RHYS BOWEN: Dear God, if you're listening and you don't mind I have a small question. Why did you create fruit flies? And for that matter house flies that only spread disease or mosquitos that spread disease and also bite? What use are they in the great fabric of things? Fruit flies breed on decaying fruit and as far as i can see don't do anything useful. In fact they infect good fruit and here in California where the fruit industry is huge, we are supposed to trap and eradicate them.
Were you not concentrating the day that fruit flies were made? Were you already bored or tired after the creation of large things like dinosaurs and wooly mammoths so that you handed over the last few days of creation to a lesser heavenly being, one slightly less competent?
Anyway this blunder in creation has turned a peaceful, gentle being like myself into a ruthless killer. It all started a week ago when I brought home some organic tomatoes. When I opened the plastic box one small creature flew out. One tiny, harmless flying thing.. or so I thought. Until the next night when I was sitting, enjoying a glass of wine. I looked up and two tiny creatures were happily swimming around in my glass.
Then it was quite a few around the flowers I had just bought. I carried them out to the garbage bin. But the darned things kept appearing. I Googled and tried various traps: apple cider vinegar (didn't work). Honey (didn't work). Red wine... works well. At one stage my kitchen counter looked like a science experiment.
Where were they coming from? I had put all fruit and veg into the fridge but there they were, sitting on the rim of the bowl containing the wine. And cunning little buggers too.. If I moved my hand near to squash them they flew away. I tried bringing down the fly swatter rapidly, thus knocking them down into the wine. They swam across to the side and started to climb out. I squashed one on my thumb, then watched as he readjusted his wings and tried to fly off.
It was only when I found some in the pantry that I learned the horrid truth. At the back of the potato bin was a rotting potato where they were happily breeding. I've taken it out, scrubbed it, scrubbed the floor and now I hope it's just a case of rounding up the last survivors. But I've been spending half my day killing! Every time I come into the kitchen I see one, sitting at the edge of the wine. I creep up, fly swatter in hand and bring it down. Only to find the wretched thing has escaped again. It is becoming an obsession. So... if anyone knows a brilliant way to get rid of fruit flies, please share.
And God, if you can share a moment from more pressing things like defending Greenland from invasion or protecting innocent people from ICE, could you possible un-make the fruit flies?
Oh, I can so relate, Rhys . . . those annoying little creatures are everywhere and, sad to say, I haven't yet found anything that will get rid of them ☹
ReplyDeleteUgh! We’ve heard to put wine corks in the fruit bowl - not sure if that really works, or if the wine just makes you care less. Returning to SoCal today - hopefully there won’t be any little friends waiting for us.
ReplyDeleteWell, most flies exist for other animals to eat. God did not expect us to bring fruit into a house. :) Years ago I found a terrific solution for fruit flies. Take a small jar with a metal lid. Flip the lid upside down and punch it full of holes with a nail. Fill the jar with a couple of inches of wine or fruit juice as bait, and put back on the lid. Voila, a trap! Put the trap near your fruit bowl. Drawn by the enticing aroma, fruit flies will cunningly find the holes to enter the trap, but somehow cannot figure out how to get out. Perhaps they are too drunk? Every few days, skim the dead fruit flies off the surface of the liquid and perhaps add some fresh. In my experience you will soon be fruit-fly-free. (Selden)
ReplyDeleteThat is my trap, too, Selden, except I just pop a small, flexible funnel upside down into a juice glass with wine in the bottom. The funnel should not touch the surface of the liquid. They fly in, but cannot fly back out.
DeleteWait, not upside down, just with the funnel pointed down. Still a bit muzzyheaded this morning.
DeleteBrilliant. Thank you Selden
DeleteThey are annoying. Selden's solution is the one that I have heard most often, usually using vinegar as bait. They aren't too bad around here in winter, but are relentless pests in the summer when they find ways into the house besides hitchhiking on ripe fruit. I think God has got some serious stuff going on these days, Rhys, so try Selden's trap.
