Having many problems at home. E.coli, drain flies, and mold, oh my!

Drez

E.coli - last weekend, my city was issued a boil water advisory because of e.coli found through testing. When it was lifted, the following (excerpted) was suggested:

"Empty and clean automatic ice makers and water chillers"

I'm not sure what that means. The automatic ice maker is just a part of the refrigerator. How do you "clean" it? Does this just mean I should dispose of the existing ice, clean the tray the ice falls into, and make a new batch? Do I need to make a couple of batches to "flush" the water that pipes into the automatic ice maker? Do I need to do more than that? I live in an apartment where all the hookups are pre-installed.


Drain flies - ugh. I have an infestation. I guess my bathtub was a bit grimy. Now that I've cleaned it, they've MOSTLY left my bathroom but they seem to have moved to my kitchen. I've done everything I can think of so far except using Drano (yet - will be doing that tomorrow). I've done the suggested water/vinegar/sugar trap and it's had some effect but I still have a decent number of flies swarming the kitchen. I know drain flies are not dangerous but it's really bugsome and keeping me from cooking comfortably. I have no rotten food and I've been hiding as much as I can behind cabinets but they keep landing on my microwave door, other appliances, spatulas and whatnot - it's very frustrating.

Any advice?

Also, the sugar/water/vinegar trap - the suggestion is equal parts of each ingredient. Does that mean I should literally use 100 mL of sugar if I'm using 100 mL of both water and white vinegar? That seems like a lot. Also should I actually stir the mixture?


Mold - Can't believe I did this. I guess I forgot to clean my reusable coffee filter last time I made a whole pot of coffee rather than using its single cup brewing feature which uses a different tank and coffee filter. I go to make a pot today and there's a bunch of wet grounds in my main filter and they are greenish - definitely mold. I took the filter and the basket and cleaned with dishwashing liquid and soap. Is that sufficient? I've read everything from "use bleach and water" to "use vinegar and water" to "use bleach and vinegar" to "soap and water is sufficient." I'm not too comfortable using bleach on something I am going to be using for food or whatever. Any thoughts?

JaysonFour

Fill your coffeemaker's water tank with equal parts water and vinegar, and let it brew once, and then let it sit and cool in the carafe. Then, dump the water/vinegar mix back into the tank and run it again- twice should be good enough to knock out and kill all the gunk that's stuck up in there. After you do it twice, dump out the water/vinegar mix and run a full load of fresh water through it twice to rinse out all the residual vinegar.

Bleach can screw up the insides of a coffee maker, so don't use that.

Reznik

Re drain flies - I've had that problem a bunch in my apartment. At the property manager's suggestion I tried pouring bleach and hot water down all the drains. Don't know if that helped at all. After that, I kept all drains plugged/stopped when not in use (and toilet lid closed as well). After I want to say about 2 weeks or so the flies seemed to be gone. I'll see one or two every now and then, but we're talking 6+ months between, and if I do see one I stop up all the drains again for a while and don't see any more.

Drez

JaysonFour wrote: »

Fill your coffeemaker's water tank with equal parts water and vinegar, and let it brew once, and then let it sit and cool in the carafe. Then, dump the water/vinegar mix back into the tank and run it again- twice should be good enough to knock out and kill all the gunk that's stuck up in there. After you do it twice, dump out the water/vinegar mix and run a full load of fresh water through it twice to rinse out all the residual vinegar.

Bleach can screw up the insides of a coffee maker, so don't use that.

Thanks.

Is this necessary even if nothing has passed through the tank or carafe since before the mold happened? It seems like the issue was contained to the coffee filter and filter basket. I actually wasn’t even thinking about the tank itself...

Drez

Don’t get me wrong - totally open to doing that - just didn’t occur to me. I’m also not sure if that will fully cleanse the filter because the filter was packed with moldy coffee grounds but a brewing cycle with no grounds in it won’t fully immerse the filter or basket in the water and vinegar mix, I think, so my thought was to clean that externally. Maybe both?

Drez

Reznik wrote: »

Re drain flies - I've had that problem a bunch in my apartment. At the property manager's suggestion I tried pouring bleach and hot water down all the drains. Don't know if that helped at all. After that, I kept all drains plugged/stopped when not in use (and toilet lid closed as well). After I want to say about 2 weeks or so the flies seemed to be gone. I'll see one or two every now and then, but we're talking 6+ months between, and if I do see one I stop up all the drains again for a while and don't see any more.

Thanks, that makes me feel better. What did you use to stop the drain? Just a typical drain stopper, or tape, or something else?

Reznik

Regular drain stopper for the bathtub and kitchen sink, piece of duct tape over the overflow on the bathroom sink plus the built in stopper

Drez

Thanks

JaysonFour

Drez wrote: »

JaysonFour wrote: »

Fill your coffeemaker's water tank with equal parts water and vinegar, and let it brew once, and then let it sit and cool in the carafe. Then, dump the water/vinegar mix back into the tank and run it again- twice should be good enough to knock out and kill all the gunk that's stuck up in there. After you do it twice, dump out the water/vinegar mix and run a full load of fresh water through it twice to rinse out all the residual vinegar.

