Pesky drain flies require chemical treatment

By Bev Johnson | The Daily Journal

Published Saturday, August 18, 2007

Bunkey and his buddies were having their usual morning coffee at the Pretty Good Cafe last week.

"Petunia really has her bloomers in a bunch this week. We have these little flies all over the house again and I thought I had just gotten rid of them."

"So,” George asked, “what do they look like?"

"Well" Bunkey said, "they are dark and kind of fuzzy.

The consensus around the table was that Bunkey was dealing with drain flies.

"Have you tried a gallon of boiling water, Draino, vinegar and soda?" Remedies came from all over.

"None of those things did the job this time,"Bunkey said.

"Usually, the hot water treatment takes care of the problem."

With no help forthcoming from his coffee pals, Bunkey went to his other go-to source, the Extension office. Jeff Hahn, the Extension entomologist, had just written an article on this problem. Here are his words of wisdom.

First you need to determine if what you have are actually drain flies. To do this, stick a piece of tape over the suspect drain, one evening. In the morning, check to see if there are any flies stuck to the tape.

If you do find flies, the next step is to eliminate their food source. If they are in the drain, boiling water followed by scrubbing out the drain with a stiff brush and another flush of water will usually do the trick.

If you still have the little stinkers, he recommends the use of a biological drain cleaner, the enzymes in these cleaners actually eat the goop that collects in the drain.

Jeff also suggests that you be sure that the problem is not from a break in the sewer line. Ick.

So what is that stuff that accumulates in the drain to attract flies? Grease, skin cells, bits of food and other yukky stuff that the flies eat and lay eggs in. Regular drain cleaners or bleach will not kill the flies and even boiling water will not remove all of the organic gunk that accumulates in drains.

Unfortunately, Mr. Hahn does not give us brand names of enzyme cleaners so you will need to read the labels, a good idea anytime you are buying any chemical or strong cleaner.

After cleaning out all the drains and taking Petunia out to dinner, Bunkey is back in her good graces.

Bev Johnson is a master gardener for West Otter Tail County.