Home Distiller

Ok, i went to check the fermentation of my sugar wash this morning to be confronted with maggot larvae around the top of the airlock in one clump, i thought, "I've sanitized, i've keep pretty safe precautions, my house is clean, but summer in Perth is nearing and the fly's are coming back out, i had to look twice at this little white clump and thought it couldn't be larvae so i took it off and looked in brighter light, and yes their were hundreds of immature eggs, so i took out the airlock and steeped it in some spare 180 proof and added some to my airlock everything seems to be ok, but just a post to show you , you can never be to careful, i even used brewing sanitizer

ps, now i wish i hadn't thrown away that little red lid they give you with your fermenter i now have a button bag wrapped around the top held by a rubber band

Maggots don't appear for no reason. What was in your airlock to attract the flies in the first place?

the whole room smelt like banana's i'm thinking that attracted them, other than that water from the kettle as i always do never had a ferment smell like bananas before but i am new to this, the one i'm running at the moment smells a little like rotten eggs (now using plain ol sugar wash recipe, dap,citric acid, epson salts, lowens dried yeast, i know use the airlock little cap i got with the fermenter, thos pesky flies wont be getting in anymore.

that's gross. I have the biggest land carnivore in the world, which i dont mind and am carefull with; bugs?...ah ahh..no thanks. put your air lock commercial in the cupboard steralized in a bag and leave it thar'; then run a sterilized hose to a jar filled with hootch from your fermenter. i only see and dont mind maggots on dead things cleaning up dead things from the land.

It's not your sanitation. Fruit flies are attracted to fermentation and alcohol. The lucky bastards are actually drunk most of the time, because if their natural diet. A cotton ball in the top of the air lock will keep them out of there.

yep i put it in boiling water once i found it, and now i use 85 % likker instead of boiled water, i was mainly just letting everybody know you cant be too careful as i've read people using bags and rubber bands as airlocks, or even letting c02 discharge freely from a not so closed lid, although this could work in practice i doubt is a very good idea, your idea with the hose is a great one i've seen it used alot, although i've never tried that method

ps thanks for the heads up m8, i will do that.

You could always put some neutral spirit in your airlock.

NO1DLR wrote:You could always put some neutral spirit in your airlock.

yes i have resorted to that now thanks for all your responses everybody.

I don't have any maggots, but I just spotted wevils in my corn.
I'm doing a USJM varient. I think I'll just dump my boiling sugar water right on em.
DIE YA LITTLE VERMIN

why waste good neutral??? Back when I first started making wine, one book I read recommended usinf a sulfite solution in the air lock when the fermintion and racking was all done and you were letting your wine bulk age fo r a few months.

They recommended the same concentration that you use in sterlizing your equipment with. I will check and see if I can find a refernce and post it.

mainly because its cheap easy and on hand but other ways are of interest, i only end up putting around half a shot maybe a little more.