Eliminate Drain Flies

Learn how to eliminate drain flies in your sink. Find out how drain flies find food in your drain and what you can do to eliminate them for good.

LESLIE: Alright, now we’ve got Ann in New York on the line. Welcome to The Money Pit. What can we do for you today?

ANN: Yes, in the morning I see, in my kitchen sink, little earthworms; like very skinny ones …

TOM: Hmm.

ANN: … and I’m wondering what that’s all about; if you would know anything about that.

TOM: Generally, those are worms that come from drain flies and the reason that they’re there is probably because you need to clean the drains. What I would do is I would get like a bottle brush – and you may even have to take apart your trap under the sink to do this – but you get like a biofilm that sticks to the inside of the pipes and that’s what gives them the food that they sort of like to hang out in. And if you clean that drain really, really well, then they should go away and they probably will not come back. But they’re basically part of the lifecycle of the drain fly and that’s why you get those little worms.

ANN: How about if I pour in bleach?

TOM: Well, I mean you can do that but really what you need to do is to scrub it clean and get that trap really clean and clean up the film that’s inside. If you just do bleach by itself you might get rid of them temporarily but you’re going to need to use a little bit of abrasion to get them to stay away once and for all.

Ann, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.