Fruit Fly Trouble

Yeah, I'm haveing a big problem with them myself, there seems to be more and more around, no matter how much I clean the area. I have my primarys and secondarys under airlocks with sulfitied water -- more than half full. Only one has managed to drown itself in the airlock so far.

I did a google groups search of this newsgroup when I firstg noticed the problem.

Most people don't agree with the adage that the fruit fly is the only source of vinegar bacteria, or that the furit fly laning is a hopeless inoculation with mother of vinegar. Just try to keep them out.

I tried one trick I read: I put some must in a wine bottle to trap them. That didn't really work well, only caught a couple in each. In an open glass, I was able to drown a couple dozen in a day and a half, but I barely made a dent in the population. So now I just keep wiping surfaces around my wines with bleach cleanser. I'll get those little bastards yet.

Yeah, I'm having a big problem with them myself, there seems to be more and more around, no matter how much I clean the area. I have my primarys and secondarys under airlocks with sulfitied water -- more than half full, so they can't get in. Only one has managed to drown itself in an airlock so far.

I did a google groups search of this newsgroup when I first noticed the problem.

Most people don't agree with the adage that the fruit fly is the only source of vinegar bacteria, or that one fruit fly landing is a hopeless inoculation with mother of vinegar. Just try to keep them out, and we should be fine.

I tried one trick I read: I put some must in a wine bottle to trap them. That didn't really work well, only caught a couple in each. In an open glass, I was able to drown a couple dozen in a day and a half, but I barely made a dent in the population. So now I just keep wiping surfaces around my wines with bleach cleanser. I'll get those little bastards yet -- drinking my wine without putting any effort in whatsoever, who do they think they are anyway?

Thanks for the reply. The alcohol content is about 6.7% right now so I think the wine is still too weak to be safe. I thought you needed just over 10% for it to be ok but Jack Keller's site says you need it to be at least 12.7% to last... I'll just hope for the best and let it ferment as usual. The odd thing is, I've never ever had a problem with bugs before.

Jon.

no biggie, keep the vacuum cleaner handy and when you seem them just vacuum them up. it really works.

1) You can buy flying insect spray for fruit flies. I don't care what the brand or the price -- THEY DO NOT WORK! No effect what so ever on the supper fruit flies in my area. 2) 5 or 6 a day? If you ever visit a winery when they are crushing grapes you will find out what a fruit fly infestation really is. They are there in clouds. They are landing on everything. And the wine comes out OK. 3) Even if they do inoculate your wine, and they certainly can, that does not mean it will turn to vinegar unless you use really bad wine making techniques. To turn to vinegar, the wine must be exposed to air for a really long time. Months. If no air, no vinegar. Read up on how vinegar is made. You start with wine, you inoculate it heavily (not with a few fruit flies), and then you wait for months. 4) Cleanliness helps but they are drawn to the smell of the fruit. When you get it in secondary and have the area clean, they will start to disappear -- in a few days. 5) Make sure you do not have other fruit such as bananas or apples for eating in the area. Once they are drawn to the wine making they will stay for other fruit.

Ray

Jon, do a google search on this group and you'll see a wealth of info on this topic. I've never been able to fully eliminate fruit flies, but you can do a few tasks that'll keep the populations down:

1. Make a homemade fly trap. Pour wine or juice into an open-mouth container, and add a drop or two of liquid soap. Stir, then wait for them to get trapped in the liquid. Change out the wine or juice as needed.
2. Do your crushing/destemming outside, and immediately throw out all of the waste (stems, leaves, crates and fallen grapes).
3. Put a rigid top on your fermentor. It should allow gas to escape under pressure, but not allow in the critters into your fermenting grapes.
4. Keep you winemaking area super-clean. Wash you cap punch-down tool after each use. Store used wine bottles outside.
5. If you have an open window to vent the CO2, place a fan in the window that blows out. It'll move the CO2 and flies out, and help prevent the bugs from getting in.

Happy Hunting, -David

Qoute.... 1. Make a homemade fly trap. Pour wine or juice into an open-mouth

And just in case anyone wonders why the dish soap in the recipe?.....it breaks the "surface tension" of the water and as they land on the surface of the juice expecting to float ....they can't and they sink and drown.It works perfectly....and yes it works great for wasps as well.....andy j.

David touches on something that I meant to say. The fan is a good idea. If there are any fruitflys around, when you work on your wine use a good strong fan to blow in the area you are working. Those little fruit flies have to take cover if there is any wind and they will not bother you. Any work on my wine I do in the house, racking, blending, etc., is done under a ceiling fan.

Ray

Of course, that will also kick up micros in dust particles.

IMO I do not see that as a big improvement, either you let the fruit flies innoculate your wine with acetobacter, or you do it yourself by blowing dust into it.

I don't know any more about vinegar than has been covered here in this group, but this raised a question for me, based on what I had read in older posts.

Here, we say that it's really tough to start making vinegar, but previously, I remember reading that once you start making vinegar, you don't want to make wine anywhere near there for fear of inoculating the new wine. I wouldn't figure these two statements match up.

I don't make vinegar, and don't expect to, but I'm just curious about this.

Rob

David, Just wanted to tell you how much I appreciated your homemade fruit fly trap recipe - works like a charm. I've killed a bunch already. Thanks. Darlene

Hey Dar V, long time no talk! How did all of those Jack Keller frozen concentrate wines turn out? Have you drank them all yet? I still have at least 6 of them under airlocks from a year or two back...

Jon.

Well the first batch of Concord Grape wine went into secondary tonight and as far as I can tell it's just fine. It tastes fine (for the stage it's at) but it's a little lighter in color than I thought it should be. We started a second fermentation on the pulp from the first batch tonight too. The area is still super clean but those damn fruit flies just keep on multiplying! There's at least 4 flying around the new batch right now but we'll just ride it out again and see what happens.

Thanks for all the input everyone!

Jon.

Hello, Yes, its been awhile - my youngest daughter graduated from high school in June, and then my other 2 daughters moved into an apartment at college, so I spent most of my summer hunting down cheap furniture or redoing furniture for their apartment and then getting them all out of the house to college in August. And then, since I was a bit bored I managed to get a part-time job. SOooooo, I'm still making wine (and drinking it). My Welch's and old Orchard wines all come out pretty good, but then I wait until they are 1 1/2 -2 years old before I drink them. Most of my friends & relatives like them. I still have a few bottles around - I don't think I've ever had a bad bottle. How about you? tried them yet? Darlene Wisconsin

I think people worry too much about vinegar infection. It is easy to start vinegar with a good mother of vinegar inoculation and you can make some good vinegar. You can also start bad vinegar by letting fruit fly's get in your must at some point and then letting your finished wine be exposed to air for a long time. But in reality your wine does have to be exposed to air and for a longer period than it will take to go bad due to oxidation. So, unless you are really careless and making really bad wine, it is not going to turn to vinegar even if some fruit fly's get in it.

I have had a few commercial wines turn to vinegar. They were bottles that I had opened drunk some but did not finish the bottle, and then pushed the cork back in the bottle with the cork screw hole in it. Then I put them in my liquor cabinet standing up so the cork dried out. I forgot them for perhaps a year. They turned to very nasty tasting vinegar. If you treat your wines this badly, you may make bad vinegar too.

Ray

Slightly off topic but I had an asnt problem this year and my wife told be to mix a little sugar and borax together as a syrup; I put several small cups of it around and poured some on my outside door tread. The next day they were gone, completely. Joe