ReplyDeleteVinegar didn’t work for me but wine did
DeleteDear God: Why did you create humans? They take good fruit and use it instead of waiting for it to rot as Nature intended. Plus, they seem intent on destroying us. Just the other day, one of them crushed Cousin Ziggy between his fingers and all he was doing was enjoying the rottenness of Nature's bounty (a banana, in this case). Really, God, you should have thought this through. One might begin to wonder if fruit flies were ever your Chosen. -- Sincerely, The Fruit Flies
ReplyDeleteSo true Jerry! Or maybe our dear god loves a good joke!
DeleteWe certainly need a good laugh these days. Thank you!
DeleteDrosophila! They are much used in research because they make new generations in the blink of an eye (I learned this from a bio major friend in college...). What worked for me last fall is like Selden's trap. I put apple cider vinegar in a jar, tightly rubberbanded plastic wrap over the top, and poked a few holes in the plastic. I set the jar near the countertop compost can where they were happily making new generations and within two weeks, not a fruit fly was seen except dead in the jar.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with yours!
I tried the vinegar and they didn’t like it but they liked wine.
DeleteBut did you try either with the tiny holes in a tight cover?
DeleteOh Rhy, we all empathize! I put cider vinegar in a small shallow bowl, add a few drops of dishwashing dishwashing liquid. It does work, eventually.
ReplyDeleteYes! You need a drop of dishwashing soap (not more or they aren’t enticed by the apple cider vinegar smell) so they can’t fly away. — Pat S
DeleteThere is a product called Zevo that’s similar to a nightlight with a sticky surface. Plug it in close to your fruit bowl and the flies are attracted and get caught in the surface. From Mignonne in Arkansas
ReplyDeleteThank you. Good to know
DeleteWe had a fly infestation last summer and bought the Zevo but unfortunately it didn't work on the flies. It might work better for catching the smaller fleas.
DeleteThe flies said let us flea the scene.
Sorry you are going through this Rhys! Though it does give you a reason to open some red wine.Benjamin Franklin famously said that beer is evidence that God loves us and wants us to be happy. I think it applies to wine as well.
ReplyDeleteMy unhelpful fruit fly story: When my parents were elderly, my sister's half-wild long-haired cat Sami went to live with them. Sami flourished there--she had laps to sit on, food, and not a whole lot of chaos around her. At some point, my parents had a fruit fly infestation and decided to use sticky strips to capture the flies. Somehow one of the strips got stuck in poor Sami's fur. The resulting attempts to unstick Sami caused several injuries and much hilarity. Eventually Sami was free. Red wine would have been a better solution.
Poor Sami!
DeleteDear Rhys, and perhaps God – when you solve the fruit fly problem, would you please consider the white fly problem. They have secret homes on all my plants. They laugh at fly-be-gone, soap, hoses, alcohol though I have not tried the red wine and even picking off. I refuse to give in and destroy all my plants, and have so far excluded inviting aphids in as a spare army – they are as much of an issue as the white flies.
ReplyDeleteOh well, summer is coming – is it not? – and the doors will be open and maybe then I will not care.
As for part B of Rhys’s request, maybe you could that up to a priority before the flies, especially before someone’s greedy eyes begin to focus on Canada.
Amen!
DeleteDouble Amen! We love our Canadian neighbors. Plus the hubs just got his Canadian citizenship. "Oh Canada! Our home and native land..."
DeleteHaving a big garden with a wide variety of produce means fruit flies. As I mentioned to Selden above, I take a juice glass and pour a couple fingers of wine, then just drop a small silicone funnel pointy side down into it. The fruit flies crawl down, and can't get back out. Eventually, they fall into the liquid.
ReplyDeleteOur biggest pest problem is Indian meal moths, the ones that get into your pantry items. Steve keeps big supplies of bird food, including dried mealworms, and all of that attracts the moths. He keeps it all out in the garage, but the door opens near the pantry, and they find their way to the good stuff handily. There is a flypaper-like trap we use, but it doesn't get them all.
Then there are the Asian ladybugs (imported for pest control, then becoming pests themselves), and brown marmolated stinkbugs. These guys love to help themselves to overwintering inside homes, usually unwelcome. So far this winter I have only heard one stinkbug inside--they make a huge racket trying to fly through windows, the silly things. They hide in bookshelves and other cozy crannies.
