Ugh! We are currently experiencing a fruit fly infestation in our house. As you may know, for the past year, I have had a worm farm downstairs in the basement. The purpose of the worm farm is to help us compost our kitchen scraps (non meat and non dairy). I use the compost for my plants, and it is very rich and the plants love it. The worms are pretty low-maintenance, and it has worked well. There isn't much of a smell, and I have even tried them for fishing. I don't like them for fishing though, because I find them to be too weak-bodied. But getting I didn't do it for fishing worms, I did it for the composting.

It had been relatively problem free for the past year. However, in the last few weeks, our house has become swarmed with fruit flies. I think this happened after we went apple picking. We made a few apple pies and such, and threw out tons of apple skins and cores. I put them into my "pre-rot" bin. That is a bin where I throw all the scraps to start decomposition before I give them to the worms. I don't want to over feed them worms. I don't think the fruit flies came in on the apples, but I think all that fruit was enough to jump start a population of them that might have come in on a banana peel or orange or something.

So, for the past week or so, I have been trying in vain to reduce their numbers or eliminate them. My most successful method thus far has just been to suck them up with the vacuum. But this is very tedious, and they keep coming back since I probably can't get enough of them to make a good enough dent in the population.

Our friend Andrea came over last night and told us that she used to work in a juice bar where fruit flies were a problem. Their solution was to put out bowls of vinegar. The flies would be attracted to that and drown in the vinegar. So, while she was here, I poured some vinegar into a bowl and set it out on the kitchen counter. We chatted in the dining room and drank some red wine (the fruit flies love that as well, so they were swarming us then too). I looked back at the vinegar about a half hour later, and lo and behold, there were many fruit flies near it or in it. So, she was on to something.

When I woke up this morning, I checked th bowl. Not many had actually drowned in the vinegar. The more or less just congregated around it. I could also see some of them engaging in fruit fly sex around the bowl, so I don't think that would do much to stop the situation. All I was doing was giving them a place to hook up.

So, in a step I should have initially done a while back, I consulted good old Google for how to get rid of fruit flies. I found some info on there confirming indeed, that they are attracted to vinegar. It did mention that you should not use white vinegar, which I was. There were also some suggestions for creating a trap for the flies. After reading a few different techniques, I designed my own trap.

I took an old mason jar and poured some balsamic vinegar in it (ideally it would have been cider vinegar). I also added in a touch of red wine left over from last night, and some lime juice from the fridge. I figured that should entice those little buggers. I then took some plastic wrap and sealed the top of the jar. I poked a small hole in the plastic wrap. I then took a piece of paper and rolled it into a cone. I cut the tip off the cone and taped the cone together so it would hold. I then stuck the cone into the hole in the plastic wrap, making sure I didn't touch the juices in the jar. I set it and let it do its work. The theory behind it is that the flies are too dumb to fly out once they go down the cone. They then will eventually die or drown in the liquid.

I have let it sit for several hours, and yes, I can confirm it is working. There are many of the little suckers in the trap. We'll have to wait and see if it completely cures our problem, or if it is just a temporary fix!