I bet you all know about this already, but I’m posting it anyway. Feel free to tell me in comments just how behind the curve I am.
We’ve had quite a nasty fruit fly infestation here, thanks to the Bavarian bounty in season right now (strawberries, sweet corn, various salad fixins, etc.). I’ve tried to bait them outside, then shut the window and throw away the bait, but they keep making it back in. But thanks to this helpful tip from The Kitchn, I’ve stopped playing games with them.
Your kitchen will smell like easter eggs for a day or so, but your hovering little problems will be gone.
When I am out killing Japanese beetles, I use the “Bucket of Death”, soapy water in an old yogurt container. Intensely satisfying to collect a dozen of those little flower destroyers!
Love,
Mom
This works for wasps, too, though I’ve found that a sweet fruit cordial with washing up liquid in it is better for them. On the occasions when they’re really annoying and in large numbers, a few glasses like that around the area where people are sitting attracts the majority away from where the people are.
I keep finding a little fruit fly graveyard around the shower drain. A whole mess of them die around the drain. I have no earthly idea why.
This is awesome. I’d heard about vinegar but somehow missed the addition of soap. No wonder it didn’t work earlier this year when we had a bunch of the little bastards!!
One of the Eis places near us needs to try this….
I am so trying this today!
I used he paper cone over a piece of fruit in soapy water method, and after a couple weeks of an increasing infestation (that saw hundreds in a bag of bread and a container of cookies), it took just 4 days to be COMPLETELY fruit fly free. I made a couple of those traps and within hours I had 25 dead ones, plus many more that I released outside just in case they managed to find their way back up the cone. I also cleaned out my sink and some of hte messier areas of my counter, but the traps did the most work.
Steven, the ones in the shower are called sewer flies or drain flies. It’s not nearly as yucky as it sounds. They are similar to but slightly larger than fruit flies.
Check out this site for dealing with them.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/ehs/ehssewfly.shtml
We’ve been dealing with an infestation of these guys, too. Too much consumption of watermelon :) I will have to try this trick – thanks for posting! p.s. Forget to say earlier to keep us posted on a possible Advent meet-up.