Hello! About six months ago, I spent a month with my sister in a city apartment. She then had health problems and was required to be under constant supervision.
From the first days of my stay there I had to deal with uninvited guests in the kitchen.
Hordes of midges swarmed there. But I have already faced this problem more than once in my life, so the problem was quickly fixed. Want to find out where the midges come from in the apartment? How can you get rid of them effectively? In the article below I will tell you in detail about everything.
The content of the article:
Cats - where do they come from in the house?
These small and ubiquitous insects appear in an instant and out of nowhere. For a short period of time, they fill up home flowers or a bathroom, coddle your snow-white curtains or settle in the kitchen.
Here they feel like full owners, climbing into a jar of jam or falling into your morning tea. It is because of such an invasion that many people have a question - where do the midges come from?
Reasons for the appearance
According to experts, today more than 1000 species of midges are known:
- some annoy animals
- some are harmful to plants
- some annoy a person, filling his home.
Most often, these annoying insects are Drosophila or wine flies.
It will not work to get rid of these annoying insects until you remove the source of their vital activity from your apartment. To do this, you need to know their favorite habitats:
- In the first place is the kitchen. It is here that various products are located, including their favorite delicacy - rotten vegetables or fruits.
- The second place is taken by the bathroom, in which people leave wet things, wet floor rags. Timely unannounced blockage of the water supply can also become a source of their appearance.
- In third place are animal cells or aquariums. With improper or untimely care of your pets, you run the risk of acquiring such annoying neighbors.
- In fourth place are vases with flowers or potted flowers, which are often watered.
Such places can be listed for a very long time, here it is necessary to highlight the main factors: it is dirt and constant dampness. By eliminating these two factors in your apartment, you will forever get rid of annoying guests.
The activity of this midge falls in the evening. Climbing out of the ground, it begins to annoy a person, flying into his ears, eyes or nose. People call it an earthen flea, which corresponds to its lifestyle.
To combat the earthen flea, various means against mosquitoes and flies or folk methods (for example, tea tree oil) are used.
Breeding
At a temperature of 25 degrees indoors, the life cycle of these insects will be 10 days. If the constant temperature is within 18 degrees, then the life expectancy increases to 1 month.
Over 5 days, larvae grow, and at 24 and 48 hours after birth, they begin to molt, after which they crawl to the surface of the water and, when dried, become covered with a shell. After five days, the larvae turn into adults - adults.
Throughout life, females are fertilized only once, and they will lay eggs after mating constantly. Sperm all this time will be inside the female.
How to prevent the occurrence?
Eliminating flying flies is much more difficult than preventing their formation. To do this, it is recommended to study some preventive tips:
- The first thing you need to take care of is to take out the garbage in a timely manner from your house or apartment.
- Keep water taps in good condition and do not allow excessive humidity in the kitchen or bathroom, and immediately wipe up spilled water.
- Provide your windows and doors with protective nets that, in addition to midges, will save you from flies and mosquitoes.
- Check your indoor plants for fluid buildup in the pot trays.
If the house is clean, then where are the midges?
Even if your house or apartment is in perfect cleanliness, and there are no sources for the formation of midges, but they constantly appear, get busy with general cleaning.
Check the sewer system, if there is congestion, then midges will settle on the leftovers of food. Look behind the refrigerator, usually there is a tray for water drainage, maybe it is in it that annoying midges live.
Be sure to audit in the closet with cereals or homemade workpieces. Check the bin for spoiled fruits or other foods. Clean the cages of your pets or replace the aquarium. Clean the ventilation shafts.
How to fight?
Today, there are many effective ways to deal with uninvited guests:
- "Liquid soap + vinegar." This smell serves as a bait for midges, dropping into the solution, they can not fly back.
- Velcro. This option is suitable if you have a very large number of these midges accumulated in your house, and you do not know how to get rid of them.
- "Orange + cloves." A few cloves are wrapped in an orange peel and put such a “present” in the place where the concentration of midges is maximum.
- "Tobacco + garlic." This method is used for problems with indoor plants. The garlic is minced and put in flower pots for 2 hours, after which it is harvested. Then they put the tobacco and drop it on the ground not very deep.
