Fruit Flies in the House

[TomD]

This isn't exactly farming but thought this tip may be handy to someone.

I live in Florida though the problem isn't specific to there and eat a lot of fruit. Despite my best efforts at cleaning up, my house had become infested with those almost gnat sized fruit flies. Found a tip online that flat works. Take a small cereal type bowl and add maybe 2-3 oz of apple cider vinegar, 2 times that in water and add a teaspoon full of honey. Then just put it on a counter somewhere out of the way and within a few days, every fruit fly in the house will be at the bottom. Added +, whatever regular flies make it inside the house join the party too.

Now have a bowl out permanently, just sorta preemptively because there are now none left. This one has been out for a week and has evaporated some but you get the point. The first bowl had so many of them in there that I had to dump it after a couple of days, these are just the stragglers.

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x229/TomD77/post%20from/fruitflybowl.jpg

[beefsteak]

Last year we learned to use a shot glass into which we poured a red wine we didn't like much (Two Tablespoons). Then I covered the shot glass with the vino in it with a small piece of Glad Wrap. Then we cut a small "V" flap, (small) into the Glad Wrap sitting atop the shot glass. We held the Glad Wrap in place with a rubber band and set our fruit fly trap on the counter. Every night I had to empty the thing there were so many fruit flies in it. Their gestation period is like 48 hours and we'd have a new crop. Finally, had to go out of town after our make-shift flytrap was re-filled for the last time. Had been getting dive-buzzed by 2 large ones who wouldn't drink the cheap red either. LOL

Came home and found the house free of fruit flies and 2 deadones FINALLY, in the wine. Problem solved.

Oh, and the red color which is left behind when you smash one? It's NOT blood. It's from their exploding red eyes when you squash 'em. Fact!



beefsteak

[muffin]

Yep, we had the fruit flies something horrible last summer. My step-mom had given me an open top pitcher to throw compost in and they were breeding in that. I found a canister with a tight fitting lid to use instead. I did the acv in a bowl trick but with liquid dish soap instead of honey. Worked like a charm! Except, everytime Mouse went into the kitchen he'd ask "What's that nasty-ass smell??" Then it would dawn on him and he'd just gripe about it some more *rolleyes*

I've got regular pesky flies hangin out this year because of the chicken poop/coop. I've read that those hanging vanilla scented car freshners work really well. I haven't tried them yet. One thing I noticed when I was a kid was older folks used hanging ziplock bags of water on the porch. I can't remember how this helped. Has anyone ever heard of this?