Handy Helpful Hints

Now that we are into nice weather, it’s fruit time. And I love fruit, unlike vegetables, many of which are not friends with me. But along with good fruit comes a rather nasty side effect. I seem to have a fruit fly infestation at the moment and it’s driving me nuts! I googled how to get rid of them. Surprisingly, when you type in “getting rid of” – fruit flies is one of the automatic fill ins and there you go! I was reading some of the remedies and got quite a chuckle out of some of the suggestions. They really run the gamut. There is the:

‘Catch and release method

• Drop a piece of rotten fruit into a large, clean jar such as a Mason jar.

• Place the jar near the greatest concentration of flies, i.e., if they're hanging around the fruit bowl, put the jar in the fruit bowl.

• Put a paper cone with a small hole in the bottom in the mouth of the jar. It should have the pointed end pointed downward. The fruit flies will enter the cone through the large end by the mouth of the bottle and find their way through the hole into the bottle. They will not be able to get out.

• Release them outside when you have several, if you like.

This would be for those soft hearted who don’t want them hurt, only out of the house. Here is another kinder and gentler method for getting rid of them:

Make a bowl trap

• Put a piece of old skinless fruit and some wine, or some balsamic vinegar in a bowl (think like the flies: what do you want for dinner?). A mixture of white wine and coriander seeds works very, very well.

• Cover the bowl tightly (no wrinkles) with plastic wrap.

• Poke many small holes in the plastic with a fork. The fruit flies go in and can't get out (if the holes are too big they will fly back out). Then you can release them outside.

Or yet a third:

Make a plastic zip lock bag trap

• Place a few slices of an apple inside a zip lock bag

• Leave an inch open to allow pests to enter. The little pests will soon be on and surrounding the apple.

• Zip the bag closed and release them outside

Now that’s all fine and good for those tender souls who don’t want to take a life, any life. But I have this…credo… when it comes to bugs. If you are outside, that’s your territory. If you come inside, you are on my turf and you enter at your own risk suckas! That goes for spiders, ants, crickets (though I’m very squeamish when it comes to them. So the other suggestions I read are more my style:

• Use your favorite vacuum cleaner: Fruit flies tend to congregate in certain areas, so if your vacuum is powerful and has a good filter (hepa or otherwise) you can easily suck up lots of them and send them packing.

(I love this idea!! Suck those puppies up! Seek and suck is what I say)

But once you get past the nice way, comes what I plan to do!

• Use a fine mist bottle to spray mobs of flies and they will drop to the surface below. Because their wings are damp, they can not fly so you can easily squash them without them getting away.

• Leave an empty bottle of beer open and unattended, they will fly in. recap and throw away.

• Fruit flies sense quick movement. Approach them very slowly with a moist paper towel on bathroom mirrors, cabinets, etc. and you'll get them every time.

• Hang a few of those old flypaper rolls over the area of infestation. Ugly, but effective. These are extremely poisonous though; use with caution and keep out of reach of children.

• You can forgo the funnel if you put a small bit of dish washing detergent in the cup with the vinegar and stir. The fruit flies are still attracted to the vinegar smell, and the detergent traps them. The detergent actually reduces the surface tension of the liquid allowing the flies to more readily sink and drown.

I really love those blood thirstier methods. So watch out you scum bag flies – Kristie is comin’ to get you?