How To Get Rid Of Small Midges In An Apartment Or House, In The Kitchen, Methods Of Dealing With Fruit Flies By Various Means + Photos And Videos

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-07 21:36

How to get rid of small midges in an apartment or house

Sometimes a person unexpectedly discovers small flying insects in his home. Moreover, these midges can be different in appearance: gray, red, white, black. It's time to think about whether they are dangerous, whether they bite, and how to get rid of them. It is easy to answer these questions by understanding which small flying insects most often appear in a house or apartment.

Content

• 1 Types of small midges found in human housing

  • 1.1 Drosophila
  • 1.2 Whiteflies
  • 1.3 Flower midges (sciarids)
  • 1.4 Butterflies

• 2 Ways to Get Rid of Small Black Midges

  • 2.1 Fighting fruit flies at home

    2.1.1 Folk remedies: juice, cereals, vinegar, etc

• 3 How to get rid of fruit flies. Video
• 4 Fruit fly trap. Video

• 5 Some modern chemical-based treatments for fruit flies

  • 5.1 Breeding whiteflies and sciarids on indoor flowers in an apartment

    • 5.1.1 Simple remedies for whitefly
    • 5.1.2 Whitefly houseplant pest. Video

  • 5.2 Means of fighting sciaris

    5.2.1 Sciarids. Video

  • 5.3 How to get rid of midges in the bathroom

    5.3.1 Means of dealing with a butterfly

• 6 Reviews and advice from hostesses from forums

Types of small midges found in human housing

Fruit flies

Drosophila are small insects in the fruit fly family. Small size, ease of breeding, short life cycle made Drosophila indispensable as an object of research for genetic scientists. Drosophila also has popular names: vinegar, wine, fruit fly.

These insects live next to humans, because here they find food for themselves, which are rotten berries, fruits, sour juices.

The length of the insect is 1.5–3 mm, the wings are longer than the body.

Drosophila size 1.5-3 mm

The eyes are red, and the insect itself has a yellow-brown color.

Drosophila has a yellow-brown color

Drosophila reproduce very quickly. In just 10 days, development takes place from an egg to an adult. The very next day after emerging from the pupa, Drosophila lays eggs, and during its life it can lay up to 2 thousand eggs. With such a speed of reproduction, fruit flies quickly reclaim space in the apartment, and although they are quite harmless and do not bite, the confused tenants urgently look for effective ways to get rid of them.

It is believed that fruit flies are not carriers of diseases, but the very flickering of these flies before your eyes is unpleasant.

Where do Drosophila come from? They cannot fly from afar, because these midges fly no more than 180 meters a day. The most common reason for the appearance of fruit flies, biologists call fruits and vegetables brought home, on which there are already eggs of these insects. As soon as the fruit begins to deteriorate and rot, larvae appear from the eggs, and flies from the larvae.

Drosophila love rotten fruit

Drosophila can be brought into the house with soil for planting indoor plants. Adult flies emerge from eggs and larvae in the ground. They breed especially actively when the flowers are waterlogged and the soil is acidic.

In theory, you can get rid of fruit flies simply by doing a thorough cleaning and depriving them of their food, but this can take a long time.

Whiteflies

Microscopic white insects on indoor flowers are malicious pests of whitefly plants

Tiny whitefly - a malicious pest of indoor plants

They can arrive with a new indoor flower or fly in from the street. These small insects lay their eggs on the back of the leaves. The hatched whiteflies suck out the juice, and leave behind a sugary discharge. The leaves of the plant are deformed and then fall off along with the flower buds.

Whitefly kills indoor plants

Pests multiply extremely quickly and are extremely tenacious. If you do not start the fight against whitefly in time, indoor flowers will die. It especially damages begonia, fuchsia, balsam.

Flower midges (sciarids)

Adult sciaris (flower gnats or mushroom gnats, or soil gnats) are black insects about 3-4 mm long.

Flower midge sciaris

They lay eggs among the roots of plants. The mosquitoes themselves do not do much harm, but their larvae, which are worms up to 5 mm long, are very dangerous for flowers. The larvae eat the roots of the plant, which causes it to die.

Sciarid larvae eat plant roots

Flower midges get into the house with the ground infested with larvae. They can fly through the window. These insects are often found in damp basements of houses, and from there they make their way through the ventilation. Moths may be interested in food waste, rotten fruits and vegetables.

Sciarids do not bite, but they must be fought with, otherwise they will destroy all indoor flowers.

Butterflies

Butterflies (sewer flies) are small insects up to 2 mm long

Sewer fly

The larvae of these insects and pupae live in sewer pipes and feed on decaying organic matter. Adults have wings and a body covered with hairs. One clutch of a butterfly contains up to a hundred eggs. There can be a lot of infection on the paws of these unpleasant insects. In addition, cases of allergy to butterflies are known.

Butterflies themselves can also be food for spiders and other large insects that will appear in the house, if the sewer fly is not exterminated.

