Plano Pest Control Service owner Dennis English, President of Prime Pest Management, gives some advice on how to get rid of those pesky small flies in your kitchen area.

You must remove the food source and eliminate breeding areas to achieve control of fruit flies, fungus nats and phorid flies. These small flies have a life-cycle of 10 days; sanitation is the only effective resolution. Prime Pest can perform a chemical treatment and/or place traps, but this will only kill adults and briefly knock down the population. The breeding cycle must be broken with good sanitation.

Address these frequent problems:

• Clean floor drains well. This is the main harborage area for fruit flies and phorid flies.
• Launder the dishrags, or at least wash them thoroughly with soap, rinse them well and wring them dry before hanging them up (don’t leave them in the sink).
• Store trash in a covered bin.
• Do not over water your plants. Over moist plants are sources for fungus nats.
• Do not toss food garbage into waste-paper baskets.
• Cover your fruit bowl or store fruit you wish to keep in the refrigerator. Also, raisins, dates and prunes are favorite attractants.
• Discard all overripe fruit.
• Clean opened containers of fruit juice, fermented or vinegar products, for example ketchup, siracha or cooking wine. Seal them well. Keep these in the refrigerator if possible.
• Wipe up crumbs and spills from your cabinets, counter and floor.
• Take out all trash at least daily.
• They love rotten bananas; get rid of those.
• Do not let wet towels and aprons sit overnight in hampers.
• Clean the seals of your refrigerator door and under the fridge; clean the evaporation pan if it has one.
• Remove any standing water.
• Dump mop water, clean the pail, and launder the mop rag.
• Remove damp lint from the laundry room.
• Take out your compost and keep your collection bin covered and food additions to your pile buried beneath yard waste.
• Keep outside dumpster as far from the building as possible and keep it clean.

Prime Pest has microbial drain products available for purchase. Bleach or degreasers will not provide sufficient cleaning in most all situations involving dirty drains.

Plano Pest Control Service owner Dennis English, President of Prime Pest Management (in business since 1991) the flagship company of Engrad Investments Inc., which also includes Burnett Pest Control (in business since 1947), Irving Pest Control (in business since 1960), and Dalpex Pest Control (in business since 1985).  Prime Pest Management offers both Commercial and Residential pest control services, along with wildlife trapping and removal, bee hive removal and relocation, and termite control and extermination. For a personal consultation please call 214-431-4616.