Causes of Drosophila
This material is not dedicated to bugs or cockroaches, but to Drosophila flies. We suggest figuring out where they come from in the house, finding out how to get rid of this trouble.
Kinds
The insect is harmless, albeit annoying. Scientists have several thousand species, although only 1,500 of them are described in detail, 40 live in European countries.
Drosophila melanogaster (other names: fruit, fruit, small fly, sour acid) is a small, about 3 mm long, insect belonging to the Drosophiliadae family, order Diptera.
External characteristics: red eyes and brownish-yellow color with black rings on the abdomen. The body of the female is approximately 2.5 mm, while the male is smaller and has a darker back. It is these midges that usually start in houses and apartments.
By the way, the melanogaster subspecies is highly regarded by genetics as it is ideally suited for experiments.
Drosophila funebris (it is called a large or vinegar, wine fly) is larger than the melanogaster by an average of 1 mm. It lives mainly near ponds, barrels or other vessels with fermenting / decaying liquids, less often it starts in fruits.
Where does the fruit midge live and eat?
Specific distribution areas not established. Fruit midges (Drosophila) live all over the globe. They feed on rotting vegetables, fruits, plant juices. In the southern regions they prefer to live in orchards and vineyards.
Nobody is trying to get them out there, given the harmlessness of the insect and the futility of this activity in the natural environment. In a temperate climate and in the cold season, it settles mainly near people.
How do they breed?
Where do Drosophila lay their eggs? The female insect lays eggs, whose size is about 0.5 mm, in a rotting fruit or any other organic material.
After 4 days, adults appear - adults, which reach puberty within 8-12 hours.
Midge life cycle
The insect goes through three stages of development. During growth, the larvae molt twice: 24 and 48 hours after formation. At this time, they feed on the substances of the decomposing fetus and the microorganisms involved in this process.
After 4-5 days, they pupate. In this state, another 4-5 days are spent, during which metamorphoses that change, develop and prepare organs for transformation into adults take place.
Depending on the air temperature, the answer to the question of how many Drosophila live is different. In the warm period - 10 - 20 days, in the cold - up to 2.5 months.
Where do Drosophila come from?
Microscopic wings are not designed to cover long distances. Scientists estimate that, on average, midges move 180 meters per day.
So where do Drosophila come from at home, especially in winter, when doors, windows and all kinds of gaps are closed and insulated?
In nature, these insects feed on juices and rotting plant debris. Accordingly, they live in gardens, in summer cottages or just on fruit trees.
They get into the apartment in several ways:
- with fruits and vegetables (rarely midges, usually their eggs);
- with the land that remained on the fruit, or brought for plant transplantation;
- through windows if garbage containers or fruit trees are nearby;
- through ventilation from neighbors or from the basement;
- multiply in food that is stuck in a drain pipe.
Even the most reverent clean connoisseurs of cleanliness who don’t leave food on the tables are washed away from this misfortune, wash their dishes and pet bowls to shine, regularly take out the garbage and sort through the contents of the refrigerator, throwing out rotted fruits.
Yes, it’s unpleasant to see Drosophila wrapped in a cloud of a fruit vase or a favorite home plant. But don't be discouraged! Of course, the contents of the fruit bowl will have to be thrown out, but the flower leaves can be saved.
How to get rid of an apartment
Once in the apartment, the flies multiply rapidly, and it is very difficult to get them out. It’s worth leaving a rotting fruit or vegetable on the table for the night, by morning you will be provided with a full kitchen of winged “guests”.
Always follow preventative measures:
- regularly wash the dishes of pets;
- make sure that the pieces of food do not fall into the slit, the wet or spoiled fruits are not lying anywhere;
- to store the crop and fruits purchased for future use, if possible, in the basement;
- remove garbage in a timely manner, wash the bucket, do not leave it open;
- less often water indoor plants, it is better to put them in those rooms where Drosophila has nothing to eat.
If you constantly monitor this, then even if the flies appear, after a while they will disappear themselves, without the use of chemistry. Timing depends on how long they live without food.
In late autumn and early spring, when it is cold outside, and Drosophila move closer to warm places, it is enough to simply ventilate the rooms daily.
How to get out of the kitchen
If you read our advice late, and clouds of flies already flooded your house.
