Will Drano Kill Drain Flies?

Will drano kill drain flies?

There’s nothing more frustrating than dealing with a pesky infestation of drain flies in your home. These tiny, flying insects seem to appear out of nowhere, hovering around your sinks and drains, making your daily routines a lot less pleasant.

When faced with such a nuisance, it’s natural to search for quick and effective solutions to get rid of them. One popular remedy that often comes to mind is Drano, a widely-used drain cleaner known for its ability to dissolve clogs and keep drains running smoothly.

Will drano kill drain flies?

No, Drano is not an effective solution for killing drain flies completely. Drano is designed to break down clogs and dissolve organic matter in drains, but it does not target or eliminate drain flies.

To get rid of drain flies, it’s essential to address the source of the infestation by cleaning and sanitizing your drains and traps, removing any organic debris, and using targeted methods such as drain fly traps or commercial drain fly products.

The annoying drain flies can be quite a hassle to take care of. Different methods of dealing with them exist, but you may be asking whether drano can take care of these pests.

After all, it’s applicable for cleaning the drain and preventing pest infestations, so it would make sense to resolve drain flies with drano too. [4]

Drain Fly Traps

• Vinegar and Dish Soap Trap: As mentioned earlier, this DIY trap is easy to set up and can be highly effective. Drain flies are attracted to the smell of apple cider vinegar but get trapped in the soapy mixture, unable to escape. Be sure to refresh the trap regularly to maximize its efficiency.
• Sticky Fly Traps: These are sticky, adhesive traps designed to catch drain flies. They are easy to install and can be placed near the infested drains or areas where drain flies are commonly seen. Drain flies get stuck on the adhesive surface when they come into contact with the trap. While effective, these traps are disposable and need replacement when full.
• Light Traps: Some drain fly traps use UV light to attract the insects and then trap them with a sticky surface or an electric grid. These traps can be highly effective in attracting and capturing drain flies, especially in areas with a severe infestation.

Commercial Drain Fly Products

• Drain Gel Cleaners: Commercial drain gels are specifically formulated to eliminate organic buildup and food debris in drains, where drain flies breed. These gels contain enzymes that break down the organic matter, thus removing the breeding grounds for drain flies. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for best results.
• Bioactive Drain Treatments: Bioactive treatments use beneficial bacteria and enzymes to break down organic matter in drains, preventing drain fly infestations. These products are eco-friendly and help maintain a healthy drain ecosystem over time.
• Chemical Drain Cleaners: While not the first choice due to their harsh chemicals, chemical drain cleaners can be effective in killing drain flies. However, they should be used with caution, following the manufacturer’s instructions, and considering the environmental impact.
• Foggers and Aerosols: In cases of severe infestations, foggers or aerosol insecticides designed for indoor use can be employed. These products can quickly reduce the adult drain fly population, but they may not eliminate the source of the problem.
• When using commercial drain fly products, it’s essential to follow the instructions carefully and consider the safety of your household members and the environment. Always ensure proper ventilation when using chemical products and take necessary precautions to prevent harm to pets and children.

Drain flies vs fruit flies

When dealing with flies, it’s important to know the difference between species. The most common two we will have experiences with are drain flies and fruit flies. While they are both rather small and common, there are some firm distinguishing factors between the two. [1]

Appearance

Both of these insects are very small. With drain fly, we can notice a moth-like appearance with fuzzy wings, antennae, and a body of black or brown color. The drain fly will seem smaller in body with bigger wings and a triangular body.

The fruit fly is a lot more distinguishable. It has red eyes with a body that will often be of a lighter color than a drain fly. The color of a fruit fly is usually brown or yellow, with red eyes that will usually be the most obvious distinguishing factor.

A fruit fly’s antenna is much smaller, barely noticeable at a glance. This is because the wings of a fruit fly are more proportional to its body than drain flies. You’ll usually be able to distinguish a fruit fly because of its overall more prominent body.

Habitat

Fruit flies and drain flies can both quickly appear within our home. The drain flies are most frequently found in an area with stagnant pools of water. These are usually within our drains, hence their name.

The wet areas like this allow them to reproduce easily and spread out. Two most popular areas being kitchen and bathroom, each with special ways of resolving the problem.

Fruit flies are attracted to our remains. This is because they like rotting food, whether it’s found around food processing equipment or dishwasher drains.

In addition, the fruit flies will often lay eggs in fruit and vegetables around our kitchen, so be careful where you leave those.

