice and add some dish soap. The little flies
> can't seem to leave the soapy juice, so you're just left with a bowl
> of dead flies. Good luck! -David
>
> On Sep 9, 11:46 am, Tater > wrote:
>> little fruit flies are in my kitchen while I am doing my wine. I have
>> not seen any in my must or secondaries, but I feel like I am playing
>> with gasoline inside a torchlit room. does anyone have some
>> suggestions? I am using flypaper right now which is catching them, but
>> more still apear.
>>
>> not quite clouds of them, but enough to have me ask here.
>
>

I keep everything as clean as practical but I also run a fan the
whole time I'm fermenting; it's just a big kitchen ventilator. It
pulls a negative pressure on the winemaking room and for whatever
reason the flies don't seem to appear. My family doesn't agree with
me that the scent of fermenting grapes is a gift from God; hence the
fan...

Joe