Luckily we don’t often get pests in California. I did try the funnel
DeleteApproach and they ignored it. But the liked wine in an open dish so they could fly away again.
We had a large bag of dog food years ago that we put into a large plastic container with a lid. But, even that didn't prevent whatever type of moth or bugs got in.
DeleteWe had them once - drawn by something rotting in a potato bin. The apple cider vinegar - dishwashing liquid trick worked, but it did take a while.
ReplyDeleteCan you add clothes moths to that question? Despite extreme efforts to get rid of them, I’m out of sweaters!
ReplyDeleteCedar wood strips might work (and smell wonderful). If you can stand the smell - mothballs work but the smell is probably toxic to humans as well.
DeleteThis post made me smile, Rhys. I hate all kinds of flies. Yet I’m fascinated by fruit flies. Imagine that tiny creature: a compressed biological machine with memory, decision-making, emotions-adjacent behavior, and a body plan that mirrors ours in miniature. So when you ask why God made fruit flies, I can’t help wondering if the fruit fly might have been the prototype for us.
ReplyDeleteOh! that could be possible Ang. But we didn't get the flying genes.
DeleteThankfully we didn’t inherit all their genes. I’d hate to spend my days eating rotten fruit. :)
DeleteOh, a perfect plot for the twilight zone!
DeleteI feel your pain, Rhys! Usually, when the weather cools down, the fruit flies disappear. We had a fly-free period, then suddenly they were back. Turns out there was a rotting onion in the bin. I always use apple cider/drops of dish liquid in a shallow bowl, covered with plastic wrap and holes pierced in the plastic. It matters if I use a brand of apple cider with a good, strong smell. It worked and now we are fly-free for the rest of the winter, early spring.
ReplyDeleteThe apple cider didn’t work for me. Maybe they were not fruit flies? But they certainly liked the rotting potato
DeleteWe had to tent our house for termites and afterwards we had an invasion of ants (apparently the ants enter the house to eat the leftover dead termites). It took about a month to eradicate them but it was pretty much a process of catching them with a paper towel with a small amount of water & clorax each morning and at night wiping down the counters, cabinets, etc with clorax. We put out the ant traps but they didn't work that well.
ReplyDeleteOh dear, the fruit flies are a menace! We have to be vigilant about checking our pantry. We have to look for anything spoiled to throw away. Wish I knew a solution to resolving the fruit flies problem. Looks like some people here have solutions for fruit flies.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, it looks like it is going to be a beautiful day. Amid the chaos, I try to focus on something good that happened each day.
I’m also trying to focus on something good amid the chaos. It’s not easy!
DeleteSO tiny and SO annoying! I love all these ideas, though, and hope I never have to try them. Next, how about those stupid little tiny ants?
ReplyDeleteWe get them every spring, Hank, like clockwork. We get those little liquid bait traps and those work.
Deleteboric acid or baking soda are supposed to be effective for ants or you could get an anteater.
DeleteThe liquid traps contain boric acid or Borax. It is not exactly a poison, it's a dessicant. When mixed with sugar the ants take it back to the nest and it gets fed to larvae, which then dey up. That's why it takes a little while to work.
DeleteRhys, your fruit flie infestation sounds like our war with the pantry moths. We did finally (knock wood) get rid of the moths by throwing out everything in the pantry, then putting new stuff in glass jars only. We never did figure out where they were breeding.
ReplyDeleteI e had to deal with that too. It’s infuriating!
DeleteWe had that too Debs - it was nearly impossible to get rid of them. We didn't have wooden or plastic shelves, we had the wire racks and they were even living inside the open spaces in the wires. It took forever it seemed like to finally get rid of them.
DeleteWe have the Zevo lighted sticky traps, but as mentioned above, the fruit flies avoid them. I’ve bought the little apple-shaped traps that come with their own cider concoction, but I think the particular fruit flies who have infested our house have adapted their DNA to pass on the “avoid the little apple on the counter” message. I have used cider vinegar with a drop of dishwashing liquid with some success, but haven’t put the plastic wrap across the top (with holes in it). Honestly, the best thing for us is limiting the amount of fruit on the counter. Good luck, Rhys! — Pat S
ReplyDeleteWe had the Zevo lighted sticky traps too but they didn't work for whatever reason.
