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Wednesday, May 2, 2012

How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies and a Giveaway

I refuse to spray fruit flies like my friend suggested. She insists. I resist. I try not to spend money. I try not to spend money on poison. I try even harder not to spray poison over my sink and counters. For the last three days, I have waged battle against an increasing horde of fruit flies! Ack! One found me and is trying to sit on my nose!

The bottle-with-vinegar trick netted me one fruit fly in 24 hours. It was obviously the only stupid one and will not reproduce. The hole was the perfect size, but no, they refuse to take the bait! These smart ones are reproducing and flying!

In the last hour I have conquered about 1000 of the dastardly little fellows. My weapon of choice--the vacuum. They are sitting up to at least 8' high on the face of my cabinets, wood cabinets that make them hard to spot. When they swarm, I just wave the hose at them and swooosh they go to a sucky death.

I have everything in the sink in soapy water, will take cans to recycle outdoors. They usually have their own place in the kitchen but the fruit flies obviously thrive on corn, pineapple, and coke. Yes, I always half-wash them. I may just wash them thoroughly....sigh....sigh.

I have about 10 lbs of bananas in he refrigerator, safe from fruit flies and the oppressive heat, waiting until all the fruit flies go away so I can slice bananas without a fight. Fruit flies will go into the dehydrator if there are any left in the kitchen. Onions and celery will dehydrate while I make sure the pests are gone!

While I have no delusions that there will be none in the morning, I can guarantee there will be few. One more sweep tonight, maybe two close together. In the morning, I will have them conquered with one more sweep of the vacuum wand.

One drop of Clorox in the area where the drain meets the sink will keep them from getting any water, water they need to live. Before I go to bed, all drains and the commode will have a smidgen of Clorox. Cleaning powder with chlorine will work, too.

Oh, yeah. I will hang a piece of disgusting fly paper to help me out.

Giveaway
Go right here and find out all about it. She gives good prizes.

Your turn
Do you have luck with the bottle of covered vinegar with the hole? Do you actually catch fruitflies? Next time, I will pour Coke in the bottom of the jar or put a banana peel.

3 comments:

  1. Linda, nope, the vinegar bothie does not work! I laughed at your description of the one dumb enough to take the bait because there must be one forever household!
    I ill try the vacuum method. Fly paper works....we have them on our windows as well as hanging over the counter.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've always had great success with putting bleach in the drains at night. You have to hit all of the water sources, though. A week of that and they will all be dead! Woo hoo!

    ReplyDelete
  3. wundermary.
    Yes, bleach in the drains. I do supplement that with the vacuum. The vacuum makes me feel powerful and in control. Yes, I am delusional.

    ReplyDelete

Okay, hoping the annoyances have gone away.