Fruit Fly-atosis
I hesitated showing you this, first thing in the morning, but then I thought this Death Trap would act as a public service.
It all began innocently enough, with a loaf of bread straight from the store. It was loaded with fruit flies, unbeknownst to me, and I didn't even unwrap the loaf when I noticed these crawly things inside the plastic wrapper. The loaf went straight into the garbage, but obviously the little buggers escaped and started reproducing immediately. They loved the bananas.
Soon I had swarms. Drat. I sprayed to no avail, and put away all the fruit, food and stuff, but that didn't last because I had a house full of people for two weeks and we were eating and cooking all the time.
So in desperation I went online and Googled fruit flies and came up with this easy trap. It is a small bowl of raspberry vinegar (any flavor will do) and that is wrapped in cling wrap, with a few small holes poked into the wrap for them to crawl in and DIE. Mwahahaha!
I couldn't believe how many of them I had, as I watched them surround the bowl and find the little holes and enter the death chamber. Overnight they finally drowned but during the death watch I noticed them swimming in the vinegar.
There are still a few lingering stalwarts, but I will make another trap and get those buggers too.
Good luck with yours.
EWWWWW...aren't they nasty little buggers??? Almost as bad as gnats!! YUK!! I guess you should have thrown the bread out for the birds...LOL I'll have to remember this "trap" the next time they invade my territory :)
ReplyDeleteOne time we had so many of them (from baskets of fruit that we were canning) that we took out the shop vac and sucked 'em all in. They had been congregating on our kitchen screens. (They never flew back out).
ReplyDeleteYour death trap looks like it's doing the job. Yay.
Vicky F
Good thing to remember! How "icky" that they came in that bread! Yuck!
ReplyDeleteWahooo! We are dealing with these nasty critters, as we speak, my red wine vinegar is on the counter as you described. Do you think the one that is flying in front of me in my art room will make it to the kitchen? Thanks bunches!
ReplyDeleteI found a "recipe" that included adding a dab of liquid dishwashing detergent to the vinegar! Hadn't heard about the cling wrap trick -- good one:)
ReplyDeletegreat solution to an awful problem -- they are so hard to get rid of once you've got them I find...
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip...I think! ;-)
ReplyDeleteGreat remedy - and I'll remember it. :-)
ReplyDeleteWhat ever happened to catching more flies with honey than vinegar?? I am dumbfounded by the simplicity and cleanliness of this solution. (I wonder if it's included in the "100 things you can do with vinegar" pamphlet that's advertised as a gift-with-subscription).
ReplyDeleteWow. That's way cool!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this 'recipe'.
ReplyDeleteI think the dab of dishwashing liquid (mentioned in a comment above) breaks the surface tension of the water so the little bug..ers sink.
I'm not usually for wholesale slaughter -- I relocate spiders and etc to the great outdoors -- but the flies in my kitchen are gonna be goners, soonest.
Victory is yours!!
ReplyDeleteAwesome. Its so simple. I once bought a big jug of brown rice in a lovely re-sealable plastic container. I was so mad when I opened it and out flew a bunch of moths, who I could not excise from my pantry for months!
ReplyDeleteGreat tip! I hate fruit flies.
ReplyDeleteI am sitting amidst a swarm of ff now. AACCKK! Am off to try this right now THANKS!
ReplyDelete