Fruit Fly Infestations

I wanted this first solution to be the one about Yahoo Messenger and getting a Webcam working with it (which I managed to do tonight), but when I started writing it up realized OK, this one was complicated and after setting up this blog and etc., and wanting to give credit to sites that helped, it has to wait until tomorrow.

In the meantime, here's a simple solution if you have a fruit fly infestation (which I seem to have again, and so does a neighbour). I can't remember where I found this as it was a year or more ago, but THANK YOU to whoever posted it. It has worked for me more than once AND for the neighbour I recently relayed it to.

Find some glass jars with straight sides (I use canning jelly jars), or anything really that will hold liquid (but I haven't tested that). Put 1/4 cup or so of apple cider vinegar in them, and add ONE drop of dishwashing liquid. Other vinegars might work but they seem to like apple cider.

The vinegar attracts them and the dish soap cuts the surface tension of the vinegar so they actually drown if they fall in/investigate.

Place a few of these jars around where the infestation is worst - I find that a clear glass jar over a white surface (like my kitchen stove) seems to be most effective. They will crawl in and drown by the tens/hundreds/whatever.

If your infestation is severe you should change the jars/vinegar mixture every couple of days, as something seems to make the mixture less effective after a day or two.

Also look to see what may be causing the outbreak - compost buckets, worm bins, bananas, and other food sources are key culprits. The best remedy for any of these is cold (below freezing if possible) but worm bins won't manage that so stop feeding them bananas and hope for the best.

Fly strips (fly paper, whatever you call it) will also catch them if you have a really bad infestation, but ultimately you need to find the food that is causing the problem and get rid of it. Once you do that, and kill the survivors with the cider vinegar and/or fly strips, you should be fruit fly free!