They’re everywhere I know. You start with an acceptably clean and organized kitchen…used-looking like a good kitchen should be. After cooking one evening you leave a heaping mound of sweet dumpling squash peelings, onion skins, and purslane ends topped over with some steaming decaf coffee grounds scooped from the french press with a rubber spatula. And now miraculously fruit flies evolved from a mold spore in your bathroom and they have created a Utopian society in your most sacred place.

Dealing with them must be done qiuckly and efficiently! First off, dead fruit out, clean the kitchen once again, and check for stale plant water in your vases and other areas that might have still water. Defenses laid let’s tackle the compost.

Lid your compost. Fruit flies are tiny and can get through tiny holes, they’d have to get into that compost somehow, don’t give them any openings.

Setup traps. After clearing out the causes we need to eliminate the issue. I am into animal rights as much as the next gentleman but for one reason or another fruit flies don’t fall into my pity category. The best way is to drown them. They can sense smell and like damp things (ie. fruit gone bad) so let’s recreate that where they enter through a tiny opening and lured into deathly liquid where it’s difficult to escape:

1. Bottle of Wine, 1/10 left of bottle left out, uncorked
2. Rice Vinegar, pour some into an old wine bottle and let sit out

Now that we’ve got the traps set it’s purely a waiting game. The first night should be the true difference but it may take a few days to finish the issue. It feels good to breath again (without the added protein.)

Alternate strategy #1: Vacuum.
Alternate strategy #2: Venus fly trap. (the family with multiple heads)
Alternate strategy #3: …spider web?

Posted on Saturday, October 3rd, 2009 at 10:04 pm under Kitchen, Questions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.