Effing fruit flies

Just pulled in from the beach and some idiot (me) left a bag with a couple of apricots in it on the counter. Until this point, we had managed to avoid the fruit fly plague we get most summers around here.

I have disposed of the former apricots, emptied trash and recycling and refrigerated all fruit. They have disappeared for the moment, but from past experience I know that since they have joined us, the minute I open wine, they will be back.

I think last year we had to deal with them until the weather turned. Anyone with suggestions for getting rid of these vermin?

Apparently they like to breed in your sink drains. I have been told that pouring some bleach down there is a good way to deal with them.

Otherwise I just get in the habit of putting a coaster on top of my glass of wine to keep from having to fish too many of the suckers out with my finger, although when they are heavy inevitably a few die a death of vinous drowning…

Bleach in sinks is good idea.

Also get like a shot glass and fill it with apple cider vinegar. Just put a LITTLE bit of dish soap in it. Vinegar lures flies in, soap kills them. Really works.

How does this impact septic systems? I know you aren’t pouring gallosn down there, but I still worry.

Dan

It is probably disastrous for septic. (Sorry, apart from a stint at summer camp many years ago I have never lived on septic so never really think about it.) For the record, I have never resorted to the bleach trick myself, although I probably should have a couple of summers ago. Our worst bout with fruit flies came when we were using some counter-top storage containers to hold stuff ultimately headed for the compost bin. We had special charcoal filtered containers that seemed to love to breed and attract fruit flies. We since moved to totally sealed rubbermaid containers and have had no issues.

Thanks for the tips guys!

Here’s another fruit fly trap that you can make. I have used these forever and they are quite effective.

Needed:
wide mouth glass container or drinking glass.
a piece of heavy paper such as a magazine post card insert
scissors
tape
liquid soap
fruit

Make a cut in the postcard from one of the long sides to the center. Bend it to form a shallow cone and tape it along the seam.
Poke or cut a small (approx. 1/8") hole at the tip of the cone.

Fill the bottom of the glass container with 1/4 " of water. Add a few drops of liquid dish soap.

Bait the trap with a piece or two of fruit. Make sure the fruit sits slightly above the water line.

Place the cone, tip down on top of the container. Secure on four sides with tape. Note: Make sure there
are no gaps between the cone and the rim of the container.

Sit back and enjoy the fruit fly carnage… Empty when full

Reese.

While this has been fascinating, I must confess to being a bit disappointed — when I saw the thread title, “Effing fruit flies” – I thought it might be a “How-To Guide.” Oh well.

Adam Lee
Siduri Wines

The best fruit fly trap is a glass of wine. They will go in it and drown in massive numbers

Necessity is the mother of invention. Just last week I found a moldy banana behind the couch in our basement that our 6 year old “ate” a couple of weeks earlier in order to get dessert. We had a pretty good swarm going!

Reese

Just built Reese’s trap. Will report results. Thanks to everyone!

What stops them from climbing back out of the hole in the cone they went in?

Reese’s trap is good but a little more complicated than my effort (stolen from the internet with no shame):

glass with wine or beer
clear plastic wrap secured over the top
poke very small holes in plastic wrap with a pen/pencil tip

Fruit flies get in but can’t find their way out, slays them by the hundreds.

This works fairly well but I would not go so far as to say “slays them by the hundreds.” I found the plastic covered jars/glasses to work better than the cone method.
I get fruit flies beacuse I compost food scraps.
I made two traps - for comparison.
I used wine in one glass and made a second trap using apple cider vinegar and some dishwashing soap. (The soap is to break surface tension.)
At first, the fruit flies preferred the cider vinegar. That is, that trap caught more fruit flies. After a few days, the cup with wine caught up.
I used a Cameron Hughes 2007 Merlot as the wine in the trap.
After a few days, larvae started to appear in the apple cider jar. That was nasty.

T.

If you like to come out wine tasting in the fall to see the harvest keep your hand over your wine glass unless you like the extra “little chunks of protein.”

Their enormous brain.