Posted on 07/26/2023 8:48:44 PM PDT by Jamestown1630
Sorry for the vanity; (and also sorry for the length of this). But I’ve gotten good advice from people here about household problems in the past; and now I have a couple more.
1. For the first time that I can remember, I have had an infestation of fruit flies. We think it may have come from a bag of potatoes, which is something we’ve never bought before – we usually just buy the few single potatoes that we are going to use immediately. We got rid of that bag, and every fresh thing – onions, tomatoes, whatever - that was sitting out. But it didn’t solve the problem.
We spent many dollars on various solutions over the past 10 days or so (we can’t use exterminators for this, as we have cats and birds, and I have a lot of allergies.)
We tried the bowls and glasses of apple cider vinegar with drops of dish detergent squirted in, and also with red wine. These were somewhat helpful, but the kitchen still had scores of them flying around.
Then, I saw a video suggesting ‘Raid Fly Strips’. We bought them, and baited them with beer (Guiness Extra Stout!), according to another YouTuber. (I am not associated with ‘Raid’, and am not promoting them; it’s just the only thing that has worked in our particular situation.)
After 1-1/2 hours, this thing had gotten scores of these little jerks stuck to it. And for the rest of the night, I only saw two of them flying around. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.(I need to give a hat tip to YouTuber 'Ethnic Mama' who suggested this product. She doesn't seem to be around much these days, but I will be eternally grateful):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXHHLqUd22c
But if there are any exterminators here, I have a question:
Many years ago, we lived in an apartment that suddenly got infected with those little tan roaches. We had never seen them there before, and assumed that someone had moved in and brought them, or had bombed and dispersed them.
The management company sent this wonderful young man around, who just had a tiny pen-like thing; and all he did was squirt a little spot of something into corners of drawers, cabinets, etc. We didn’t have to clear out all of our cabinets or lock our cats up, it was completely non-invasive to the household.
Within a week or so, all those roaches were gone! We never had that problem again. But does anyone know what that stuff was??? I'd really like to know, in case we ever encounter those roaches again.
2. TracFone issue
Is there anyone here who uses TracFone?
We’ve used it for many years. We don’t use cellphones much at all; They’ve been very useful sometimes, and worth the small price; but I normally use mine just to listen to the radio :-)
We got a message tonight indicating that TracFone had somehow collaborated with Verizon to provide information sharing (?) and if we wanted to opt-out of having our ‘information’ shared, we needed to opt out by texting something or going to a website.
This is the second time this year that a service provider that we use has signed us up for something that we didn’t want or ask for, and required that WE opt out. Shouldn’t they be asking us if we want what they’re offering in the first place? The only recent thing I’ve found about this was on Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/TracFone/comments/15akaha/just_received_a_message_that_tracfone_is_now/
Thanks, and apologies again for the length of this.
Thanks very much for the information.
When I first moved in here, and every-so-often, I'd see a silver-fish crawling up my bedroom walls. I'd periodically buy some silver-fish traps on Amazon, and since the last time, I haven't seen any. I have a lot of books, and those darn things like carboard and paper, plus some food items, mostly carbohydrates like cereals, and flour, which I store in plastic bags or sealed plastic containers in my pantry. Never found any in there though. I don't leave any foodstuffs out, other than bananas.
Oh, and BTW...if looking for another cellular provider, my elderly Mom has had good service from “Consumer Cellular”:
https://www.consumercellular.com
Yes you did, in that apartment years ago.
Remember that nice sofa/recliner someone set by the dumpster that you picked up?
I’ve used Zevo fly traps and the cups of diluted vinegar with perforated plastic wrap on the top with lots of success when we had an infestation after Hurricane Ian. While both worked well separately, when I put a cup trap of vinegar near the Zevo light, both saw an significant increase in effectiveness, usually at night.
But remember if you feed them you breed them, so get rid of anything they can feed on.
We had some silverfish in the Spring when we first moved here, but after a year or two they disappeard.
Except for the Raid I mentioned, I havend found other sticky things to work very well.
“A desiccant is a hygroscopic substance that is used to induce or sustain a state of dryness”
desiccant vs silver-fish
NP...good luck! Also, I get “fruit fly like” flying bugs from my indoor potted plants in the Spring/Summer...I think they lay eggs/overwinter in the potting soil...I am not motivated enough to re-pot all my indoor plants! ;-)
No, I don’t remember anything like you are suggesting.
As I said, we haven’t seen a roach in 25 years. The only bug problem we’ve had in years are fruit flies, this year.
G’Nite!
I think those are fungus flies...
Is that like Diatomaceous Earth? I don’t want to use that around pets.
“Many years ago, we lived in an apartment that suddenly got infested with those little tan roaches”
Of course the sticky traps being sold on Amazon show these photos of the traps inundated with hundreds of fruit flies. They want us to buy their product. One plastic trap looks like a small pineapple. It opens, you put a trap inside, put on the cover, then squeeze liquid from a plastic tube through a hole in the top. I may have to go back and look again if these things don't bite the dust soon. I'm getting tired of swatting at them when they fly in front of my screen on my laptop.
Food grade diatomacious earth is completely safe for pets and people. Some people actually eat the stuff.
Yes, I’ve seen people complain about the apple-shaped ones being pretty useless, too. I think they use something that smells like vinegar. But, again, the Raid ones are working well for us. You just need to find the bait that your breed of bugs likes. For us it was dark beer :-)
Thanks for the info on Raid. It's got to be bananas, because that's the only time I find fruit flies in my apartment. I hadn't bought bananas for a long time, and then I bought them twice within the last two weeks, and the buggers showed up again.
I put a fly zapper in the kitchen and leave it on 24/7. It works great.
Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
The apple ones work great (essentially they are a jar with a funnel for the lid) if you don’t put so much liquid in them that it rises above the bottom of the funnel...and they work best when you don’t bother with putting their stuff in them but just fruit juice, or water with either some raspberry vinegar in it or else a tiny sliver of apple or peach in it.
Most of the time people fill them up too far and the gnats cannot even get in them to be trapped. Or, the liquid dries up because they fail to refill it every couple days.
A jar and funnel is better and cheaper than the cute little apple, doesn’t dry up as fast, and is easier to clean, which you have to do regularly because otherwise the drowned gnats get gross and can even stink. And, because gnats that are trapped or on the outside surface waiting to get in will still have sex and lay eggs on the trap, and if you don’t clean the trap or jar they hatch and the little larvae can crawl right out and pupate under a vase or other hidden location.
I have a big huntsman spider that lives in the banana bowl so don’t see gnats or anything else much at all when it is around.
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