Bleach can screw up the insides of a coffee maker, so don't use that.

Thanks.

Is this necessary even if nothing has passed through the tank or carafe since before the mold happened? It seems like the issue was contained to the coffee filter and filter basket. I actually wasn’t even thinking about the tank itself...

At this point, I would say better safe than sorry. If it comes out clean, you at least know it's clean and you've nipped it in the bud before it could get going. If something comes out, you got rid of it. You've already found traces of mold in there, so there might be more where you can't get to- the vinegar/water mix will kill and flush out what it can!

Also, use plain white vinegar to do this, should have mentioned this earlier!

Enc

Ice maker: Empty it, fill it up again, empty it again, wash the tray with soap and water, and you'll be fine.

Drain Flies: These can be super stoubborn, call a pest control company and they can spray and kill them in a day. You'll want something that will withstand water use because they can stick the eggs on the underside of things like your disposal, the top of the U bend, and other places that don't necessarily wash away.

Mold in Coffee Maker: Unless its a super expensive and fancy coffee maker, I'd ditch the lot and get a new one, even if it was just the filter you see the mold in, its definitely in the machine too and will be in what you drink even if you run vinegar solutions through it over and over (I know from experience, once this happened to me It would just come back every time I paused for a few days).

Drez

So I actually tweeted the local water company and they told me that I should “flush the line” to the refrigerator. Which looks like a massive pain in the ass. I can’t even figure out what model refrigerator I have - the building supplies it. I guess the CDC recommends this too. I just don’t think I have the strength. I’m probably just going to make a few batches of ice (I’m on the second batch now after the bookies water advisory was lifted). Will probably dispose of this batch and then just start using it again.

As for my coffee maker: it’s not a fancy maker per se but it is a new and relatively expensive one. A lot of sites seem pretty cavalier about mold in the coffee grounds, suggesting cleanup is pretty easy including the vingear flushing route. @Enc You’re saying the mold would recur after your initial cleaning even while keeping it clean?

I mean, I had put a moldy piece of bread in my toaster and didn’t realize till after and I still use the toaster... Is it really that big of a deal? Why don’t I just clean it and see if there’s a recurrence? Is there a huge health risk if I do that?

Drez

Also I’ve used the single-cup brewer 30-40 times in the last month. It’s attached but it’s a separate compartment (which is why I didn’t see the main filter had been full all that time) but if it’s really throughout the whole machine, I’ve been ingesting for weeks.

spool32

For the fridge:

remove and clean the ice catcher if you can. If not, empty it and clean it as best you can. E. Coli can live in frozen water, so you 're doing the right thing by making some batches and discarding. If your fridge dispenses water, run at least 2-3 gallons through it and dump it out. After that you're probably fine.

re: coffee ground smold, I've fucked this up a time or two in exactly the way you did, and a good rigorous cleaning has always been fine.

re: the toaster, I'm not even sure you need to clean it overmuch if you've already toasted things with it since. The elements get hot enough to set fires, mold isn't living through that.

Drez

I can’t figure out the ice maker mechanism. I tried jiggling with it but I can’t figure out how it works. Nothing seems removable and I’m afraid I’m going to break it at this point.

Enc

Mold spores are everywhere by time you see actual mold blooming. If you are running it daily with the water boiling in the percolator and don't have a sensitivity to mold you probably will be fine. I'm allergic to most forms of mold and it makes my throat swell so I'm particularly careful.

Drez

Thanks.

DoctorArch

"Flushing the line" will occur by running several gallons out of the water dispenser of the fridge. As long as you that, dump at least two batches of ice, and clean out the ice tray you should be fine.

zepherin

Reznik wrote: »

Re drain flies - I've had that problem a bunch in my apartment. At the property manager's suggestion I tried pouring bleach and hot water down all the drains. Don't know if that helped at all. After that, I kept all drains plugged/stopped when not in use (and toilet lid closed as well). After I want to say about 2 weeks or so the flies seemed to be gone. I'll see one or two every now and then, but we're talking 6+ months between, and if I do see one I stop up all the drains again for a while and don't see any more.

I’ve used bleach and hot water down the sink for drain flys, with fly strips around the house. And that worked just fine.

Vinegar flushing the coffee machine is fine. I do it as part of a descaling, but it seams like it would work with mold.

Drez

DoctorArch wrote: »

"Flushing the line" will occur by running several gallons out of the water dispenser of the fridge. As long as you that, dump at least two batches of ice, and clean out the ice tray you should be fine.

Thanks. I don’t even have a water dispenser in my fridge, just the ice maker. I did two full dump batches of ice and re-cleansed the tray, I think I’m okay with it now.

edit: Originally I wrote that I “re-cleansed the fray” but I don’t even know it that band is active anymore.

zepherin wrote: »

Reznik wrote: »

Re drain flies - I've had that problem a bunch in my apartment. At the property manager's suggestion I tried pouring bleach and hot water down all the drains. Don't know if that helped at all. After that, I kept all drains plugged/stopped when not in use (and toilet lid closed as well). After I want to say about 2 weeks or so the flies seemed to be gone. I'll see one or two every now and then, but we're talking 6+ months between, and if I do see one I stop up all the drains again for a while and don't see any more.

