Drain Flies
Summary: Drain flies are a common insect pest that often groups together Phorid flies, drain moths, sewer flies and fruit flies. If it’s flying and it’s in the kitchen, it’s a drain fly.
For drain flies, finding a good place to lay eggs is generally not much of a challenge since most residential and residential and commercial kitchens provide hundreds of fertile cracks and crevices. Think muck, slime, or gelatinous film and you have just conjured up a vision of home sweet home for drain flies.
“Not in my home!”, you protest. Well, think about the inside of your kitchen sink drain or the overflow pipe coming from your dishwasher. Touch the underside of the rubber stopper of the sink disposal. If it feels slimy, it is a perfect environment for drain fly eggs.
Run your fingers down the sides of your cooking range where it fits tightly
between the cabinets. Starting to get the picture? Any place where we have forgotten to clean will become home for these tiny flies. All those little greasy spots are all that is required for small flies to reproduce.
Floor drain brush
So, do you need to run to the hardware store and buy the giant bottle of Fantastic Cleaner? Nope! Just a little Joy Liquid Detergent added to a bucket of cool water and a good round brush is all you need to clean a floor drain. Scrub down to the water level and rinse. Same for appliances. Clean them up and be done with drain flies.
Open the drain cover; brush the sides all the way down to the standing water at the bottom of the drain, then flush with cool water. No bleach or harsh cleansers required. Do the same with anything that feels slimy or tacky with grease.
Remove the “nesting” materials and the problem will be gone. Spic n Span!