Quick, cheap and easy way to get rid of drain flies

Drain flies are horrible! They breed and live off slime and gunk in drains. And they’re almost impossible to get rid off. I’ve searched the internet for various solutions from pouring boiling water into drain, to pouring in vinegar with baking soda, to scrubbing the inside of the drain( Blehh….) I checked with exterminators, it’ll cost about $200 for a visit and they’d need to do multiple visits because these flies can come back. Like… what the heck man! $200 to get rid of these damn flies?!?!? 

Being a cheapass and a science teacher, I figured I should approach this like any other problem and use some reasoning to come with the best method of killing these damn flies.

Know Thy Enemy!

Drain flies or drain moths breed in standing drain water and feed off protein and muck. Their larvae and pupa are extremely hardy and tahan very high temperatures.

This means pouring hot water may not always work because if the water isn’t like boiling hot and if it doesn’t hit the larvae on the spot, chances are the infestation will persist. Also, the vinegar baking soda method just makes the drain clogged with carbon dioxide. It’ll probably kill the adult flies and the larvae but not the pupa since pupa exist in this cocoon that’s very protected and require little oxygen.

Also, the drain flies have a life cycle span of 10-15 days. That means, whatever method used must be continued for a total of 15 days to ensure that the entire colony is cleared. If even a couple of adult flies linger, they can easily populate the area again.

Clear the Area

The first step is to make the breeding area as inhospitable as possible. That would mean finding the source of the stagnant drain water. For me, it was simple. I knew where they were coming from because my bathroom had just this one big drain hole. And looking into it, I saw some standing water, but it was impossible for me to clear it as it was too deep and too gross. But if you can, go ahead. I just decided to nuke the buggers!

Weapon of Choice

Drain flies belong to the moth family. We can use insecticides and spray bomb them; but that means a heck a lot of toxic stuff near where I wash my peepee. I seriously don’t wish to expose my skin to prolonged(10-15 days) exposure to insecticide.

I thought the easiest way to kill moths is by moth balls!! Moth balls contain naphthalene or paradichlorobenzene which sublimate. Now, these chemicals are pretty toxic as well, but not as bad as those insecticides. They do the job of killing these flies and preventing the adults from coming back to the breeding ground.

Containment

I needed a way to keep the sublimated moth ball vapours from killing me when I shower, and I need to concentrate the vapours in that area. So I simply placed a plastic container that was slightly larger than the drain vent. This acted as a fly and vapour trap.

These flies come out during the night and they usually just rest on walls. So putting the container there allows the adult flies to rest on the inside of the container while the vapours build up, killing them beautifully and silently.

Results

Gross right??!! This is just from day 1 of moth ball bomb nuke project.

The results speak for themselves. Day one shows heavy casualty on the enemy’s side. And all I need to do is just refill the mothball near the drain and cover it with this container for the next 15 days. The vapours don’t escape enough that it causes an inconvenience to me while I shower.

The total cost of this… may $2 for a packet of moth balls. I just got this container after I ta bao some food.

Try it and tell me how if it helped for you as well. =)

Update:

So this is my latest Day2 pic.

It’s a little gross looking coz it has hair and dead flies, but it’s untouched and unedited to show you the real results. I realised that the flies tend to die on the inside of the containers and just get stuck there. I’m not sure why, but my guess is that their death was so “soothing” that they kinda died in their sleep, thus they didn’t have the energy or capacity to fly around and struggle.