fruit flies?

[felisdomesticus]

over the past few days I've found fruit flies hanging around Scarlett's cage. I leave her fresh food in her dish for an hour or so. It has lately consisted of cooked oatmeal, corn, rice and fresh cucumber, yellow squash, zucchini, and blueberries. We also hung half a coconut in her cage to help with the chewing.

She ignored the coconut and it grew mold. But the rest of it (including things she threw down to her bottom pan and onto the floor) attracted fruit flies. I set up a few easy traps with beakers, cone coffee filters with little holes in the bottom, and fruit/vinegar in the bottom. I've caught lots of them thus far but not, unfortunately, all of them.

Has this happened to anyone else?

[ParrotletLover]

This has never happened to me.

Remove all fresh, parishable fruits or vegetables (or any parishable food, for that matter) about one to two hours after you give it. If it grows mold, throw it out.

You also want to clean out the bottom of the cage after you remove the food. Be sure to clean food dishes, perches, and the cage well (some do this weekly or monthly, but change the bottom everyday, as well as clean the food bowls).

I know people have even better suggestions, because there was a post about this not to long ago. Maybe you can find it using the "Search" feature.

[Monica]

You can try one of two things. The first, once Scarlett is done with her fresh foods, remove them from the cage. The ones that the fruit flies are attracted to, put those into a zip-lock bag, and before going to bed, leave it open on the counter overnight, and in the morning, close it and dispose of it. You should only need to do this for 3-5 nights.

You can also get a container of some sort, add about half an inch of red wine, and leave it out where the fruit flies are most commonly found (be sure that Scarlett doesn't get into it!). This will atrack the fruit flies and they will get stuck in the wine and drown!

[felisdomesticus]

wow I like that Zip Lock idea! thanks! I'll put one of those out today.

[birdyland]

I get fruit flys once to a few times a year.... usually once temperatures are consistantly over 85 during the day. All it takes is one bad piece of fruit, and it is usually the banannas or the cantalope that does it.

I clean clean clean cages, suck them up with a vacum cleaner (which immeadiatly gets put outside after use), leave bait (such as Monica suggested w/ the baggie), hang fly strips, and put all fruits in the fridge. *Sometimes* all of this will help me get rid of them within a week. They're nasty lil buggars and I absolutely hate them. Good luck!

[cavinandhope]

Yall mentioned Half of a coconut. How long can you leave it hanging in the cage. I would think that it would be like all the other food you wouldn't want to leave it but for a few hours but I maybe wrong. What do the rest of you do?