Fruit/Vineger Fly

mickgall · Sep 23, 2016

Hi all

I was doing a first racking today, from FV to demi-johns when lots and lots of little fruit/vinegar flies appeared, seemingly from nowhere. are these little b**gers really the children of Satan, intent on spoiling our wine or is it caused more by airborne bacteria and wild yeasts or is it a combination of the two?
Mick

dad_of_jon · Sep 23, 2016

mickgall said:
Hi all

I was doing a first racking today, from FV to demi-johns when lots and lots of little fruit/vinegar flies appeared, seemingly from nowhere. are these little b**gers really the children of Satan, intent on spoiling our wine or is it caused more by airborne bacteria and wild yeasts or is it a combination of the two?
Mick

they carry aceobacter (sorry cant spell it) which turns alcohol to acetic acid (chip shop vinegar) in the presence of oxygen. if you purged everything with co2 you might have a chance, dependant on if the yeast have used all the oxygen in the beer/wine up ? (not entirely sure about this) - my chemist expert is not home atm.

Chippy_Tea · Sep 23, 2016

I have a fruit fly trap sat on top of the FV all summer, we don't get a lot of them in our house but have drowned two this year so far.

Tau · Sep 23, 2016

Drosophila melanogaster, fruit fly, we know more about these than any other species on the planet, including humans. When I was a student we did genetically modify the species so that it was more attracted to an old banana than fermenting wine. Released a few (more than a few) to the annoyance of our professor. Although a few come in, if you make a honey trap of old fruit in the garden they will go there rather than inside to ruin your brew. On the negative side theres clouds of them outside lol

They carry the bacteria got from rotten fruit, rather than being the actual cause of acetification.

Chippy_Tea · Sep 24, 2016

I have read that the ones in our houses are a lot cleaner than ones outside as we don't have rotten fruit for them to feed on, I don't know if this is BS and I don't take any chances.

What would you suggest as being the best thing to put in a trap.

Cwrw666 · Sep 24, 2016

We've been really plagued by these this summer, especially in the house. So when transferring beer from the FV to PB etc, I cover everything up by draping clingfilm over it.
It's so bad at the moment that if I'm sat with a glass of wine or beer I have to have my hannd covering the top of the glass to keep the little b*****s out...

Strollon15 · Sep 24, 2016

Chippy_Tea said:
I have read that the ones in our houses are a lot cleaner than ones outside as we don't have rotten fruit for them to feed on, I don't know if this is BS and I don't take any chances.

What would you suggest as being the best thing to put in a trap.

I lost a brew thanks to a lone fruit fly, found it drowned on my dry hop bag and it turned the brew to vinegar overnight so i'm now paranoid about them.
Although with the cooler weather it shouldn't be such a problem I use FOUR traps just in case, just use a jam jar and fill about an inch with cider vinegar and a few drops of washing up liquid and then make a funnel with a sheet of paper.
My latest brew was about 10 days ago, within a day I had caught 3 but since then none so i'm pretty confident there are none lurking about.
Stroll.

MyQul · Sep 24, 2016

I find the traps really effective. I've had one on the go all summer and caught loads of them

Tau · Sep 24, 2016

Chippy_Tea said:
What would you suggest as being the best thing to put in a trap.

Banana skins with a little of the fruit, think is it's fairly easy to breed traits in them so they prefer fruit rather than fermenting wines/beer. I'm dredding bottling my banana wine :doh:

mickgall · Sep 24, 2016

Hi all

thanks for the answers, think I'll try Strollon's traps and try some banana skins too

Mick

Chippy_Tea · Sep 24, 2016

Tau said:
Banana skins with a little of the fruit, think is it's fairly easy to breed traits in them so they prefer fruit rather than fermenting wines/beer. I'm dredding bottling my banana wine

Thanks for the tip. :thumb:

Strollon15 · Sep 25, 2016

The trouble with the banana skin thing is that it will certainly attract the flies but then you'll have the bother of trying to squash them all, could get messy.
With the cider trap they do all the work for you and kindly fly in and never fly out again.............:grin:
Stroll.

Tau · Sep 25, 2016

Strollon15 said:
The trouble with the banana skin thing is that it will certainly attract the flies but then you'll have the bother of trying to squash them all, could get messy.
With the cider trap they do all the work for you and kindly fly in and never fly out again.............:grin:
Stroll.

The issue with that is that they breed to be hard wired to like cider, so next batch you make they'll head straight for it. They like blackberry wine too, as it is one of their natural foods hard to breed out of them. Maybe make a cider like trap but with the bananas.

Chippy_Tea · Sep 25, 2016

The only problem i can see with using fruit is they can land then get back out, the juice type traps use a little washing up liquid to break the surface tension so they land then drown.

Strollon15 · Sep 25, 2016

Chippy_Tea said:
The only problem i can see with using fruit is they can land then get back out, the juice type traps use a little washing up liquid to break the surface tension so they land then drown.

Yep, totally agree, don't bother with fruit and the mess it will cause, do the traps for a quick and easy solution, it works so why complicate things ???

H0PM0NSTER · Sep 25, 2016

I like the idea of the traps, but is there a risk of encouraging them to come into the house? We don't really have fruit fly problems although Mrs HM's kitchen composter has been known to tempt them in from the garden (I've started moving this outside on brew days).

Chippy_Tea · Sep 25, 2016

The amount of CO2 being released from all the DJ's i have in my kitchen will overpower the tiny amount of juice i have in my trap so i don't think the trap itself will encourage more to come in, i don't really have a problem with a lot of fruit flies i only see one occasionally and my trap so far has caught them.

tonyhibbett · Sep 27, 2016

A cider maker fell foul of the Health & Safety police because of the cobwebs in his brewery, which were deliberately there to catch these flies!

Tau · Sep 27, 2016

tonyhibbett said:
A cider maker fell foul of the Health & Safety police because of the cobwebs in his brewery, which were deliberately there to catch these flies!

I bet this guy passed H&S

https://youtu.be/e1esO4CHbyU

dad_of_jon · Sep 27, 2016

Tau said:
I bet this guy passed H&S

https://youtu.be/e1esO4CHbyU

:-o

is that phil's filthy cider?

Fruit/Vineger Fly

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