Problem with Fruit Flies/Gnats

[iamnogenie]

I have a rabbit and having a bad problem from what they look to be fruit flies or gnats.

This has been going on for months.

I clean the cage good, change all the bedding, and clean the water bowl.

The next day, there are these flies in the cage all over again.

Is the rabbit poop creating them?
I had several rabbits before and never had this problem.

I had sprayed for them, put containers with vinegar and soap to attract them, which they go in there as well.

These flies are getting all over the house, including the kitchen.

I have also cleaned and disinfected all the kitchen surfaces. I have no fruits on the kitchen counter or vegetables.

I have also sprayed pesticides down the kitchen sink drain.

Is getting bad, and I don't know what to do anymore.

What is causing this?
How can I solve this problem?

 

[RabbitsOfTheCreek]

Have you checked other places in the house and trash cans? There could be places where they're coming from outside of the kitchen and around the rabbit

 

[Sunshine Rabbits]

I'm currently dealing with the same problem, my current "fix" is to put up those sticky fly strip traps. It catches tons of them, but as you said- there's still way more.

 

[Cindy in SD]

We had fruit flies in the kitchen b/c my hubby likes to store the clean dishes in the dishwasher and the dirty ones in the sink, typically filled with water to “soak”. Once I finally convinced him that the “little gnats” he hated so much were thriving in that environment and that maybe it would be no greater effort to put the clean dishes in the cabinet and the dirty dishes in the dishwasher with the door closed, and cover the drains & wring out the dish sponges, the flies mysteriously disappeared. It’s also important to keep moist garbage well-covered and regularly emptied.

Once you get rid of them, you can relax a bit, but while they’re making their presence known, you have to be fairly meticulous.

For the bunny, I would get him a bottle waterer so there’s no open water source around. You have to make sure the top is screwed on snugly, so it won’t drip. There’s a happy medium for this too, though. If you find bunny isn’t drawing down the water level, you might need to drill the tiniest hole in the cap. I had one like that. Poor bunnies couldn’t get the water out b/c no air could enter, and this was causing a vacuum. It might be necessary to keep bunny outside in a sheltered space for a few weeks, as it’s difficult to make sure there’s never any rabbit urine around to sustain any remaining fruit flies. Or you could try using puppy pads in the drain pan, or pine shavings to soak up the urine. (Don’t use cedar; it’s hard on little lungs.)