Trap 1. Put a slice of melon or watermelon in a brand new plastic bag so that the insects can fly into it unhindered. They will certainly enjoy such a treat. In the morning, you just have to tie a bag of insects and take it to the trash. If the flies soon reappeared, then this is a new offspring.
Trap 2. Pour kvass or fruit juice (about a quarter) into the bottle, cover the hole with a paper funnel. Insects will fall into the container, but to get out through a narrow hole for them will be problematic.
An effective method for getting rid of fruit flies is a mixture of apple cider vinegar and dishwashing liquid. Dilute the components in jars 1: 1, put in those parts of the apartment where insects were seen. Update the solution weekly and the problem will disappear soon.
Where do the midges come from?
Females are the common name for all small winged insects, consisting of a family of flies. And although they are divided into categories: fruit midges, onion midges, domestic midges, ground midges, they are all Drosophila, and they eat what literally is bad.
It can be not only onions or fruits, but also sugar, walnuts, etc. Some fruit flies also eat plants, arranging raids on potted plants.
In addition, midges feed on food debris that accumulates in the shell pipe. That's why midges appear most often in the kitchen. In addition to annoyance and spoilage of products and plants, midges are also harmful because they are carriers of various infections dangerous to humans and pets.
Cats have the habit of gathering in large flocks flying around the apartment - such swarms are most visible in the dusk. The size of an adult midge is from 1 to 3 millimeters. It is worth noting that although the life expectancy of midges is not so long, they reproduce very quickly, so the number of voracious insects can increase very sharply.
Some are surprised by the fact that the midges suddenly appear on a plate with freshly bought (or even gathered in their own garden) fruits. It seems to be all fresh, and yet there were midges in the apartment. Where from? The fact is that midges prudently lay their eggs on still growing fruits. Therefore, picking fruit or buying it, you yourself bring midges to the house.
And be sure to be washed with hot water before serving. And, of course, you can’t store products that started to deteriorate - this is the most favorable environment for active reproduction of midges.
Various methods are invented to combat midges: from chemicals, aerosols and fumigants to the most sophisticated traps.But killing midges is very difficult.
Therefore, an effective invention - an installation against mosquitoes and midges - Mosquito Killer, which lures blood-sucking insects (and midges, like mosquitoes, belong to this type of insects) and draws them onto a 20V grid, inside the case, is becoming increasingly popular. According to research results, the device showed stunning results.
How and where do gnats develop and where do they come from?
Any housewife thought that it was worth leaving a slightly rotten apple or any other fruit, as a little later a huge number of flies appeared in the apartment.
In other words, they won’t be able to fly from the street. And it is true! Where did these insects come from in the apartment? In some hosts, such midges live in flowers, especially in indoor violets. Also, these insects can start in onions if it begins to deteriorate.
Fruit and berry flies feed on fruit juice and rotting plant debris. These flies are called Drosophila midges or wine flies. They have several species and subspecies, which have sizes from 3 to 5 mm.
Like any insect, they have three stages of development - an egg, a larva, an adult. If the necessary environment is created (rotting fruits and vegetables, garbage bags, sweet juices, used tea bags and much more), then the development from an egg to an adult will take place in just a day. In general, these insects actively develop in a rotting environment.
This is explained very simply: an adult lays its eggs on a ripe and unspoiled fruit, even on the one that grows in the garden. Having brought any fruit, vegetable or berries from a store, market, street or garden, a person brings these hated insects to his home with them.
And in order for them to develop, they need a rotting environment. And if only the brought product starts to deteriorate, then the development of this midge will go from the egg to the adult. These insects have not only rapid development, but also development in large quantities. Hence, large clusters of these parasites appear.
Precautionary measures
If you take some steps, then midges in the kitchen may not appear.
- All fruits, before being put in a vase, must be thoroughly washed and dried, since wet fruits are more likely to deteriorate and rot.
- It is best to wash the fruit with hot water or pour over boiling water, while all the larvae are destroyed, if any.
- Promptly remove rotten, damaged, or too soft plums, apricots, apples, pears, and other fruits from the fruit bowl.
