Fruit flies, be gone!

If you love fruit flies, do not read this blog post. I really loathe them, because they come each summer just at the time you want to enjoy all the fresh fruits that taste best when they’re not refrigerated. At this time of year, my kitchen countertop rarely gets the opportunity to show off a brimming bowlful of beautiful fruit, because I just can’t take all those little insects floating around in that particularly irritating fruit-fly way. (And I LOVE to cook with fruit; find some great recipes in our recipe database.)

To get some relief, I use a very effective, and homemade, fruit-fly trap. You may have heard of doing this, but if not, try it out, and you’ll probably find it works great. There are fruit-fly traps you can buy, but this one costs next to nothing and takes about 1 minute to make.

Take a ramekin or other shallow, smallish dish [the one I use is about 4-inches in diameter]. Fill it to about one-third with some kind of booze’I use rum. (I’ve tried doing this with wine or vodka, but the rum seems to work best.) Then cover it tightly with cling film, and if needed secure it around the top with an elastic band. Take the sharp tip of a pair of scissors or steak knife and pierce the plastic wrap about 5 or 6 times. The fruit flies will find it pretty quickly and they’ll go through the holes (so make sure they’re big enough; about 2mm), but won’t be able to get out again.

After a day or two, amazingly, most of them are gone, but I leave this trap out on the counter for the rest of the summer for "maintenance." It may seem cruel, but at least they get one last drink before they expire.

What do you do to deal with fruit flies?

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