In high school and college, I spent a lot of time upclose and personal with fruit flies courtesy of my Biology-heavy major. I knew just how much ether to apply to knock them out for a few minutes to do culture audits. I also knew how to snuff them out, if needed. You knew when it was fruit fly study time, because there would always be some escapees and people trying to slap them out of their way. The most certain thing I knew about fruit flies is that eventually, they will die and go away.
For as cluttered as I am, my apartments in my single days must not have had sufficient breeding grounds for fruit flies. They’d be around for a week, then no more. If I didn’t want to deal with fruit flies post-college, I didn’t buy bananas, the fruit fly’s favorite habitat.
Thanks to a recent series of banana purchases on behalf of the DH and Youngest Daughter, our house is teeming with fruit flies. Doesn’t help that dirty dishes collect in odd places in the basement, and are brought upstairs just in time for a hatching.
I’ve killed about 50 fruit flies with the apple cider vinegar and soap trick. Just when I thought I had the upper hand, I found about 50 more hovering around the tomatoes I picked this morning. Yuck. The most infested tomatoes got tossed, and the others got a good scrubbing and put into the refrigerator to ripen.
I’ve loaded a fresh vinegar and soap trap, but I think these buggers are going to be with me a while yet.