Monday 7 October 2013

Fruit Flies

So I feel like blogging, but I really don't know what to blog about. So I will write about something that I have been frustrated at all summer long!!! FRUIT FLIES! Me and the rest of the world I think. Everyone I talk to seem to have the same problem. I have been trying to keep my dishes and scrap pails under control but it doesn't seem to help! And instead of finding them on my fruit and veggies, they are on and into anything else you can imagine. I make buns and they are under my plastic and tea towel stuck in them while they are trying to rise. In my bags of bought bread so I now put them in the fridge. I find them buzzing around in my bathroom for goodness sake!!!!!!

So I decided to Google them. And this is what I learned. Although it still doesn't really explain why they are so ridiculous!

Places Fruit Flies can breed/lay eggs:

-In your dish rags and mop heads
-In your sink drains
-In your garbage and recycling cans
-If you have a cold storage room or a place you keep canning, if you have any that are unsealed they are there like white on rice
-On any fermenting aging piece of fruit or veggies
-Any place in your home that is dirty or where you may have dropped food


Interesting tidbits:

-They can smell fermenting fruit and veggies from a great distance
-They can come into your home on your groceries from the store, on yourself or through your window screens and cracks around your doors
-It takes them 8 days to go from an egg to an adult fruit fly
-Each time a female fruit fly lays a new batch of eggs she can lay up to 500-1000 eggs (No wonder!!!!!!!!)
-They do not need fruit to keep reproducing

How to try and get rid of them:

-Put some Apple Cider Vinegar in a cup with some dish detergent, set it on the counter and watch them come (this has worked the best for me, all summer I just kept one on my counter. Now I feel like it's the reason they are in my kitchen......it seems to have a constant cloud of flies around it all the time)
-Put a piece of ripe banana in a cup, cover with saran wrap and poke holes in it with a toothpick, they can get in but can't get out)
-Pour some bleach down your drains
-Even just pouring hot water down your drains a few times a day will help, it will keep the eggs from transitioning to larvae or from larvae to flies
-If anyone else has some solutions, please leave a comment below!!

Anyways, maybe you learned something today like me :)
Ashley

2 comments:

  1. I have had issues lately with them in my bags of buns. Drives me nuts. The other day I was going to buy baking at the store and when I went to pay for it I saw fruit flies in the package. So I told the cashier and left it. Nasty.

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  2. Mine seem to mostly hover over my kitchen sink. Even when there is nothing there to attract them there is a cloud above it. So I have started dumping bleach down my drain and I'm trying the hot water thing quite often throughout the day. I hope I can completely get rid of them.

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