- Berries and fruits that quickly deteriorate: raspberries, strawberries, cherries and other berries should not be placed on the table for a long time - they should be eaten faster. You should also act with chopped and peeled fruits - pineapple, watermelon, melon, banana.
- The best way is to clean the fruit overnight in the refrigerator. Preventing the appearance of midges is always easier than then fighting it.
To completely get rid of midges, you need to know the exact cause of their occurrence. Sometimes it happens that no methods help. In such cases, only special chemicals can help, which need to process the entire room. And after that, never leave fruits, vegetables, berries and other products on the table for the night.
How to get rid of them?
When you bring home fruit, you need to rinse it well or pour over boiling water (then the midge eggs will die) and put in the refrigerator. In the cold, these insects do not breed.
If somewhere some fruit is rotten, you immediately need to get rid of it and the place where it was immediately thoroughly washed.
Be sure to frequently check the places where the products are stored:
- potatoes;
- carrot;
- onions, etc.
It is important to clean them from possible rot. When watering indoor plants, one should not get carried away by overly saturated soil with water. You should not store garbage bags and buckets for a long time, as garbage has the property of deteriorating, and hence the appearance of midges only increases.
If you follow these rules, then you can not use chemical agents - midges themselves will disappear without even appearing.
From and to
How does the midge develop and where does it come from? It develops about a day and lives only five days. The female of this insect lays about 400 eggs in the midst of rotten fruit, standing in a vase on the table.
And then the owner looks, and a swarm of midges is already spinning over this vase. The only thing that can please in this case is that the midges do not grow to a large size. But all this does not make them attractive.
Sources of fruit midges in your apartment
Often the situation is not restful when small clumsy insects freely move around the kitchen. It is especially difficult to endure their presence if there are a lot of them: midges materialize literally everywhere. In tea, a jar of jam, chopped melon or fruit.
This despite the fact that in the apartment the external communications are isolated, like an impregnable fortress. Where do gnats come from and what kind of misfortune is this?
Small: up to 3 mm, midges have a solid color from yellow to brown with transverse black stripes on the abdomen. In addition, the appearance of fruit midges is complemented by a pair of transparent wings and red mesh eyes. A distinctive feature is the rate of reproduction.
Wine midges are unusually prolific, - up to 400 eggs in the clutch, prefer heat, humidity and rot. This is the answer to the question: where did the uninvited guests come from in the apartment.
Common Causes
Seasonal fruits and vegetables from the beds can be dotted with inconspicuous fruit fly eggs. Purchased by weight, or brought from the cottage, they carry a potential flock of small pests.
In addition to this, there are several loopholes where the midges come from in the apartment:
- Window. Wide open, they attract not only fruit midges. Even mosquito nets do not save. Look, if the cells have a size within 3 mm or holes in the canvas, then you have found the place where the Drosophila come from.
- Ventilation ducts. For some reason, when cockroaches appear, they are suspected in the first place. Meanwhile, if the grilles are not isolated, where else can the flies come from in the apartment?
- Sink sink. Most often, drain midges live there, but sometimes fruit ones appear.
- Bin. This is the only thing that comes into contact with the outside world. During a short trip on the way home, you can easily bring along a fruit midge or a whole brood of eggs on the walls.
Precautionary measures
Knowing the enemy’s face and understanding where the midges come from, it’s easy to take simple precautions.The most important thing: to prevent favorable conditions for life and reproduction, then, even if they appear in the apartment - they will not have a chance to survive.
It is clear that the source of heat, moisture and decay is a direct indication of unsanitary conditions. If the apartment is clean, then for fruit midges there simply is no place.
Do not leave dirty dishes and cleanings from fruits - they serve as an excellent source for propagation of fruit midges
Concerning:
- Perform wet cleaning regularly, especially in the kitchen.
- Review stocks of products: from overripe, rotten or simply substandard must be disposed of in a timely manner. And often look under the cabinets and sofas: this is how you can find out where the annoying flies come from. One failed stub will cost big nerves.
- Wash fruits and vegetables immediately after purchase. It is advisable to scald with hot water from the tap and dry.
- Keep food in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
- Disinfect plums, bins, and change kitchen sponges more often.
- Do not leave dirty dishes and, especially, empty bottles.
- Rags and rugs should be kept dry and clean.
