Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The Fruit Flies Must DIE!

We LOVE local California produce...but we seem to have encountered a problem.

Let's start with the picture of the gar-gan-tu-an zucchini.

So I got these nuclear-infused squash from my friend's garden. Literally, they were so heavy I could hardly hold all 3 at the same time.
I thought to myself, "Self, the only thing to do with these mondo-zucchs is to make some tasty bread." I made about 3 trillion loaves of bread and only made a tiny dent in one of the zucchinis. Now to the peaches. I had 2 Trader Joe's bags filled with fresh peaches I'd picked for jam. They were so delicious! Continue on the pic of the apricots.



We love apricots! Fortunately for us, we have many friends with apricot trees, so we've lucked out and had bags and bags full of these precious little morsels in our house over the past month. Next stop, the lovely strawberries.




This has been the most productive year for our little strawberry crop. They've been super dee-lish and fun to watch grow.



Now to the picture of the magnified fruit fly. These nasty little creatures are invading my kitchen!

Seriously, it's not like there's 3 or 4 flying around my kitchen. There are colonies! They love the corners of my windows. Baby fruit flies, adult fruit flies, mating fruit flies, dead fruit flies...THEY'RE ALL EVERYWHERE! So how are we combatting this problem? Well I've been Lysol-wiping the life out of these little guys, but they come back. I've sprayed Raid on these little babies, but they've come back. We got out the trusty KIRBY (for further Kirby info check out July 15th's post), but they kEeP cOmInG bAcK. I even sprayed some more toxic-may-as-well-inhale-carbon monoxide-Raid on the outside of my windows today in hopes I'd never see these pests again...but guess what? THEY'RE BACK!

If you're having this problem, this is what wikipedia told me to do:

-put some balsamic vinegar in a bowl

-cover with plastic wrap

-poke the wrap with a few fork holes (this should allow the buggies to get in but not out)

I'm going to try this little science experiment tonight and I'll report in a few days.

If you have any other suggestions...PLEASE HELP!!! We are in desperate need over here!

6 comments:

Jennikunz said...

again you deliver.. and none are disappointed. Bravo, Bravo.. and again Bravo!

whitethunder said...

I think Tyler sucking them all up might not be the most effective but it is entertaining. You should come visit me, no fruit flies in my neck of the woods. And ps, if you made 3 trillion loaves of bread, how come I only got a few bites? Where has all the bread gone? And large produce items? no se precupe, help is on the way, I've got tomatoes!!!

whitethunder said...

BRAVA!

The Mostess said...

My thoughts:

1. Please refrain from posting pictures of bugs like that on your blog. Bleh...

2. Make more jam and bread, and deliver to us...no fruit, no flies!

3. If all else fails, gather up bugs, and donate them to the hooker on the corner. She looked lonely.

teuscher travels said...

Um, ew....my understanding is that fruit flies lay their eggs on the surface of the fruit....which is why annihilating the ones around the fruit my not do the trick but sounds extremely satisfying! You could try Jamie's method of leaving the corpses to warn off other bugs- didnt seem to work but Jamie said I just didnt leave them there long enough. My recommendation is eat the fruit as fast as you can - yummy!

whitethunder said...

How's the plan working? I believe I still saw the vacuum out when I stopped by.