Hello, I live in West Texas, and this time of year with all the harvesting of the watermelons, onions and other crops, we are infested by gnats. I am not sure what kind, but they flock to the indoors, especially aroung fruit,(we keep refrig. or nonexist.)at this time, I have tried, funnels made with vinegar (out of a jar) gnats get trapped in, also tried bowl of different things ex: dishsoap, and water, it all catches alot of them, but we are still tormented for at least a month. Have even tried bleach in sing and covered drain so they dont "lay eggs or what ever" this was a suggestion.. Can any one help me on this? thanks Charlotte

-- charlotte collinsworth (charcoll_98@yahoo.com), September 21, 2003

Answers

Here in Oklahoma we have them too. I don't use poisons. On a homestead where we process so much produce it does become a problem. Of course there is the general fix of keeping the kitchen clean, but when you have lots of produce it is almost impossible to stop them. One help I have found is to completely get rid of any source of fruit temporarily. Then clean the kitchen well putting away all sources of potential food. The get some fly tapes and rub them with cantaloupe juice and hang them up. Make sure they are the only sweet stuff in the room. This way they are mor likely to seek out your traps as food. I have caught a lot of knats that way.

Little Bit Farm

-- Little Bit Farm (littlebit@brightok.net), September 21, 2003.

yes, the clean thing is a great help to, I try and clean the whole kitchen with clorox cleaner and keep the trash moist free, and the trap too. I guess, i need to continue and try lots of things, thank you for your input charlotte

-- charlotte collinsworth (charcoll_98@yahoo.com), September 21, 2003.

My only solution has been to simply keep the kitchen clean of fruit or veggies laying out. We have never found anything that consistently worked other than that.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), September 22, 2003.