I’ve used bleach and hot water down the sink for drain flys, with fly strips around the house. And that worked just fine.

Vinegar flushing the coffee machine is fine. I do it as part of a descaling, but it seams like it would work with mold.

Thanks, I did a few days of boiling water in my kitchen sink and bathtub drain. It helped a little bit but they’re still around and I noticed some really tiny ones. Didn’t use bleach though. I bought a bunch of drano so I’m going to shower and then dump half a bottle in every drain. I have some tub stoppers/drain covers coming on Wednesday (I hope) so I’ll use that too. And I bought apple cider vinegar which may help attract and kill the remaining loose drain flies. Thanks for the info!

Drez

Well I’m an idiot. I forgot to take my charcoal filter out before I filled my reservoir with vinegar (and water).

I didn’t actually run the descaling/cleaning with it in the reservoir, thankfully.

How big of a deal is that? I don’t have any extras on hand.

Enc

You won't stop the drain flies with any of these remedies, you will only redirect them farther down the pipe. They lay their eggs on the TOP of the pipes, which do not fill to capacity after the U bend. So things like the covers and the like will prevent them from exiting from the drain you plug, and a few days later will lead the survivors to emerge from a drain connected to your water outvalve in a different place.

You, or your landlord, need to call in a pest control company if you want them gone for good.

Drez

I may have been playing too much Minecraft lately but can’t I just dig a whole to my neighbor’s unit and direct them there? Or do pipes not work that way.

Also, I’ve read that a salt and vinegar mixture will actually kill drain flies and their eggs, and sanitize the pipes?

I’m not against talking to my landlord about it but a lot of sites seem to think this is manageable...

Jam Warrior

Re: coffee mould. Unless you have some kind of allergy, you're not at any health risk from this. If the coffee tastes fine after the clean out then you're fine. Mould isn't infectious, the dangers of mould come from either toxins produced as they grow, or inhaling spores being an irritant, neither of which is going to come in hazardous amounts from a cleaned out coffee machine.

Enc

Drez wrote: »

I may have been playing too much Minecraft lately but can’t I just dig a whole to my neighbor’s unit and direct them there? Or do pipes not work that way.

Also, I’ve read that a salt and vinegar mixture will actually kill drain flies and their eggs, and sanitize the pipes?

I’m not against talking to my landlord about it but a lot of sites seem to think this is manageable...

Will it kill the eggs? Yes. Will it reach the eggs? No!

Drez

Enc wrote: »

Drez wrote: »

I may have been playing too much Minecraft lately but can’t I just dig a whole to my neighbor’s unit and direct them there? Or do pipes not work that way.

Also, I’ve read that a salt and vinegar mixture will actually kill drain flies and their eggs, and sanitize the pipes?

I’m not against talking to my landlord about it but a lot of sites seem to think this is manageable...

Will it kill the eggs? Yes. Will it reach the eggs? No!

I appreciate the advice.

I guess I’m not understanding. You mentioned earlier that drain flies lay eggs on top of the pipes but how? Also my understanding is that they lay their eggs within organic material stuck in the pipes/drain?

HappylilElf

The best bet for getting rid of drain flies short of a professional pest control company is traps. There's home remedies for traps that can work but anything anyone tells you about mixing something up to pour down the drain is at best misguided. Your pipes don't work that way and neither do the drain flies.

And to be clear traps won't be instant, it'll take time to get rid of them that way. It'll also requires being fairly diligent about swapping out the traps.

Jam Warrior

It sounds like the eggs/grubs live in the gack up the insides of the pipes. If you've got drain flies it's because there's a significant air gap somewhere in a slimy pipe. You need like a foam treatment or something to properly fill the pipes or the grubs/eggs in the goo above the waterline survive.

Drez

Ah I think I get it now. Thanks!

Drows

I managed to get rid of drain flies. Empty your trash, keep it empty until the problem is resolved, no food left out. Bleach in every drain - kitchen sink, dishwasher, tub, bathroom sink, toilet, pouring a fresh batch in at the end of each day for any of those that were used and had water run through them. Put a wine bottle on your counter with an inch of red wine at the bottom, just leaving it out and open, that killed hundreds. A few days of that and they were gone.

Drez

Thanks! I’ve been doing most of that. I did a sugar-water-vinegar trap and killed tons that way. Only stragglers remain now. Have done exactly that with trash and I think that’s been a major help. Have not done that with the dishwasher and I might do that but I’ve checked and somehow they have avoided the dishwasher completely or at least I’ve missed them every time.

Thanks everyone!

Drez

Just want to say thanks one more time! Really helpful, everyone! I feel like it's clean enough to feel comfortable in my bathroom and my kitchen once again.