Shoo fly, shoo!
The produce at the farmer's market is wonderful this time of year. Love the apples and squash. But I've recently, accidentally brought home a few pets- or should I say pests- that I didn't really want. Fruit flies have got to be the fastest reproducing insects alive! What to do?!
Last year, my son's girlfriend, Analisa, (I use her real name because that's her Etsy shop I promote at the top of my sidebar- check it out!) taught me to put a little apple cider vinegar, with a dot of dishwashing liquid gently swirled in, into a shallow saucer to trap fruit flies. They really go for this when Analisa sets the bait. I don't know if sucking up the soap is what kills them or if they just get stuck in the soup and drown.
I tried this yesterday. When I used a small, white corelle dish of vinegar and soap, the flies sat on the top rim and bred like rabbits while I did the dishes. A few died in the mix, but many more gave birth to many, many more. But when I moved the mix to a red milk cap, not one fly came to suck it up. I put a fresh mix into a blue juice top inside of a white plastic bag, thinking that when they gathered round, I'd quickly close up the bag and throw the whole community away in the garbage can. None dropped in.
So I sliced open some perfectly decent tomatoes and put them in a red, plastic bag opened up at the top along with the cider vinegar and soap in the juice cap. A few came. I cut open my lovely cantalope and mushed up a piece of it and added it to the bag. A few more showed up. I carved up a succulent Honey Crisp apple and put a piece in. When enough of the fruit fly population was in there feasting, I quickly closed the bag up around the whole mess and threw them out!
These flies are keeping me busy while I wait for my home computer to get fixed. (I found a library in the next town over from mine where writing on your blog is allowed). Anyway, I gotta get going- home to make dinner. Probably fruit salad sprinkled with a bit of extra- uh- protein.
6 comments:
I need to try that! Fruit flies are the worst! I get them in bananas from the grocery store.
I hate fruit flies! Every time I bring home fresh fruit, I swear I bring the flies too. I'll have to try your concoction.
what fabulous news...thanks for the remedy...i HATE fruit flies
I hate fruit flies too, but I try to avoid them by putting any peels of fruit and veggies away in a plastic bag and close it immediately. Most of my fruit is kept in the refrigerator for the same reason.
I must say, having lived in Arizona for ten years, I rarely saw a fruit fly. I guess they didn't like the temperatures. Now that I'm back in WA State I'll have to be on the lookout for the hideous little critters.
Sorry, I don't know if you meant for this to be funny, but it was :) I hate flies in the kitchen and wage war against them. Will try the vinegar and detergent thing with different color bowls. A neighbor puts a penny in a zip lock bag with water, hangs it outside the house, and claims that keeps flies away. So they come to my house.
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