STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Teresa · Kate Spade

fruitflies driving me crazy!

wetbandit42 · Marc Jacobs

I was having this problem for a while. Anytime my bananas got slightly brown, the fruitflies would reappear.

Have you checked the garbage? Mine seemed to come out of the garbage.

Suasoria · Chanel

This tip from Ideal Bite...

If fruit flies are driving you crazy, and you are feeling a little Martha-esque (sans ankle bracelet), you can easily make your own bug trap for your kitchen.

Last summer, they were driving me nuts, and I didn't want to spray a bunch of poison in the kitchen to get rid of fruit flies that were attracted to all my organic CSA produce. So, after a whole lot of fruitless (couldn't help it) searching online, I finally found a good, all-natural solution.

Take a small jar or juice glass. Pour a little apple cider vinegar in the bottom of it. Take a small square of paper and make it into a cone shaped funnel, leaving a small hole at the tip (like a little dunce cap with a quarter centimeter hole at the top). Invert the cone into the jar so that the hole at the tip hovers right above the vinegar. You might need to fold the paper over the top of the glass a little to get it to stay.

Set it on the counter or wherever your fruit flies are.

They will be attracted to the vinegar, will fly down the funnel and will get trapped and won't be able to figure out how to fly back out the hole.

You'll have to clean out and replace the jar every other day or so, but after about a week, your flies should be gone.

pollyjean23 · Marc Jacobs

Check your potted plants. You might have fungus gnats living in the soil. They look a lot like fruit flies.

One way to take care of fungus gnats is to let your plant soil dry out a bit before watering again. If that doesn't work, buy some mosquito dunks, dilute a chunk of one of them in some water over night, and water your indoor plants with that solution the next day.

greendiamond · Marc Jacobs

pollyjean23 wrote:

Check your potted plants. You might have fungus gnats living in the soil. They look a lot like fruit flies.

One way to take care of fungus gnats is to let your plant soil dry out a bit before watering again. If that doesn't work, buy some mosquito dunks, dilute a chunk of one of them in some water over night, and water your indoor plants with that solution the next day.

We had this problem with out work plants recently. We thought they were fruit flies until the exterminator came out. We had to get rid of the plants, they were so badly infected. They look the exact same to someone who doesn't know about bugs.

clothes_horse · Dooney & Bourke

how is the fruit fly situation going?
i HATE fruit flies! it seems like they usually show up in the fall and in the spring.
whenever i see a few, i know to keep the dirty dishes to a minumum and to take out the trash as much as possible, since they tend to hover in these areas.

Teresa · Kate Spade

After cleaning the surfacea in the kitchen with really hot water, disinfecting the drains, the garbage can, the dish rack and all other surfaces that wet things ever sit on...they were gone.

Although, everytime we eat something sugary or sweet we have to clean everything with hot water and soap QUICKLY, and make sure the garbage gets taken out immediately, otherwise the bugs will be back before you know it. How annoying!!!