If you make cleanliness in the house a rule, then even if midges appear from somewhere, you won’t even notice how they disappear.
True, you should still take care of mechanical barriers:
- hang on a grid window;
- isolate ventilation ducts.
After all, if they appear in sterile cleanliness, then the apartment needs to be additionally protected from uninvited guests.
Means of struggle
If after a general cleaning and total disinfection of the whole house, a flock of midges still flies and there is not enough patience to wait until they disappear themselves, you can use special means.
If there are few of them, there will be enough folk ways:
- spray the flock from the spray bottle with water, alcohol or a window cleaner, and then collect with a broom;
- smoke camphor from the house (heating it in a skillet) or scare off the smell of garlic, geranium, horseradish;
- collect fruit midges with a vacuum cleaner or tape;
- do-it-yourself trap.
If the number of fruit midges is massive, you can use ready-made remedies:
- traps. Thanks to the special form and bait inside, they allow you to quickly get rid of parasites;
- sprays. Contain contact, fatal to Drosophila substances;
- zappers. Special devices that strike flies with electric current;
- repellents. Their work is based on scaring away fruit midges, but there are those that contribute to their death;
- gels. Liquid substances toxic to insects. Great for wastewater treatment.
When using, note that some of them are toxic and require compliance with safety rules. All methods are good in the fight, the main thing is to eliminate the ways from where midges can appear in the apartment and not give them a chance for further reproduction.
Preventing the appearance of fruit midges in the house is both easy and difficult. It is necessary to constantly observe the hygiene of the home. Not only Drosophila will have a clean chance: other parasites and uninvited guests will also bypass your apartment.
Where do gnats come from in an apartment
Keeping cleanliness in the house, periodically doing general cleaning, we often don’t understand where our “uninvited guests” came from in the form of midges, which are also called Drosophila.
In addition, midges can harm not only food or your favorite flowerpots, but also the person who, after a bite, may have an allergic reaction or other skin irritations and diseases.Where does the midge in the house come from and how to deal with it? - An urgent issue for those who are faced with these insects.
The presence of midges in the house can be a real disaster for the owners, because they multiply at a frantic pace. Most often, they like to breed in fruits that stand in a warm room and begin to rot. Female Drosdophilus lays eggs in favorable conditions when the process of fruit rot begins to occur.
Also favorable conditions for the reproduction of midges are considered indoor plants. Poor care of flowerpots can lead to midges. Unsanitary conditions in the house are another reason for the appearance and reproduction of midges.
Pups breed very quickly, but they do not live long. They not only harm the food products that are in the house, but also are carriers of diseases dangerous to people. Therefore, when a midge appears in the house, you need to get rid of it as soon as possible.
Eliminate Drosophila
How to get rid of midges in the kitchen. Getting rid of midges is quite simple, for this you only need to remove the products in which the midge lives. If they begin to rot, you can throw it away when the fruits are intact, you can hide in the refrigerator.
After this, the midge itself will disappear, since its life is very short, and there will be no environment for reproduction. Various cereals, bread or pet food can become a source of midge food. Tighten all cereals, dried fruits, jars of jam tightly.
If you do not remove all the food, then the midge will multiply at a frantic pace and get rid of it, it will not be easy at all. There are several ways to help get rid of annoying insects.
Vinegar and soapy water against midges. You can take a jar or a small container in which pour 3 tablespoons of vinegar and soapy water. Put the finished solution closer to the place where the midges live, they will smell and drown in the vinegar solution.
Velcro from flies. Allows you to collect not only midges, but also other insects living in the house. Special Velcro can be purchased at the store or in the market.
Orange with cloves. A good tool to combat food midges. Take the peel of an orange, put in a dry clove and put where the midge lives.
Getting rid of midges in the house is not so difficult. Take a garbage bag, put a banana peel, an apple core or other rotten fruit in it. Put it in an open bag and leave it overnight.
How to get rid of midges in flowerpots. If the midge has divorced in indoor plants, the first thing to do is to separate the healthy flowerpots from the damaged ones, otherwise it is more likely that the midge will begin to multiply into other plants. To prevent the reproduction of midges, it is necessary to carry out prophylaxis.
