Lord of the Fruit Flies

A few weeks ago I realized we had a rotten lemon in the bottom of our fruit bowl on the counter.  The first missed sign was a few fruit flies in the kitchen.  Side note- I HATE fruit flies. I assumed that if I got rid of the lemon, the flies would go away. No such luck.  In fact, after all the fruit was eaten out of the bowl, the flies remained.  Around this time, we were headed out of town on vacation. There was no food on the counter. All the garbage cans in the house were emptied, etc.  I just knew when I came back from our trip, the flies would be gone. They would have to die if they had nothing to eat for two weeks, right? Wrong. 

On occasion I have been told, I am stubborn. I like to think of it as persistent. Either way, I was not about to let those flies get the best of me or my house. I wanted to find a way to get rid of the fruit flies  for good, and without spraying chemicals around the house.  Was there such a way?  Yes!  I did a little research and read that if you put fruit in a bowl and cover it with cling wrap with a few small holes, you can create a trap for the flies.  I adapted this plan to something a little fancier.  Sick, but I wanted to see the trap from a 360 degree view and be able to count those little buggers when they did get trapped.  I put two small clear plastic cups together with a few pieces of fresh fruit.  I taped around the seam with packing tape to secure it. Then, I went out to my husband’s tool box and found what best describes it as a dental tooth pick. (I’m positive this is NOT what it is used for but it gives you an idea of how big it was). I wanted something that would poke a few really small holes.  The trap is supposed to work by attracting the fly and allowing it in the cup but not back out.

I put it all together and left it on the kitchen counter.  A few hours later, I checked on it, and no flies were there.  Bummer. So I thought. After another few hours, one fly fell for my trap. Then another. Within 24 hours, I had caught all the flies.  The flies were all officially caught and now gone.  Thought I’d pass along this chemical free way to get rid of one of the most annoying little bugs. Cheap, Easy, and maybe even a little ego boosting too.