DeleteNo fruit flies here in Bern, except the many used in genetic and medical experiments at the university, where they are crucially important to research on human diseases. However, the wasps on our balcony in the summer aren't much fun. We've tried spraying them with water (which sometimes results in our accidentally spraying our food), but they seem too smart to think it's raining and fly back to their nests as we'd hoped.
ReplyDeleteKim, I wonder if hanging a dummy nest on your balcony will help. Wasps are territorial, and are supposed to be deterred by evidence of other wasp colonies. There are several options, between making your own paper or crocheted nest, or buying a collapsible nylon one.
DeleteI wonder what the special attraction of wine is (for fruit flies, I mean - for people, I get it)? All these bug reports are making me nervous. I got tiny ants the first few years in this house, but when I had new siding and insulation put on the kitchen side of my house, the ants disappeared. WE don't get mosquitos even though I live on a wetlands in part because there's some tidal action with salt or brine water, and also because the wonderful Barn Swallows arrive just as it's heating up enough fo flying bugs to breed and the darling little birds sweep them into their mouths while flying - amazing feat!
ReplyDeleteI have one of those electric bug zappers. It is grand at zapping flying bugs. The middle of the night ZAP can be a bit frightening until one realizes what the noise is.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm back from the two weeks of court matters and the trial for my son's murderer. It was hard, and what was especially hard was realizing how easily some people can lie, even under oath. Also, I apologize in advance to all the good lawyers out there, but I had already had a taste of the defense lawyers and knew they were going to twist things, insinuate, and lie themselves. I hope none of you ever have to go through a trial like this. Our prosecutor we had been with for over two years left and went elsewhere a month before the trial, but he had already been preparing a new prosecutor, who actually had more experience than he did, and she was excellent. The only complaint, and it's a big one, I had was that she didn't show the video my husband and I saw that was obtained from a shop across from the parking lot where Kevin was killed. She showed the traffic cam videos, which didn't show the close-up of the killer and his two friends actually running towards Kevin, who was standing by himself not doing anything, and the killer shooting Kevin within three seconds of approaching him. The prosecutor said that the jury would see that is what happened in the deliberation room. I'm not so sure they did. The psychopath got ten years, but I truly believe he will follow his pattern and get into more trouble in prison. The jury didn't know everything about the killer I did or all of Kevin's friends did or even the prosecutor did. After obtaining bail in Oct. 2024 (he killed Kevin on May 28th, 2023), this psycho (a name that really does fit) wasn't out but two days when he broke every window in his parents (big) house and tried to set it on fire. So, back to jail he went. The jury didn't know about this incident either. They were allowed to hear about some of his many misdemeanors, such as terroristic threatening and property destruction. The judge ruled that the prosecution couldn't bring in the telephone text message the killer made to a friend about shooting someone else two weeks earlier. For whatever reason, the person didn't report it or go to the hospital. So, you can see that trying to get a murder conviction is not an easy thing, especially in the county it happened in Kentucky. I was able to read my victim's statement before the jury decided on how many years (ten was the maximum), and I think it did help some in their determination of the number of years. We now have to go back on Feb. 26th for formal sentencing, mostly a formality where the judge will pronounce the verdict and years. I wanted to share this information with you all because I have spoken of it here more than once over the last two years and seven months. It's not closure for me, but it is certainly something I'm glad to be done with. There is, of course, no closure, and my heart will heart until my last breath. We were blessed in court with quite a few people showing up every day for the trial. Family, friends of Kevin, and friends of Philip and me. And, the court advocate, who took care of me like a mother would. I am so grateful for their support, which kept Philip and me sane in an insane situation. Again, I hope you don't mind me updating you, but I felt I owed it to the community here, many of which have shown wonderful support, too.
ReplyDeleteNow, those horrible fruit flies. We had little success with the apple-shaped product. We had some success with the Zevo, but we had the most success with fly sticky strips. However, next time, and isn't there always a next time with fruit flies, I think I'll try Selden's trap.