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Elizabeth
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I can't believe we have these in the middle of the winter, but we definitely do! They seem to be worse since I started using vinegar as a primary cleaner. I know I got rid of them before using apple cider vinegar and soap in a bowl, I think. But now I really don't remember exactly how it worked. Any suggestions for fruit fly elimination?
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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Theresa
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I'm not sure Elizabeth. I haven't ever had a real problem with them.
Here is something I found...
My mother has been using apple cider vinegar to get rid of fruit flies for years! Take a small bowl and fill it part way with vinegar, than wrap it in plastic wrap. Poke a few pinholes in the plastic wrap, and the fruit flies will fly in, but can't fly out, so they drown in the vinegar! Place the bowl whereever you are seeing the fruit flies (like near the garbage, or the bananas).
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mary
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they may be hitching a ride on your bananas. i have a little jar and i put a piece of banana inside of it. then, i take a coffee filter and roll it up like a funnel (wide end and pointy end with very small hole.) tape it together. then put the filter funnel in the jar with the pointy end towards the banana. tape the sides to the jar. the flies will be drawn to the banana piece and enter the funnel, but unable to get out. you'll need to empty the jar before the fruit flies reproduce (unless you want to teach the fruit fly life cycle  )
also, you might want to stop buying bananas for a bit. good luck!
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JennGM
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I thought I was having fruit flies, but the little critters were actually from my houseplants...so after removing the plants the flies disappeared.
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Tami
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What works best here is to eliminate their food source. I make sure all foods are off the counter or tightly sealed all the time - breads, etc., included. Fruit, obviously, is not left out until they're gone.
Oh, and sometimes they'll hang about in potted plants, once they've become accustomed to a food source in the kitchen. Just moving the plant to another room for short time, coupled with the food containment, usually works.
Of couse, you could pull out the microscope and make a morning of it!  Sorting and classifying by eye color, body color etc. Drosophila melanogaster! One of my favorite memories from college. 
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J.Anne
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I second Jenn. My husband works in landscaping and often when plants come in for the winter, the little flies come with them. There is a safe spray you can apply to the tops of the soil (check with your garden center). Or just move them back outside if possible.
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guitarnan
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WTOP's garden plot piece on Sunday was about fruit flies...maybe you can go to www.wtopnews.com and find it? (Sorry, I would do it but have to leave for the doctor in a moment!)
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juststartn
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Also, check your potatoes.
Mine have a tendency to have this problem.
Rachel
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Elizabeth
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They are definitely fruit flies. And they like rags used to clean (vinegar is the cleaner of choice), the diaper pail (diapers are washed every other day and the diaper pail is sprayed with vinegar and tea tree oil), the kitchen sink...
I'm going to try the vinegar traps and then I will read the wtop piece. I love Mike Mcgrath.
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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MarilynW
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We had them a few weeks ago in our kitchen - drove me crazy. They came in on some organic onions and potatoes I believe. It took us a few days to eliminate them completely - and the kids trying to swat them drove me crazy too!! And the way they were hovering around us while we were eating. Anyway - this is what we did:
- switched from vinegar to a tea tree cleaner for surfaces
- put all potatoes and onions in the fridge
- emptied the fruit bowl - in particular the bananas -and kept all fruit in the fridge - till they were eliminated
- left no food lying around at all. Cleaned up spills and crumbs right away
Good luck!
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MacBeth
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Tami wrote:
Of couse, you could pull out the microscope and make a morning of it! Sorting and classifying by eye color, body color etc. Drosophila melanogaster! One of my favorite memories from college. |
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Well, that's what I'd do .
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Elizabeth
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I figured that would be MacBeth's advice and somehow Tami doesn't surprise me either. My microscope is useless for something like this...
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guitarnan
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LOL, you could do a tie-in to Gregor Mendel and genetics...since they're breeding already...
(ducking)
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OK MacBeth - I have come a long way on the bug front since I started homeschooling - still cannot pass myself off as a bug lover though 
Not being over fond of bugs dates from my childhood - my parents worked in Southern Africa - and our house house was big and airy and let lots of wildlife in - lizards on ceilings, snakes (mambas  ) in wastebaskets, black flies crawling all over, mosquitos galore (we slept under mosquito nets), bats on verandah, monkeys turning up in our dining room for breakfast, all sorts of exotic creepy crawlies all over.... not to mention marauding hippos and crocodiles....
You would think that I might have gone the other way and become a naturalist...
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MacBeth
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MarilynW wrote:
my parents worked in Southern Africa - and our house house was big and airy and let lots of wildlife in - lizards on ceilings, snakes (mambas ) in wastebaskets, black flies crawling all over, mosquitos galore (we slept under mosquito nets), bats on verandah, monkeys turning up in our dining room for breakfast, all sorts of exotic creepy crawlies all over.... not to mention marauding hippos and crocodiles....
You would think that I might have gone the other way and become a naturalist... |
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Sounds like a cross between heaven and Jumanji!!
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Elizabeth
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I don't WANT to study them. I want to eradicate them. They are, in my mind, a testimony to poor housekeeping. 
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MarilynW
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Elizabeth wrote:
| I don't WANT to study them. I want to eradicate them. They are, in my mind, a testimony to poor housekeeping. |
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I forgot to mention - they LOVE red wine - we had a decanter on the countertop and several hundreds of them would hang about this hopefully!! So..got rid of the red wine too... (well my husband did anyway!!! - red wine is not too helpful for hyperemesis)
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kristina
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Elizabeth wrote:
They are definitely fruit flies. And they like rags used to clean (vinegar is the cleaner of choice), the diaper pail (diapers are washed every other day and the diaper pail is sprayed with vinegar and tea tree oil), the kitchen sink...
I'm going to try the vinegar traps and then I will read the wtop piece. I love Mike Mcgrath. |
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Does the tea tree oil make the vinegar smell any nicer? I only use vinegar to clean my baking stones because I am not a fan of the smell. After your reading the favorite things post on your blog after your sweet Karoline was born, I added the already combined tea tree and lavendar essential oils to my basically unscented Shaklee Basic H. It is wonderful - thanks for the good idea!
Sorry to hijack, but what other essential oils do you (or anyone else) use?
Thanks!
Blessings,
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I make traps with red wine in a narrow neck bottle.
We get our fruit from a natural food market, and they just seem to be inevitable.
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Rebecca
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Elizabeth wrote:
| I don't WANT to study them. I want to eradicate them. They are, in my mind, a testimony to poor housekeeping. |
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You are not a poor housekeeper, Elizabeth. Think about it...all you need is two to produce thousands. Two can sneak in the house behind your back when you are not looking. I felt the same way though about wanting to get rid of them when I had many "take over" my kitchen last summer.
I used to used vinegar to clean and now I think that might have been part of the problem. I understand that it can be used to kill them but I swear they are attracted to it.
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: Fruit Flies
