We both thought it was odd that we had gnats in November.
At 7 p.m. Gary announced they were not gnats, but tiny drain flies.
I said, “Kill them with bleach. Pour it down the drain. Or boiling water. Or a mix of boiling bleach and apple cider vinegar.” Then I walked that back, because I don’t quite remember what doesn’t mix with chlorinated bleach.
“THAT’S NOT HOW YOU KILL DRAIN FLIES,” Gary said with great authority.
At 9 p.m. Gary had done a little research and a lot of freaking out about drain flies
“WE HAVE TO CALL A PLUMBER THAT’S THE ONLY WAY TO DO IT.”
“Well, fine, do that then, tomorrow. I’m going to sleep.”
At 2 a.m. he came in my room in a panic because he had been trying to scrub out the drain with a tiny drain snake and a wee plunger and now raw sewage was filling the sink and he couldn’t breathe because of the smell.
I did not recommend we change beds. I was skeptical that the sewage lines and the sink lines would be connected at all, ever. I could be wrong. I complained that he woke me up.
I was still awake at 3:30 a.m. when he came in to tell me that he couldn’t get the stopper up in my sink. I stomped out of bed and deduced he had disengaged the stopper somehow from the stopper … uppy-downy thing … and it wasn’t budging. He must have done it when he was frenetically cleaning out the cabinet under the sink. In fact both the cabinets were now bare and the contents were in bags waiting for the plumber to come.
There may have been some yelling.
I slept until 7 a.m. and found Gary to inquire about the raw sewage.
“OH THAT WAS NOTHING YOU CAN LOOK AT IT IT’S JUST A FILM ON THE WATER IN MY SINK.”
“Can we use either sink before the plumber comes?”
“OH I’M NOT CALLING THE PLUMBER THE RENOVATORS WILL FIX THE PROBLEM WHEN THEY RE-DO THE BATHROOMS. THEY’LL PULL UP ALL THE DRAINS AND PUT IN NEW DRAINS AND WE CAN PICK OUT NEW SINKS. I THINK PEDESTAL SINKS LOOKS REALLY PRETTY WON’T THAT BE FUN?”
So then I decided to go in to work.
He was sleeping when I got back. He’s awake now and I can hear him going through the bags that contain the contents of our bathroom cabinets.
I know it’s just talk, and if I’m patient he’ll tire himself out. Until then I think the best path is to hope someday a plumber will come and pour some bleach down the bathroom drains.
5 responses to “The Flight of the Gnat”
I’m sorry, Gary, but rapidly pouring boiling water down the sink in reasonably large quantities (enough to flush the sink trap, basically – a quart or two per sink), is the way to go. If you’ve got a garbage disposal, then you may need to do something Extra but… boiling water really does do the trick.
Maybe you can do that sometime, once he wears out…
KC – I dont know why I feel I need his buy-in before I do anything.
KC – But ahh, he is applying something called Gobbler (Green Gobbler Drain Treatment for Fruit Flies, Drain & Sewer Flies Killer).
That sounds promising! There are all sorts of things you can pour down the drain to clear the… growing gunk?… that they live on and clear out eggs, but boiling water is the only one that’s 100% safe to do immediately before someone abruptly decides to put their choice of the others down the drain (rather than potentially creating fumes, etc. as when you mix cleaning products). It also just plain works and is nearly free, thus it is my general choice, but a specific product made to clear drains of fly/gnat issues has good odds of being superior (by, for instance, only requiring one application instead of two spaced applications like boiling water does – or also clearing them from garbage disposals, which I don’t know if boiling water can fill+kill since we haven’t had one for 20+ years, etc.).
The main thing is you need to kill 1. all the eggs, and 2. the algae or mold in all the drains they’ve been feeding from, such that remaining escaped living gnats can’t just set another batch going. They generally like kitchen sinks best, but bathroom sink drains and bathtub drains are also worth paying attention to if the infestation doesn’t stop. (also look out for stray potatoes/onions that have rolled under something and rotted and that sort of thing, if clearing the drains and isolating potted plants doesn’t do the trick)
KC – I would say there were 60% fewer flies today and he just did it yesterday. There were far fewer flies today, but a surprise one in the basement.