Roses from my garden ^^ !
Thomas brought in a tomato the other day that brought about a dozen fruit flies with it. You may have seen my Instagram Story about catching fruit flies. I received so many responses, I thought I’d share it here too! I learned this technique to catch them many years ago. I *think* I just captured the last one just now.
Start with a glass full of apple cider vinegar, and roll a piece of paper into a cone. You might need a small piece of tape to help the cone hold its shape, but you want the cone to touch the edges of the glass. The flies travel down through the cone to get to the vinegar, but then they can’t fly back out because they try to go up the edges. If you see any in there, you can take the cup outside and release them, although some of them do drown in the vinegar.
Actually Mazen and I played fly catcher the other day as a game. I love to leave the deck door open for fresh air, but inevitably flies come in. I gave him a plastic glass, and he had a blast catching them and then using his classroom placemat to slide under and carry them outside.
I went to strength class this morning, and then had a big salad for lunch. Leftover salmon and potatoes, sheep feta, heirloom tomato, chickpeas and spinach. Plus a few chips as an appetizer!
I’ll leave you with these words today that have been on my mind for many reasons:
Maria says
Hey Kath — totally not trying to be obnoxious here, but as a mom who avoids posting pics of her kids on social media, I think you might want to reconsider posting images of other peoples’ kids online, especially on such a public platform AND with the name of the school!! I don’t think you should assume that all parents feel the same way about posting their children’s pictures online.
Otherwise, have a happy day! <3
KathEats says
Normally I don’t post pics of other people’s kids without permission, but I didn’t even notice a picture of a picture from a few years ago. But I get it! I did my best to blur everyone out – except my child on the left.
Maria says
That’s really considerate! <3
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog says
Ugh, flies freak me out! Actually, all creepy crawlies do. Definitely going to use this trick next time there’s one at home (which I hope is never, haha).
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
marti @fitwithheart says
what a great tip! thanks! – those things are so pesky!
Jennifer Valdes says
Thank you for sharing that fly trick. I’ll have to try that. We had a problem for a few weeks and I tried setting a small bowl with apple cider vinegar and Dawn. It would catch some but not all. I’m going to try your method next time.
I agree 100% about being kind.
Amanda says
Ugh…I hate the fruit flies at this time of year when we have tomatoes and peaches on the counter. I’m going to try your fly catching system! Question….you say glass full of apple cider vinegar. Is it really a full glass or just a glass with an inch or two of vinegar like the picture? Thanks.
KathEats says
Just a tiny bit like the pic!
Melissa | HerGreenLife says
I set up some similar fruit fly traps a few days ago (and also posted on Instagram). I added a chunk of fruit to my jars to sweeten the deal. Afraid I have food snob fruit flies — they prefer the jars with nice apple cider vinegar (e.g., Bragg’s) to the cheap stuff that comes in gallon jugs :-/
Also, I learned that these traps take some patience — for a few hours, there were tons of flies *near* the jars, but not going in. I almost gave up, but after a few more hours, they started to work.
KathEats says
Haha someone else told me the same thing and I suggested wine. Those flies can be very snobby!
Carly says
Wine does work really well! I once worked in a bakery with a fruit fly problem. We took a little bit of wine, put saran wrap on the top and poked teeny holes in it for the fruit flies to get in. Worked like a charm!
Jolene (www.everydayfoodie.ca) says
Like the person above, I always put a bit of wine into bowls and cover them with plastic wrap. I used a toothpick to poke holes all over. They get in, but they can’t get out. Also, they loooooooove the wine!