Really, I’m talking about the fruit fly here. It seems this time of year brings out the fruit fly in my kitchen. All the fruits and vegetables that have been recently picked from our garden and are ready to be eaten seem to attract masses of fruit flies. Early fall seems to be the worst time of year. Even my very clever compost pail with a lid has a gathering of fruit flies.
A simple, inexpensive solution to the fruit fly doing the backstroke in a wine glass is this one. At our dinner group gathering, the hosts placed these lids on our wine glasses to keep the flies away. The metal lid came from a Ball Jar and you probably have some these at your house. My food container drawer certainly has a few.
I love simple, easy, and inexpensive solutions like this. Very Go Gingham!
Do you have any tricks for keeping fruit flies away?
Go Gingham related links:
National Match-Up Day: A step-by-step on how to clean and organize your food storage containers!
Grocery shopping from the bulk bins and food storage containers
Reusing glass jars and how to get them ready for re-use
Pantry basics for the home cook – what’s in my pantry
Refrigerator basics for the home cook – what’s in my refrigerator
New to cooking at home? Fear not!
Apple cider vinegar in a cup with a couple of drops of dish soap on the counter near the fruit. The vinegar is an attractant and the dish soap breaks the surface tension hastening the flies’ silent, drowning death.
Jason, excellent tips! Thank you. I especially like your description.
We also cover the wine glasses when we sit outside (very few fruit flies indoors here – my compost bucket is a Nancy’s yogurt tub with a sealed lid). We use beer coasters to cover our glasses instead of Ball lids.
Speaking of canning lids, do you have a handy way to tell the difference between a lid that has been used/sealed already and is not usable again, and one that is new? Do you have to look closely at the “gum line”, or is there a better way?
Liana,
My compost lid is sealed, too. I think they must be on the fruit when it goes into the pail. Oh well! It does just happen this time of year so not too long a time period.
I don’t have a clue on the lids. My way of preserving foods is freezing. Unless a lid is really rusty, I use it but I’m not sealing it like you would for canning. I put all of my glass jars in the freezer but I am careful to leave some head space (room at the top of the jar). I overfilled a jar of black beans one time and had some cleaning up to do in my freezer. I have a really large stand-up freezer in my basement that is really full at this time of year. Thanks for the comment.
I use apple cider vinegar too, but cover the container tightly with plastic wrap and poke several very small holes with a skewer in the plastic. The fruit flies can get in, but rarely find their way out. It works!
That apple cider vinegar fixes so many things! Thanks for the comment. I need to add a cover because I have too many escapees when I try this.
Weston fashioned a fly trapper out of a wine bottle. He put some vinegar in the bottom and then used a piece of paper in the neck. The paper is a cone, inverted in the inside of the neck of the bottle. They can get in, but there’s no escape.
That Weston! He’s always thinking. You should think about marrying that smart guy…
Thanks for the comment, sista!
I use a glass with a very small amount of either red wine or cider vinegar in the bottom; then add a cone of paper with a very small opening in the bottom; tape the top of the paper to the glass, so no escapees; and wait for the fruit flies to enter…
Thanks Patty! I love how everyone really schemes and waits for the fruit flies. Good tips all around!