Bugs in air lock

[humbaba]

I was going through my various fermentation jugs doing some stirring and noticed some black stuff in the bottom of an airlock. On inspection, its dead bugs and I'm trying to determine if its bugs that came from the outside or if somehow larvae got inside, hatched and flew up to their doom.

Any ideas on how I can tell?

 

[OG-wan Kenobi]

They get in from the outside they love fermenting beer

 

[OpenSights]

I get that once in a while. Usually when I buy fruit or vegetables from a local “farmers” market type store and don’t throughly was them off right away. Never had any issues with my beer or cider. When I see the flies in the air lock I pull it out and replace it with a backup.

 

[humbaba]

makes sense. I had seen some fruit flies around a month or more ago, but a spider set up shop and I thought they had taken care of the problem.

The first thing I did was replace the airlock, so I'm good on that front. Thanks for the responses, the thought of having bugs in my mead is stomach turning.

 

[JimRausch]

Yep, fruit flies. Also known as 'vinegar flies' because they carry acetobacter which can change ethanol to acetic acid. And certain times of the year it's a main reason to use that airlock and keep it filled with vodka or starsan. Fortunately the airlock works well as a trap.
By the way, Welcome to the forum!

 

[humbaba]

Cheap vodka for the win

 

[Jayjay1976]

Cover the tops of your airlocks with scraps of fabric i.e. old t-shirt, held in place with a rubber band, or if you use the s-type airlocks, stuff a cotton ball in the top chamber. Nothing can crawl or fly in, and yet the gases can easily escape.

 

[humbaba]

I like the cloth idea, thanks!

 

[MaaZeus]

This is your airlock working as advertised. Keeping oxygen out is one of it, keeping bacteria carrying nasties away is another. But yeah, airlock should have some kind of cover. All of mine came with caps with tiny holes.

 

[ShareBrewing]

The cloth idea is a good one, and you can also use 70% isopropyl alcohol to fill your air locks. Murders anything that finds its way in.

Even the S-shaped airlocks get little fruit flies in them. Just cleaned out all the airlocks of my 6 current meads. Fruit fly graveyard. 2 of the airlocks had at least a dozen critters, each.

 

[MaxStout]

The cloth idea is a good one, and you can also use 70% isopropyl alcohol to fill your air locks. Murders anything that finds its way in.

Even the S-shaped airlocks get little fruit flies in them. Just cleaned out all the airlocks of my 6 current meads. Fruit fly graveyard. 2 of the airlocks had at least a dozen critters, each.

Don't think I'd want isopropyl getting sucked in to my beer. Use some cheap vodka. Same effect in killing bugs, and won't hurt the beer if it's sucked in.

 

[Jayjay1976]

Don't think I'd want isopropyl getting sucked in to my beer. Use some cheap vodka. Same effect in killing bugs, and won't hurt the beer if it's sucked in.

Leave a shot of vodka out on the counter overnight, by morning you will taste that all the ethanol has evaporated. Takes longer for that to happen in an airlock, but it becomes less and less effective as time goes by. I use star san in my airlocks because as it slowly evaporates, the pH continues to drop becoming more and more effective until I top it off again. Using vodka in an airlock is nothing more than a waste of vodka, cheap or otherwise.