Take a small amount of potassium permanganate, dilute it in water and water the soil of plants. The potassium permanganate solution must be very weak, otherwise you can burn the flower.
Dilute the soap in water and pour the flowerpot. Such a tool will help get rid of midges and not harm the flowerpots.
Peeled garlic. Garlic should be cut into several thin slices and spread on a pot surface.
In the store with products for the care of indoor plants, buy special care products for flowerpots. They will help get rid of midges and keep the plant itself. Use these funds according to the instructions, which are indicated on each package with the goods.
How to prevent the occurrence
The presence of midges in the house is not a pleasant feeling, therefore it is better to prevent its appearance than to fight it. There are some tips that will not allow the midge to settle in your house.
Getting rid of midges:
- timely get rid of foods that begin to rot;
- do general cleaning more often;
- keep water taps in good condition;
- in the hot season, put special nets on the windows that will not allow the fly to freely enter the apartment;
- monitor indoor plants, timely transplant flowerpots, do not allow the soil to dry out and excessive watering;
- if there is a pet in the house, always watch their plate and resting place;
- Frequent cleaning of the house, timely disposal of garbage will help prevent the appearance of all kinds of insects, including midges.
Simple rules and maintaining cleanliness in the house will not allow midges to settle on your products or flowerpots.
Preventive measures
Now that you know where the nasty two-winged come from, you can begin to answer the question of how to remove midges once and for all. It makes no sense to fight them if the place of their appearance is not clearly defined. Only after finding the cause can the "enemy power" be completely destroyed.
The fight against kitchen midges consists in the timely removal of garbage, the removal of rotten food products, hanging sticky traps (including inside kitchen cabinets).
It is also necessary to monitor the cleanliness and dryness of all dishcloths and periodically pour in a sink to remove grease and blockages. In the absence of such, ordinary soda is used, which is poured into the hole in the sink in large quantities and poured (slaked) with vinegar.
In addition, all cereals are reviewed and sorted, and the shelves are wiped with a soap or vinegar solution. Flying small fry can be caught in makeshift traps: a bottle with a narrow neck with unfinished juice or a leaky cup covered with polyethylene with rotten pieces of fruit.
To bring out flower midges that spoil the leaves and root system is not so simple. To begin with, it is necessary to reduce the watering of the plant to a minimum, remove the remains of the tea leaves, if it was used for "feeding".
Then stick 4-5 matches in the pot with the sulfur head down and spray the leaves with a weak solution of potassium permanganate. If such a “folk” remedy did not help, continue to fight insects using insecticides for the soil: Thunder, Agravertin, Fitoverm, Karbofos, etc.
The remaining types of midges can be brought out with the help of thorough cleaning, washing the aquarium, changing the drainage in the living area. Various acrid and persistent odors help to combat indoor midges: garlic, camphor, frankincense, citrus. They “refresh” the air in any place where midges appeared. Remember that the most proven tool is the elimination of humidity and maintaining cleanliness in the room.
"Fruit midges": how to get rid of annoying insects
"Fruit midges" - this is nothing like Drosophila flies. There are fruit midges, earthen, domestic and many other varieties of these creatures, the name of which in most cases is associated with what they eat. They can often be seen on fresh foods, in the sink, or on food debris.
Many of you wonder where they come from. After all, they appear not only on rotten, but also on fresh products, even if they are grown in their own garden.
Therefore, if you want to avoid the appearance of these annoying "neighbors", then store food only in the refrigerator, and rinse in warm water before serving.
Cats are quite dangerous creatures, which you should definitely get rid of. Firstly, they are responsible for the spoilage of products. Secondly, like all flies, they are carriers of various kinds of infections.
To get started, search for the source of midges. Carefully check all nightstands where food is stored. Look in the sink sink, as very often food debris accumulates there, which create ideal conditions for feeding midges.
Sometimes they can be seen on plants and flowers that have been stored in the house for quite some time and began to deteriorate. And another very important point - get rid of all spoiled foods, as the processes of decay are ideal conditions for the development of Drosophila.
To do this, put a little jam or a piece of fruit on the bottom of the glass jar. Now make a funnel from ordinary paper, cutting a hole at its end. All midges will fly into the bank through the hole, but can’t fly out anymore. This way you can get rid of midges.
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