Death to the Fruit Flies!

Your average fruit fly will die of natural causes after only a month or two of life. Is this soon enough? Absolutely not!

They’re pesky little things, flitting around by your fruit bowl – or your kitchen windowsill of Bramleys, in my case – and while I can’t actually see what they’re doing, I’m sure it can’t be good.

Not being fond of spraying my food with insecticidal chemicals, I determined to take a less toxickly stinky method to wreak my devastation. (I may be a writer by profession, but I moonlight as the Death of Small Parasitic Insects.)

The accumulated wisdom of the ancients in the books on my shelf suggested that vinegar might be the way to go. While the ancients may have been wrong about some things (do not rub bedbound person’s pressure points with meths; the skin will crack), I was prepared to give them the chance to prove themselves right on this.

Ingredients: 1) one small narrow-mouthed bottle (mine was possibly an ink bottle originally; a perfume bottle might well do too) and 2) some apple cider vinegar. Pour Ingredient 2 into Ingredient 1, leaving a space before the neck narrows. Place bottle near where the fruit flies lurk, and wait.

Before a day had passed, there were little floating bodies bobbing about on the surface. Eventually, I think there were a dozen or more in there – it got so choked it was hard to tell. Also clouding the issue was the appearance of a plaque of mother of vinegar, which I had some ado to get out of the bottle.

The fruit flies are gone now – drowned and dead and down the drain – but the bottle stands ready to defend the Bramleys when needed. Another slug of Ingredient 2 is all it will take.

What tried and tested tips have you gleaned from the wisdom of the past? Do share!