Wheatgrass Fruit Fly Swarm

I grow wheatgrass indoors (Arizona, 110+ degrees outdoors in the summer) and have been plagued with a large quantity of fruit flies. They get in the soil and multiply like crazy. Two can turn into hundreds in a day or so. Tried assorted things from nurseries (sticky papers, neem oil, etc.) and nothing seems to get rid of them.

I juice and drink the wheatgrass juice so I can't use chemicals. It's grown indoors so fruit fly eating insects is out, too. Anyone have any suggestions?

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• wheatgrass juice
• wheat grass juice
• growing wheatgrass
• gardening
• indoor gardening
• indoor greens
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• indoor plants
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• raw food
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• fruit flies
• fruit fly

[JoeCubicle]

I think I do something similar to wine and soap. I fill a small bowl with apple cider vinegar and a drop or two of dish soap to break the surface tension. It works, I catch a few here and there but I don't have a lot of fruitflies.

[VisorBlue]

@JoeCubicle If you give me your address I'll post a note for the fruit flies that want to relocate. :-)

As the weather cools here I'm tempted to try again. Maybe grow the grass outside in the portable greenhouse to keep them out of the house.

[VisorBlue]

@JoeCubicle If you give me your address I'll post a note for the fruit flies that want to relocate. :-)

As the weather cools here I'm tempted to try again. Maybe grow the grass outside in the portable greenhouse to keep them out of the house.

[VisorBlue]

@JoeCubicle If you give me your address I'll post a note for the fruit flies that want to relocate. :-)

As the weather cools here I'm tempted to try again. Maybe grow the grass outside in the portable greenhouse to keep them out of the house.

[VisorBlue]

@JoeCubicle If you give me your address I'll post a note for the fruit flies that want to relocate. :-)

As the weather cools here I'm tempted to try again. Maybe grow the grass outside in the portable greenhouse to keep them out of the house.

[flaviopaixao]

Try to use a PET soda trap. Make 3 hole in the pet 2x1 cm each on the large part of the pet. Fill 200ml the pet with grape juico or apple vinager. Close the pet. The fruit flyes will drown. Its very efficient.

[VisorBlue]

@flaviopaixao Thanks, I've made quite a few very efficient traps but the shear volume of the flies was overwhelming. With five traps that had to be emptied and refreshed daily I still wasn't keeping the population down. I added the plastic greenhouse so I could confine them and let them out outside in the morning. I finally gave up.

[MrMachinimar3spawn]

Time to live outside lolz

[VisorBlue]

@scotchlouis Yep, that's what the RIP things are. The volume of fruit flies I had was WAY beyond the traps doing much besides catching a small percentage of them. You can grow wheatgrass indoors. I'm in Phoenix not the coolest either.

[scotchlouis]

@VisorBlue Did you try using the red wine/dish soap trap? Not sure if that works or not; haven't tried it, but maybe it's worth a shot. I went back to buying the wheatgrass for now. I don't really have the growing conditions here anyway - too hot and humid in S. Florida. From what I understand, wheatgrass is best grown in cooler temps, around 70 degrees I think. I get a lot of purple mold on mine too, even with good air circulation. Oh well