trapping fruit flies

When we returned from our recent Hawaiian vacation we were greeted by dozens of fruit flies who had been breeding and making themselves at home in our kitchen.  While they are tiny and fairly harmless they are utterly annoying and must be destroyed.

There are several traps you can concoct, but we opted for the funnel trap.  It has been 10 hours and while the fly population seems to be dieing down, there are only a few carcases to be found in the trap – sort of mysterious.

In addition to making the trap, we thoroughly cleaned all the kitchen surfaces, refrigerated all fruit that normally lives in a bowl on the counter, and changed all our towels and rags.  Perhaps it was the powerful combination of Windex and the make-shift trap that ultimately delivered the message that they weren’t welcome at the Dahl House and sent them flying away.

While I can see how getting to the bottom this would make for a good science fair project, in my adult life I really don’t care how or why the flies are no longer swarming, I’m just glad they’re off to a new adventure somewhere far away from my home.