Drosophila melanogaster - The bane of my existance

So, our house has a problem, a problem which we cannot get rid of. Fruit flies! Since the term has started the little buggers have be flying around our kitchen and dining room bothering the hell out of Dave, Luc (my roomies), and I. So after doing a little research on this I found out that their name "Drosophila melanogaster" is actually Greek for "black-bellied dew-lover". While this information proved to be insightful, it did not help with the eradication of the little buggers.

After searching various sites looking for eradication and prevention methods we stumbled upon various types of fruit fly traps. Some consisted of just a glass with bubbles inside while others were more intricate. My favorite trap thus far involves pieces of fruit, a funnel, and malt vinegar. Pictured below are our two favorite traps.


In the little time that we've used them the funnel trap seems to be the most successful. While the flies travel down the funnel, they cannot find the hole again and just get stuck in the bottle. I empty the jar out every day just so we don't have too many in their at the same time.

So last week everything was going great, there was a decrease in the overall numbers and we thought we had eliminated the problem....until today. Dave and I ventured downstairs to find dozens of fruit flies on Luc's mini-keg. We had no idea flies were attracted to the smooth taste of beer, but apparently they love it. With the influx of new fruit flies Dave and I decided to move the eradication process up to stage 2.

Stage 2 consisted of getting a new garbage can with a lid, putting ALL food in the fridge, and sadly getting rid of our beer wall... We started collecting various beers from around the world last year and had over 60 unique kinds. While I am sad to see all the beer go if it gets rid of the flies then its all worth while.


Well that is all for now I guess, I'll post the progress of stage 2 in a few days, and hopefully our problem will be gone by the time I get back from St. Johns. Two days!!!!!

Uncle Tupulo - Fatal Wound