for the love of nums
This summer has been brutal when it comes to fruit flies, y’all. No matter what I do, I just can’t seem to shake ’em. Short of “burn the house down and move” (my personal favorite + most tempting piece of advice when I polled y’all asking for tips in this realm), I needed to find a way to eliminate these pests safely and quickly.
I refuse to be a fruit-fly’s free meal – especially when I have some damn good peaches on the counter trying to ripen, and they deserve to do so without getting felt up by fruit flies against their will. So I took to the ‘gram in search of a solution. And per the yoozh, y’all did not let me down! I got tons and tons of feedback, but one particular tip popped up again and again that caught my eye because it’s simple and involves just two ingredients that I happen to always have in my kitchen at all times. So without further ado, I give you the perfect fruit-fly murder.
I’m about to hit you with one of the most important equations of your life: warm water + a couple tbsp of apple cider vinegar (ACV) + a couple squirts of dish soap + a small bowl or ramekin = certain death for a fruit fly. The pungent, yet sweet aroma of the ACV lures them in like a hard-up sailor to a siren, then when they show up for the pants party and jump in lookin’ for some action, the dish soap cuts the surface tension of the vinegar, causing the flies to sink and drown – no doubt as they ponder the horrible life decisions that led them to this point. The victory is swift and sweet.
But just to be thorough and present you with allllll the options, there are a couple other methods people swear by too:
THE STORE-BOUGHT SOLUTION:
Aunt Fannie’s FlyPunch
I’ve not personally tried this thing, and thus cannot vouch for it, but a bunch of y’all love it, soooooo. Apparently you just stick it out wherever you’re having an issue – so in this case, by the fruit basket – and it’ll do the rest.
THE OLD-FRUIT TRICK:
Toss a banana peel in a mason jar + place a paper cone inside, effectively sealing the top. Fruit flies will be attracted to the banana peel + fly in, but won’t be able to get back out because of the paper cone. Not diggin’ the cone? Seal the top of the jar with plastic wrap instead + poke little holes in it. Same theory.
Some other precautions I took, in addition to my ACV-laden swamp of death, to prevent more fruit flies from breeding + getting all up in my biz like the annoying little Gremlins that they are:
1. Wash your produce when you get home from the store to rinse away any larvae that may be lurking on your goods.
2. Don’t let super ripe produce sit out. If those bananas are gettin’ spotty, use them up or stick ’em in the fridge or freezer.
3. Store as much as you can in the fridge. I know it’s not ideal, but when I’m battling fruit flies, as soon as my produce is ripe + ready, in the fridge it goes.
4. If there’s food in the garbage can, the trash needs to go out every day.
5. Pour bleach down your kitchen-sink drain to eliminate any fruit-fly eggs that may be lurking in there.
Their vile little corpses were disposed of in the woods, never to be seen again. My peaches can now ripen in peace. And we all lived happily ever after…
And here you thought this was a murder mystery.