Health danger

Insects are known carriers of diseases and can often cause problems in our homes. While they needn’t be directly harmful, insects can carry diseases depending on the species. So let’s see how these flies square up in that department.

Drain flies are harmless. The only danger they can pose is triggering bronchial asthma. However, they don’t carry diseases that can affect humans despite their usual living area.

Fruit flies are a different story entirely. They are known to be carriers of various diseases. The bacteria these fruit flies carry will usually be the source of said diseases. Common bacteria include salmonella, E. coli, and listeria.

These are bacteria that will result in food poisoning. Due to fruit flies constantly flying around and onto food, they can easily disease food. [2]

Ammonia is a dangerous gas turned into a far less hazardous cleaning product. With ammonia cleaners, we get some excellent cleaning power that can resolve many tough cases. However, does ammonia do well against drain flies?

Does ammonia kill drain flies?

Ammonia will take care of drain flies. It is considered one of the most effective ways to deal with these pests because it corrodes very cells of the flies. Among the pest control solutions you can have in your home it works very well, even better than some more common solutions.

The quality of ammonia in this regard is that it acts immediately. As soon as drain flies come in contact with it, they will die. Ammonia is so potent that it can quickly destroy larvae and nests that drain flies establish.

These can prove difficult for other cleaning products to get rid of but not for ammonia.

How to apply it?

Make sure to pour down a couple of cups of ammonia into the drain. Make sure to let it stay overnight. During this time, ammonia won’t only destroy all the flies and their nests. It will prevent the surviving flies from returning to the drain.

Using ammonia also prevents other pests from taking the place of drain flies as soon as they are removed.

Don’t forget to wash out the drain with hot water. Leaving ammonia too long in the drain could prove dangerous. Instead, pour extra hot water to make sure it all got rinsed.

Repeat this process for multiple days. It will not only clear out the drain flies but also secure them from other pests for a long period of time.

Best drano for drain flies

Due to the different chemical compounds and effects that the drano can possess, we make a difference between each drano. Therefore, the effectiveness and quality of their application as pest control will vary depending on the ones we pick.

InVade

When it comes to clearing out your drains of any drain flies, InVade products will give some potent cleaning effects. There are also multiple options you could utilize when it comes to InVade line of products.

The first option is InVade Bio Drain Gel. It is very strong and capable of degrading organic buildup within the pipes. The gel can destroy nests and eggs of drain flies, the most difficult part of our pest infestation issues.

InVade Bio Drain Gel has a rather nice smell, which can counteract any smell from the drain.

InVade Bio Drain Hot Spot Foam offers us a different approach. Rather than being an effective gel that breaks down buildups while going down the pipes, it is a foam with its own high level of clearing potency.

As a result, the application of it is even simpler as spraying it down our drain is really all we need to do. In addition, the foam will dissipate after a few hours, leaving our drain clear and empty.

Lawson Drummond

The Lawson Drummond products are one of the more recognizable ones. Their application within most of our home cleaning endeavors isn’t any worse here. The unique blend of elements makes their products equally good at killing drain flies as they are at clearing drains.

Lawson Drummond DF5000 is a great choice for clearing out drain fly infestations. The benefits of this gel are similar to those of the InVade variant. The potent chemicals within and the usual way gel operates throughout our pipes are guaranteed to eliminate the pests.

Even if there’s remaining buildup throughout the drain that we have to take care of, we will be able to get rid of it.

Drano

Among decent cleaning agents for this purpose, generic Drano can clear out the place as well as most. A generic cleaning product like this is very capable of killing drain flies. Its advantages come from Drano’s low cost and simplicity.

Whether it’s a grown drain fly or any other stage of its life, drano will easily clear it out.

If you were asking if drain cleaner kills drain flies, the fact that basic Drano can fulfill the job should tell you enough. However, although very good at killing drain flies, we suggest using different cleaning products if you wish to futureproof yourself.

Read Also: Drain Clogged With Hair

Conclusion

With all this information, we can easily deduce that the utility of drano as a way of killing drain flies is very much existent. All the drain cleaning products can also come in handy, even if they aren’t the Drano brand.

The potency and effectiveness vary between manufacturers, but the quick way of getting rid of drain flies they offer is key. Drain cleaning products benefit from destroying eggs and nests easily for those who have problems with them.

Drano and other such cleaning products are especially handy for those who prefer to deal with stuff the DIY way. Even if you don’t have an issue with drain flies right now, it’s worthwhile to keep the drain clean either with drano or other cleaning solutions to avoid the problem altogether.

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