During the summer is when my family eats the most fresh fruit and vegetables. Since it is not good to keep fruit in the fridge, we have one of those 2 tiered hanging baskets where we keep the fruit. It usually gets eaten pretty quick though.
It has always baffled me how we could bring fruit home from the store and then the very next day I find a fruit fly flying around all the fruit. The fruit was completely clean when we brought it home. Our home is clean… so where they heck did this little annoying bug come from?
I did some research online, because as most of you know – I am a sucker for information, and I found some great sites that go into depth about the origin of the fruit fly. I found this bit of info on www.straightdope.com:
“Fruit flies – at least those most familiar to us (Drosophila) – wait to lay their eggs, seeking out fruit that has begun to ferment. The fruit fly’s whole sensory apparatus is devoted to sniffing out the distinctive odors of fermentation – that’s why you frequently find fruit flies hanging around beer bottles. They generally don’t lay their eggs on fresh fruit, though. The larvae feed mostly on yeast, and until a fruit has started to go beyond ripe, there just isn’t enough yeast there. The eggs hatch quickly and the larvae develop quickly to make the most of the little time available; a rotting fruit doesn’t last very long. If a fruit has started to ferment while in transit or in the market, then it might possibly arrive in your home with eggs or larvae already in it. But if it ripens in your home and then the fruit flies appear, they’re new arrivals.”
I guess there must’ve been a piece of fruit that had started to ferment and I didn’t realize it so then the fruit fly was born – ugh! Now, I am wondering if they are multiplying somewhere and going to take over my house! BIG UGH!
I did read some more and found some info on how to prevent from getting fruit flies. There is a whole list of things, but I will only list a few so you can at least get an idea. Check out the site to read more – www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Fruit-Flies
- Wash all dishes. Clear the drains
- Launder the dishrags / sponges (or at least wash them thoroughly with soap, rinse them well and wring them dry before hanging them up – don’t leave them in the sink)
- Store trash in a covered bin
- Get rid of flowers in the area. All they really need is sugar, and nectar can provide a source
- Do not toss food garbage into waste-paper baskets
- Cover your fruit bowl or store fruit you wish to keep in the refrigerator. Also, raisins, dates and prunes are favorite attractants
- Discard all overripe fruit
- Clean opened containers of fruit juice, fermented or vinegar products, for example ketchup, siracha or cooking wine. Seal them well. Keep these in the refrigerator if possible
- Wipe up crumbs and spills from your cabinets, counter and floor
- Take out all trash
- They love rotten bananas – get rid of those
Now for the really cool part! How do you get rid of fruit flies? Well, here is a really cool video with a great tip on how to easily get rid of fruit flies before they take over! If you are reading this post from Facebook or are an email subscriber, you will need to click on the title of this post to go to my website and the video will be there to watch.
So, what did you think? Pretty cool right? I am soooo doing this tonight!
Do any of you battle with the occasional fruit fly? How do you handle it? Do you want to join me and take the GET RID OF FRUIT FLIES ONCE AND FOR ALL CHALLENGE?
I am trying this, to, thanks.
.-= Barbara Platt´s last blog .."One Lovely Blog Award" is my very first blog award =-.
What a great post! We always have fresh fruit in our home also and I have found myself wondering where those annoying things have come from and how to get rid of them..though I didn’t do the research 🙂
Thanks for giving me a heads up!
Amanda
.-= Amanda @ High Impact Mom´s last blog ..Cocoon =-.
I use wine and dishsoap:
http://green-jeanne.blogspot.com/2009/07/getting-rid-of-fruit-flies.html
The wine lures them, and the dishsoap (just a couple of drops in the wine) breaks the surface tension so they sink. Voila – they drown! It works like a charm. Sacrificing half a cup of wine? SO worth it 😉
.-= Jeanne´s last blog ..Free Downloadable Dictionary =-.
I don’t even want to think about flies, can’t stand them….eeeoooow!
Great tip!
.-= InsomniacMummy´s last blog ..Wordless Wednesday – Play induced exhaustion! =-.
Thanks for the tips… I hate those nasty buggers. We love bananas, but the flies are so gross. I just got some saturn peaches and started to get the flies again, now I know how to get rid of them! Thanks for the help… Have a great week.
.-= Lorie Shewbridge´s last blog ..I SWEAR I MUST BE JINXED!!! =-.
Yuck! We haven’t had them around until this year. I saw this post first and had to read it. Great info. We love to juice and if we leave the pulp hanging around they’ll come invade. Other than that, were okay. I’ve heard a lot about them this year on the news. They bug!!! LOL! 😉
.-= Leslie – La Mama Naturale’´s last blog ..twitter thursday, green edition #11 =-.
That is a fantastic tip. I loved all the information. My husband and I were talking about how fruit flies get in the house and this really helped us. I love the tip on how to get rid of them. We’ll definitely try that next time we’re visited by these annoying little creatures. I also know a fun song about a fruit fly – by Dave Horn. You should check it out – goes well with this post.
.-= Jill Richard´s last blog ..Mount of Olives Soap Coupon =-.