Thanks for the opinions on the oil change issue. Now for another practical question, this one of a more domestic nature. . .
My kitchen has been taken over by fruit flies. I have eliminated the likely attractants, but they’re still about to carry me off. What is the best way to send the little suckers to Drosophila hell?
Dr. J
A fly swatter always works for me.
FDA approved bug spray
Formerly known as Nec3f on the AOL SDMB
Been a bad year for them for me too,doc.I just kept making sure there was nothing they liked around . Kept all the vegies and fruit in the reefer no pretty bowl of apples. Washed every thing when we got it home put it away took the sacks outside right away. Didn’t let garbage can get even a third full. Made sure the kids wiped up slightest juice spill,even soda and koolaid.Moved the compost heap. OH my back. gradually died down. I don’t think those guys live very long a day two? but even on starvation diets there were some. Lasted about a month. Lucky none of them got in my jeans.
Krish, takes a teeny lil swatter to get those guys.
I am far past the point where a flyswatter could do any good. A nuclear strike would probably be a good start, if it were centered directly on my kitchen. Bachelor pads, dirty dishes, and impending micro/immuno exams are a dangerous mix.
According to my undergrad biology lab, fruit flies live for about two weeks. I’ll never forget trying to sort the damn things by sex. That’s when I learned that “creative data entry” (AKA fudging) is a useful skill in any college science lab.
Dr. J
Like your blue-haired grandmas never said:
“Time flies like the wind, but fruit flies like bananas.”
Get a big spider.
Had this same problem when I had a worm bin for a science project in the fifth grade. All you have to do is get a glass about 1/4 full of beer, and using plastic wrap, make a “funnel” down into the glass (with the hole at the bottom of the funnel not quite touching the beer. They will go down the funnel to drink the beer, and not be able to find the little hole through which they entered the glass. They get trapped, and either 1) Die when the beer ferments, 2) Get drunk and drown, or 3) Try to drive/operate machinery while over the legal BAC and get arrested by tiny policemen.
“Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.” --1984
funny!
…yet true! It seriously works! Sounds strange, but…hey, try it, you’ll see what I mean! The cleanup isn’t pleasant, though…you’ll have to check every glass of beer you drink from then on to see if there are fruit flies in it…but it’s worth it to get rid of them.
“Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.” --1984
Hey, the stuff works as bait for lots of bugs. Slugs, snails, japanese beetles, yellowjackets and houseflies, just to name a few.
FixedBack
The funnell in a bottle is the basis fo many commercial traps, home made is cheaper and just as effective. BUT. Are you trying to tell me there are people who actually just leave laying around? drossy wouldn’t get a chance to drown around here. Some water,sugar and yeast works just as well. that’s my slug tavern, I do pour it in beer bottles buried almost to the rim though,no funnel for them.Real neat looking stuff when it gets full. AH ,the old Fudge Factor, we called it the Wallace factor after the most creative user of it I have ever known.“Well you see this is solution 5,from page 12, consisting of 3 ingredients,subtract 5,divide by 12, cube the result and voila!”
“Pardon me while I have a strange interlude.”-Marx
ERRATUM insert ‘beer’ between ‘leave’…‘laying’ ERRATA ‘laying’ should be ‘lyeing’ ah, forge tit.
Noooo! DON’T USE NUKES! Don’t you know fruit flies mutate like crazy? You’d end up with giant two-headed fruit flies that would threaten the human race!
Fruit flies like alcohol. They are the lushes of the fly world. That bottle trick does work. I hear even just a trace of alcohol is enough to attract them.
Hmm. Lexington KY, fruitflies, alcohol.Sounds like HILLBILLY fruitflies!Maybe you need whisky in that bottle, or moonshine.
Or the fruitfly’s sister barefoot in a purty red halter-top and cutoff jeans
Apply for a NIH grant proposing a study for the eradication of fruit flies in the home kitchen. Much $$$ may be rewarded.