fruit flies

[Cliff]

the two ways I get rid of Drosophila are really very simple and enormously effective:

1.) The patient approach: I mash some apple or over ripe banana ( or any fruit) in a deep large bowl and set the bowl in a quiet place where the flies can smell and find and access it. Near the bowl I have placed a piece of wood large enough to cover the bowl. After a couple hours when the bowl is jam packed with the little suckers I sheak up on it slowly - you gotta sneak slowly 'cause they are twitchy little suckers.
Then I slide the wood over top of the bowl with a fast smooth movement and of doors they all go. If I'm in a mood they go under hot water.

2.) The I'm pisses approach: Same trick with the fruit and bowl only I add a little boric acid to the mix or if I'm in a mood I use a little Sieven or Chlordane.
in a couple days they are all dead.

[manwithbeers]

My favorite fruit fly trap(s):

As mentioned in a previous reply, fruit flies eat yeast. They hang around fruit because the fruit is covered in natural yeast. They are attracted to ferments for the same reason. somewhere near your fermenter place a trap as described below.

Fill a small bowl with 1/2 inch of water, 1 tsp sugar and a 1 inch square slice of bread and a pinch of yeast.
cover the bowl with packing tape. Use a small knife to make 1 or 2 small openings in the tape.

The flies come straight to the holes and dive in but when they want out they get stuck to the tape.

alternative method. forget the bread, use bread crumbs instead, 1 tsp. add 3 or 4 drops of dish soap to the liquid and cover with saran wrap, make 1 or 2 small holes.

The alternative works in a similar way but the soap coats the buggers and they can't crawl out or fly anymore so they just drown.

I prefer the first method because I hate cleaning the bowl of fermented bugs. Much better to peal off the tape and toss it. Regardless some flies end up in the liquid.

[ajdelange]

I was draining my HLT the other day and one (marmarated stink bug - not fruit fly) landed on the surface of the water and got sucked into the pump. It did not come out the other end. It wouldn't pass through the check valve. It was a good thing I saw it. I can't immaging going through all the labor involved in brewing a pils (I do triple decoctions) only to have the whole run smell like stink bugs. OTOH, you never know. Might synergize with Saaz.

[Mills]

AJ - I always find them to be piney, so it may have melded well with the noble pils concept

Mills