Monday, November 13, 2006

Fruit Flies ~ hate 'em

soooooo much, so I catch them and throw The Little Bastards out. It's easy.

1:
Make a cone from waste paper to fit the opening of a glass or jar and be sure there is a very small opening at the pointy end of the cone ~ big enough to let The Little Bastards in but so small that they can't really find the way out. Tape the cone to seal it.

B:
Put a piece of banana in the glass/jar. A Small Piece. It's the odor, not the size that attracts The Little Bastards. Note: Don't have any other fruit in the area. Put all other fruit in the frig and dump the garbage. Leave just the one food source for The Little Bastards.

III:
Tape the cone to the glass/jar and put the trap in the kitchen (or the location of most of The Little Bastards.)

4:
Take the glass outside to empty. Replace banana and re-tape the cone to the glass. Place trap in good local and repeat as often as needed to clear your home/office/car of The Little Bastards.

Another note: Once you catch The Little Bastards, don't save them. They reproduce at an amazing rate and the resulting wormycrawlyness is even grosser than The Original Little Bastards. eewwwwww. Throw The Bastards Out. Often.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

AH HA! You are going to make Fiona's day much happier with this little tidbit of information. She just hates fruit flies with a passion.

Rabbitch said...

I do that, but someone told me to put vinegar in the jar too. I have no idea why, but they seem to like it.

I hate them with a passion, and kill them any chance I get.

Hrm, I feel the same way about bananas, too.

Amy said...

I am a lurker that also hates fruit flies but also hates the smell of bananas...

A better way to get rid of them: take a bowl (preferably yellow but any colour will do) and put about a centimeter (half-inch) of cider vinegar in it. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap; tight like a drum. Poke a tiny hole in the middle of the plastic wrap with a pencil/knitting needle/something small and sharp. The hole should be large enough for a fruit fly to easily get in.

Leave the bowl on the counter. The little buggers love the vinegar, crawl in, and the fumes overcome them so they fall and drown. No problems with them breeding in the trap (eeew!) or mushy bananas, and easier to dispose of (wash 'em down the sink!)

Anonymous said...

Thanks Amy and Rabbitch for the vinegar clue (I'll try it and who cares why The Bastards like it, as long as they DIE) and Marti for telling me I made Fionas' day. All children should learn how to have power over The Bastards. Even The Little Ones.

Anonymous said...

THANK YOU! Those Little Bastards have taken over my house and they're driving me nuts. I swear I see their beady little eyes in my sleep. As I don't have cider vinegar handy, I'm going to try the banana trick. ANYTHING to get rid of those nasty little bugs.

Amy said...

I b'lieve that any kind of vinegar will do... I used balsamic once (a sad sad waste but I REALLY hate fruit flies) and it worked OK.

Anonymous said...

Yes, any kind of vinegar will do. I usually use cider or rice vinegar. I'll have to try the plastic wrap since I've never done that. I just pour a bit of vinegar in a custard cup, add a drop or two of dish soap (to cut the surface tension) and leave it out overnight on the counter. The dish is usually full of drowned fruit flies in the morning and I just dump them down the sink. Works like a charm.

Naomi said...

You always crack me up! Now I'll know what to do. In fact today at work (on the 42nd floor I might add) at a meeting in a conference room a little teeny tiny fruit fly was after me. Of course the other people across the table couldn't see what I was batting at. They were like...Uh What are you doing Naomi? Embarassing. Maybe I should make one of those for work!

Carrie said...

We also pour boiling water down the drain or whatever moist area the little buggers are laying their eggs in. They have a 12-hour hatching cycle, so if you pour boiling water on the nesting spot in the morning and at night, you'll pretty much take care of them. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

When I was in high school biology, we actually raised fruit flies on purpose to study genetics. The little wormy larvae were indeed gross--then they hatched into Little Bastards which we killed with a few drops of ether in the jar (not recommended for home use). Then we got out magnifying glasses and sorted the flies by the color of their eyes and the size of their wings to study how genetic traits are inherited. All for Science! (These days I knit for fun.)

Laura Neal said...

We had those nasty little suckers here and I bought some traps, amazing things those traps. I will say this, I never want them in my house ever again. They were unwelcome here and yes, they are severe little bastards!