Fruit Flies?

[Pom]

I live in New England and its fall (although there’s a lot of snow on the ground), but I noticed some tiny flies that appear to be fruit flies (they have red eyes usually and black/brownish bodies). I clean my rabbit’s litterbox every other day, and so far there has been no issues on her skin or with her general health, but I’m still really worried about the possibility of flystrike 

They don’t really seem to be that interested in her litter, but I haven’t been observing them 24/7 so I’m not sure. I checked the room for food or rotting things but I couldn’t find anything? My dad bought hay that had tiny chunks of dried sweet potato (which I tried picking out because I know rabbits should not have sweet potato), could the sweet potato chunks have attracted the flies? 

I left my window cracked open so hopefully the cold will get them to leave the room (can the cold kill fruit flies?)

Can fruit flies harm rabbits? Is it possible that these aren’t fruit flies? And do you guys have any methods of getting rid of them? I tried looking online for more information but I mostly found articles on flystrike symptoms and botflies

Thanks for your advice as always!! 

[LBJ10]

Fruit flies are harmless. How big are they? Are they gnat size?

A botfly is rather large, more like a bee. They are fuzzy too.

It could be the sweet potato. They flies probably weren’t attracted to the sweet potato when it was at you house, but they were more likely already on the sweet potato (eggs/larva) before it arrived at your house. The adults emerged while at your house. Their life cycle is pretty quick, going from egg to adult in about 1 to 2 weeks.

[MissGabbster]

Fruit flies are easy to get rid of, though it does take a few weeks to catch all of them. What I did to get rid of them was fill up a cup with apple cider vinegar and a drop of dish soap, covered that with cling wrap and poked a few holes in the cling wrap with a toothpick. They’re attracted to the apple cider vinegar but when they go to land on the surface of it the dish soap coats their wings and they drown. For best results add the cup(s) to the places where you see the most fruit flies.

 

Edit: I forgot to add that you should change out the vinegar every few days. The flies seemed the most attracted to it when it was fresh. You don’t need to add a lot of a dish soap, one drop should be fine.  Also, keep the traps out  for a week or two after you think you’ve caught them all. A lot of times I’d think I’d gotten rid of all the flies but then more would appear. They’re really proficient breeders. All fruit should be kept in covered containers or in the fridge until  you are super sure that they’re all gone.

[Pom]

Ooh wow I didn’t think of that possibility of the flies getting to the house through the sweet potato (ewww) it WOULD make the most sense though because it’s so cold outside normally
the flies are extremely small as i said, but if i were to estimate i’d say they’re probably like half a grain of rice sized?
and i will try the apple cider vinegar trap! thanks for the advice!

[Author]

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