On Sep 2, 10:30?am, "Keith Stelter" wrote:
"Sheldon" wrote in message

oups.com...





shaz likd wrote:
I've got these little insects / bugs / gnats.....whatever you want to
call them....buzzing around our kitchen and in the office room at home.

Are you certain they're not crotch flies? hehe

Fruit flies are typically brought into a home as eggs on produce. If
you toss your produce parings into a waste basket or uncoverd trash
can that's not disposed of often fruit flies will proliferate. On the
plus side once hatched fruit flies live only 24 hours, so if you make
an effort to have reasonably clean habits regarding produce then you
wouldn't have fruit flies. Produce should be washed as soon as it's
brought home and its original packaging disposed of outdoors. If you
have fruit flies around your office it's a sure bet you're eating
produce at your pc and leaving the waste about... even wiping your
dribbles and tossing the tissue in the wastebasket will make a cozy
environment for fruit flies. Also regularly wipe all surfaces where
produce has been set (syrups, preserves, and confections as well),
fruit flies are an excellent indicator of slovenly housekeeping
habits.

http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef621.asp

I have to disagree with your last statement.
Here in Michigan we still buy a lot of our produce fresh from farmers.
I'd like to think that my house is kept very clean, but we still get fruit
flies a few times each summer because the produce isn't being processed and
packaged for a supermarket. There is virtually no way to quarantine the
produce because if you put it in the garage or outside you will only attract
MORE fruit flies. We wash our produce and immediately throw away the bags
or cartons that it comes in, but invariably some of the little buggers (or
their eggs) will be inside sweet corn shucks or in bunches of grapes.
They are a nuisance, but it's not like they sting or anything. We just put
out a few custard cups full of vinegar with a little bit of dish soap in it,
and they are gone in a day or so. I honestly don't think that having fruit
flies occasionally should be lumped into the same category as having
roaches, mice, moths, etc., which ARE indicators of poor housekeeping.

Everyone has some *occasional* fruit flies... I didn't lump in with
anything, you're the one lumping in. If you're putting out fruit fly
traps, reading in things that aren't there, and taking personal
offence then perhaps your fruit flies are more problematic than
occasional. I suggest you read the info at the link I posted.