Ways to Get Rid of Small Black Gnats

Fighting fruit flies at home

Folk remedies: juice, cereals, vinegar, etc

1. Pour kvass or fruit juice into a glass jar. You can put in some kind of fruit or berries instead. Make a funnel and insert into the neck. Flies will easily penetrate to the bait, but will not be able to fly out of the can. The funnel is best made of yellow paper, because insects are attracted to the yellow color.

   

   The funnel for the trap is best made of yellow paper.

2. If fruit flies appear in flower pots, it is necessary to dry the ground and stick 4–5 matches into it, heads down.
3. Put apple cores, watermelon peels in a plastic bag and wait until flies gather in the bag. Then tie the bag and discard.
4. Place the bait in a plastic cup and cover with cling film. Make small holes. When the flies are collected in the cup, you can throw it away.

5. Pour apple cider vinegar into a container and add dishwashing detergent. Vinegar attracts fruit flies, and dish detergent keeps them from getting out.

   

   Dishwashing detergent added to apple cider vinegar

6. You can perfectly catch flies with a vacuum cleaner.

How to get rid of fruit flies. Video

Fruit fly trap. Video

There are also special agents that can be used to combat fruit flies, as well as other insects.

You can use some kind of insecticide in the form of an aerosol or fly sheets, but in the kitchen where the food is located, this is not desirable. Better to use sticky traps and tapes.

Some modern chemical-based treatments for fruit flies

1. The Aeroxon sticky trap is designed to kill harmful insects on indoor plants. The trap has an alluring color. The glue is odorless and non-toxic.
2. Fly tape Raptor. The yellow color attracts flies that stick to the glue layer.
3. Aeroxon flycatcher window tape. An effective and safe remedy for midges.

Breeding whiteflies and sciarids on indoor flowers in an apartment

Simple remedies for whitefly

1. The easiest and most harmless way for humans to kill whitefly is to manually remove insects from indoor plants. To do this, you need to remove the leaves infected with whitefly, and loosen the soil in the pot. The whole plant must be treated with soapy water.
2. You can place sticky tapes near houseplants: adult whiteflies will stick to them.
3. Since the whitefly likes to live in the shade on the underside of the leaves, you can scare it off with light: put sheets of foil near the flowers. The sun's rays, reflected, will fall on the underside of the leaves, where this pest lives.
4. If one of the indoor plants is most affected by the whitefly, then it may be better to sacrifice it and not spread the dangerous insect to other flowers.
5. Make an infusion of yarrow. Add a couple of tablespoons of dish soap to it. Treat the leaves of affected plants with this composition.
6. To prevent the appearance of whiteflies, spray the flowers with infusion of dandelion leaves and roots every 10 days.
7. At the initial stage of whitefly spreading, wipe the plants with garlic infusion (3-4 chopped cloves and 2 glasses of water).
8. For 24 hours, infuse orange peels in water, then add 2 tablespoons of liquid soap. Spray on plants for several days in a row. Keep the product in the refrigerator.

Whitefly pest of indoor plants. Video

Sciaris control agents

1. Dry the topsoil by 1–2 cm. Then the eggs will die.
2. Make top drainage. Cover the soil with a layer of gravel or expanded clay. The drainage dries quickly after watering, and the pest is unable to lay eggs.
3. Remove dried leaves and flowers in a timely manner. Exclude watering plants with broths, sleeping tea, milk, etc. Food products simply rot in the soil and help pests to multiply.
4. Water the soil several times with a weak solution of potassium permanganate. This remedy is considered to be quite effective.
5. Draw with chalk "Mashenka" (from cockroaches) stripes at the top of the flower pots.
6. Use traps and duct tape.
7. Keep the house clean and tidy, promptly remove food waste that can become food for sciarids.

Sciarids. Video

The use of insecticides in a residential area should be treated with extreme caution. The most popular are Aktara and Aktellik. It is required to strictly follow the instructions for the use of such funds.

How to get rid of midges in the bathroom

In the bathroom near the sinks, a butterfly (sewer fly) may appear. This insect is attracted to trash bins, clogged plums in the bathtub and sink.

Hence the methods of dealing with this disgusting insect follow.

Means of fighting a butterfly

1. The main thing in the fight against the butterfly is cleaning the sewer pipes. Pipes must be cleaned both mechanically (with a cable) and modern means for cleaning blockages. You can at least use the old folk method: pour soda into the drain and extinguish it with vinegar.
2. The bin must be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected.
3. Constantly monitor the cat litter if it is in the bathroom.
4. Hang adhesive tape in places where insects appear.
5. Use midge traps.
6. Place containers with a mixture of apple cider vinegar and vegetable oil in the bathroom. Midges land on the surface of the mixture, but cannot take off, as their wings stick together.
7. Sewer flies don't like the smell of chlorine. Treating bathroom surfaces with chlorine-containing cleaning products will help get rid of the unpleasant neighborhood.

Reviews and advice from hostesses from forums

Small flying insects can deprive a person of a comfortable existence in his house or apartment. Some of them are far from harmless and are carriers of infection or malicious pests of indoor plants. The fight against them must be started immediately after their appearance in the house, then it will be quick and successful. To prevent midges from multiplying exponentially, preventive measures should be followed, which, first of all, include maintaining cleanliness and order.