I'm not sure what it was. It may have been my under-the-sink composting garbage can (or the fact that I only empty it into the big outside bin once or twice a week). It may have been the aging bananas on our counter. It may have been the house plants I have been over-watering. It may have been the gooey high chair that is impossible to keep clean for more than a couple of hours a day.
I'm not sure what harbored them, but I have a fruit fly problem.
I've tried cleaning my kitchen and bathrooms thoroughly, and spraying almost everything with Lysol (not so green...).
Martha suggests covering bowls of cider vinegar with saran wrap, poking some holes in it, and then waiting for the fruit flies to get trapped. I have no saran wrap at the moment, but I put a ziploc over a bowl of cider vinegar, and that seems to have worked pretty well.
I'm off to acquire some saran wrap and put a bowl in every room of the house. Hopefully it works. Otherwise, when we return from our 10-day siesta at the lake, we may find a house over run by the little guys. We'll have to welcome the UMN scientists in to conduct their experiments right here.
If that doesn't work, it sounds like they may be gnats (from my houseplants) instead of fruit flies. The recommended action there is not to water your houseplants.... since I won't be home for a while, that will be a snap.
Let's hope I come home to a house devoid of the flying little creepies.
bearing witness to the fleeting moments of growing two little girls, an edible backyard, a baby-to-be, chickens, and a novel
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Quick update - The cider vinegar worked great overnight. It trapped loads of them. I'm hunting down the strays with my trusty can of lysol, and I'm leaving the house clean and decorated with bowls of vinegar to prevent a re-infestation.
Yeah to Martha for once again saving the day. I LOVE that book. Congrats on controlling the over population of the fruit flies.
Karen
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