Hard lessons learned on the not sexy topic of home hygiene
You may need this someday.
Ok, I’m not proud of this. I actually think of myself as being fairly fastidious. I take pleasure in having created the serene orderly home of my dreams. When I turn out the lights at night, the kitchen counters are clean, the dishes are done, the floor is swept.
But.
About a year ago we began seeing tiny flies in our house. Annoying as hell. They were not fruit flies. (I know fruit flies from being in Canada every summer where ripe fruit falls on every square inch of the ground for weeks on end.)
These flies were slow and dumb. They would rather buzz around in my face and fly up my nostril during dinner than pay attention to the food. They love a glowing light in a dark room and will dance around on the surface of my iPad in the dark as I read in bed at night. They dart about in ways that are impossible to predict, and thus kill.
My first thought was that they must be coming from our plants. I ordered several products to treat the soil. I ordered little yellow sticky traps to place around the plants. I gave it time. But I caught very few. That didn’t work.
I tried spraying Clorox disinfecting spray in the sinks, on the sinks, in the trash cans. I also put lemons down the disposal to clean the system. The only time they seemed to be under control was after we returned from being out of town for more than two weeks.
Eventually, I had an enlightening conversation with our plumber and here is what I learned:
The worst thing you can do for your plumbing and disposal is to put citrus in it. Citrus fruit does not actually wash away. It ends up sitting down there in a million little pieces attracting/breeding fruit flies and other things.
If you put rice or pasta down the disposal, it doesn’t pass like you imagine. It turns into a gummy ball.
To clean your disposal, put ice down it and let the disposal cut it up. Then, put the stopper over your sink drain opening and fill the sink with very hot water. Take out the stopper while running the disposal to create a little flash flood in your sink, and all the hot water will rush down for a period of time during which any food that is in there should wash away where it belongs.
I also learned that we have something called drain flies. I’ve been living on this earth longer than I care to admit, and I’ve never heard of these. It was confirmed when I removed the plastic disposal cover from our sinks and noticed that the bottom of one of them was covered with tiny black larvae. I mean. Yuck. But also, Aha!
Most disposal covers are removable now. If yours are, I urge you to put them in the dishwasher once a week to give them a good scrub. We opted to replace ours (they are cheap) just to play it safe, which seems like a good thing to do every so often. God only knows what else grows on these things.
Once I knew what the real problem was, (drain flies), I found videos of plumbers suggesting you spray Raid Ant and Roach killer down your sink every night. Ok, that is not happening. But I did learn about, and eventually purchase, something else I’d never heard of. Fly-Zyme is a liquid / jell enzyme cleaner that basically eats up the organic matter in drains and prevents drain flies from breeding. It doesn’t contain insecticides or poisons and is safe for septic systems. Apparently, you can also put it in your shower and bath on a regular basis to control buildup of hair. (Hair in the drain is another topic altogether.) It doesn’t work like Drain-O if your drain is clogged. It’s more of a preventative that works by keeping it clear. They say to use it on your kitchen sink for five nights, then just occasionally. I also pour some down the inside drain of the dishwasher because — I mean isn’t that a drain too? I’m covering my bases. And it’s working.
I learned that fruit flies also propagate in drains, which is good to know, because I didn’t think there was a good way to control them other than keep fruit out of the house and keep your kitchen clean. When we stay in Canada, these are virtually impossible to control, BUT I have perfected the art of catching them in a flower vase containing apple cider vinegar and water. I insert a paper cone that I make with a tiny hole in the Bottom and then tape it around the top so the only entrance and exit is the tiny hole in the bottom of the cone. This works, as you can see.
Anyway, the takeaway here is that both drain flies and fruit flies breed in drains faster than fancy traps can catch them. So if you want to control these, it’s a good idea to:
Use enzyme solution in your drains occasionally.
Empty the trash every night.
Keep food sealed or in the fridge. (This is, in my world, impossible. So just do your best.)
I hope you avoid ever seeing one of these in your home. I think mine are finally gone for now. But are they ever really gone?
Vigilance!
Yvonne
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