RSS Feed (xml)
I am at war. And I am losing terribly.
I have had fruit flies before, I usually see them for a couple of weeks in the summer. Get rid of the bananas on the counter and they seem to get bored and go away. I have never had them in the winter before but apparently this is a favourite time for them.
They seem to be breeding in the drains of my kitchen sink and the sinks in two of three bathrooms. Only the kids bathroom has managed to avoid the plague. I find that somewhat strange since the kids bathroom was absolutely disgusting until I cleaned it yesterday and you'd think the fruit flies would have had plenty of things to have lived off of.
Short of removing the pipes, I have tried everything... baking soda and vinegar, vinegar and dishwashing liquid, bleach, raid, draino.... nothing is working. Everytime the taps are tuned on, without fail, a few flies will come flying up through the drain. It completey freaks me out, because I hate bugs every sort. I have told the kids not to leave food out and to always wipe up behind them and to please, please not leave any wet cloths around, because god knows they really love wet cloths. My pleas are falling on deaf ears apparently, because there are constantly crumbs on the counter, unrinsed bowls and plates and half finished glasses of coke.
And so the fruit flies remain. How many do I kill in one day? 20? Maybe more? This cold snap is helping to kill them as well, because everytime they land on a window they seem to freeze. My window sills are getting washed everyday and normally they only get done 4 times a year.
So if anyone has any hints that actually work I would be eternally grateful.
30 November, 2006
Emma vs. the fruit flies
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
Ugh... I feel for you. The last time I had an outrageous fruit fly problem was way back when I was living in Vancouver. I was only 18, had my first apartment - with a roommate - and the proplem was so brually bad that we acually ended up THROWING OUT OUR DISHES. Like I said, I was only 18.
My recent, summertime only, fruit fly issues have all been easily dealt with by throwing away the rotting fruit.
Yeah. Sorry, not much help here. But call me if ever you get an ant infestation.
I have a possible solution to the fruit fly problem. Back when Meredith Vieira was on the view, she said she had a fruit fly problem. Someone told her that if you put out a bowl and fill it with red wine it will attract the fruit flys and it will get rid of them. I can't recall who suggested it or exactly how it worked (do they drink they wine, get drunk and fly into a wall...drown in it..what?); all I remember is that she tried it and it did work. It's worth a try if they continue.
Good luck Emma, let us know if the red wine works!
Good luck with a solution emma.. wish I had some tricks for you. I can imagine how you feel though becuase I hate all bugs too and it would be freaking me out!
Give everything a once-over with windex, and keep the fruit in a covered bowl or dish. That always works for me.
K so I can actually help here - we had this problema a few years ago an dthe big man came up with this little trick which works like magic!
Put a bit of jam or something sweet (could be red wine like mentioned about) in the botton of a jar or glass, then put a cone of paper in the top, the flies go in but can't get back out so they die, the cone openeing should be down into the jar a bit and you can tape the edges around the top of the glass/jar if you want to keep it from slipping out. Honestly it's the simplest thing but it works fantastically. Maybe put a few of them around in the worst trouble spots - one in the sink for example.
I was gettingw orried about you girl, I couldn't read your blog the past few days it just gave me a blank screen, glad to see you back.
This reminds me of a funny university story. Back when I was taking a biology class one of the questions on the exam was "give an example of a mutation that would be benificial to a fruit fly". My mind was completely blank but I always knew never to leave a question unanswered so I said. "the mutation is the flys are born with no wings -- they can't fly so crawl down to the wine cellar and drink wind. Happy fruit flys produce lots of offspring." I got full marks for the answer.
Anyway - go with the wine idea. They will either drink themselves to death or multiply like heck :)
Post a Comment