If you eat a lot of fruit and keep fresh fruit out you’ve probably experienced a fruit fly infestation at least once.  They’re amazingly social creatures it appears.  If you see one you can bet they are going to invite their entire social circle by the end of the day.

In July, we went on vacation for two weeks.  Normally we spend some time battening down the house before we leave: cleaning up, adjusting the thermostat, taking out the trash, doing dishes, etc.  Last month we had family visit the day we were flying out.  We were excited to see our niece, her husband and their kids as we hadn’t seen them for a few years.  We enjoyed our visit very much but unfortunately our house preparation routine was shortened and we missed a couple of things, including emptying the kitchen trash!  Yikes!

When we got back to the house two weeks later we walked into a kitchen full of fruit flies!  As I’m sure you know they are not the easiest to get rid of.  They stick around like non-rent-paying relatives!  They know a good thing with they see it – free food and ac!

Normally, I just eliminate the food source and they eventually go on their merry way (or die.)  But I couldn’t be that patient this time as we are selling our house.  The house is under contract so we weren’t actively showing it, but still I wanted to make sure that it was presentable at any given moment.

Ron (the hubby) and I did a little research and started experimenting with fly-elimination procedures and here is what finally succeeded.  We filled a cereal bowl with apple cider vinegar and put it in a gallon size ziplock bag with holes punched in the top.  The fruit flies were attracted to the vinegar so they came through the holes but couldn’t get back out and eventually we had a pile of unsightly dead fruit flies in the bottom of the bag surrounding the bowl.  We liked them much better comatose in the plastic bag than we did having them flying around the kitchen!  (And no, I didn’t take a picture.  Too gross to share!)

Have you found a favorite method for getting rid of fruit flies that visit your home?

Enjoy!  Julie