Need help with an insect problem...

[Rick-o]

vicrock wrote:
How about those sticky strips? Flies land and are stuck.

This was my first thought. I ordered some yellow cards with a sticky attractant on them a few years ago that worked great for a small infestation of critters that sound similar to what you described.

They were all over my house plants, and nothing seemed to faze them. The cards worked great, and I didn't realize how many of the "buggers" I had until the cards started showing all the carcasses. It didn't take them all out, but their numbers were so small that a few doses of safers soap obliterated the remaining pests.

[SteveO]

I was gonna say rough but funny crowd. And yes, they were all good-natured remarks, just kidding is how I took them going through the thread. I was also gonna suggest fly paper type stuff, maybe attach it to the top of the cages/areas where the hams cannot reach them. That is odd they are resistant to the dishsoap/alcohol spray, that was gonna be my other suggestion.

Best of luck, esp. with the roaches. Ick! You can probably order those wasps online somewhere. I posted a thread a few days ago on spider mites and some kind soul inserted a link to an insect place in it. If your strips end up not working, I'd try a Safer brand product or order me some preying bugs! (that won't eat hammies, doh!)

[Dennis S]

What about 2-liter Coke bottles with bait in the bottom? They can check in but they can never leave.

[DewGuy]

Maybe these would work:

Lowes: Safer Brand 2 Oz. Pest Trap

[Speedy]

Get a new cage. Freeze/bleach the old one. Repeat as needed.

[michaelb]

I would also clean the cages throughly and change all the bedding, etc. Then, since they will still be in your house and around, you need to cover the now clean cages with a tightly woven netting barrier that is flyproof. Fruit flies are small, so this will need to be no seem netting of some sort. The life cycle should be fairly short, so that should also let you see in the next week if there are flies on the inside or the outside or both (assuming they aren't crawling through or under the net, which they will try to do relentlessly: I would duct tape it down or something like that).

[SteveO]

I'd also consider training the hamsters to catch the flies. And/or adding some toads or other reptiles to the mix. Toads will take care of those fruit flies like nobody's business!