Shoo-Fly
If you, like me, live anywhere near the Vancouver area you’re probably innundated right now with fruit flies.
Oh my holy hell, it’s like a fly convention in here. Despite religiously cleaning up any spills, keeping foodstuffs hidden away and taking out the garbage, all it takes is for us to make dinner or pour a glass of wine and they’re EVERYWHERE, again.
But!
I’ve found a really easy way to get rid of them!
So I figured I’d share:
Find a small jar or container you don’t particularly like (I’m using a small, empty mustard jar). Put an inch or so of red wine into it (it’s the liquid the flies seem to like best ’round these parts, plus the dark colour means you can’t see the pile o’ corpses in the bottom). Put a couple drops of liquid dish-soap into the wine.
The flies are drawn to the wine, but when they land on it, the dish soap has broken the surface tension and the wee buggers instantly plummet through the wine to a grapey death at the bottom of the jar.
We’ve had this out for about a week, and have been fly-free ever since.
You’re welcome 
September 16th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
I do that too, using balsamic vinegar! It works SO WELL.
Uh, hi. I’ve been lurking and reading you for a while now.
September 16th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
Good idea with the wine… we’ve had good success with vinegar, water, sugar and dishsoap too.
September 17th, 2007 at 9:25 am
Jen, this is the best suggestion ever. I’m going to set this up when I complete my next bottle of wine. Where are all these flies coming from??? Oh wait, that’s Sam over at city hall again. Gawd that guy stinks.
September 17th, 2007 at 11:28 am
That’s awesome! I’ve heard that some traps fail because the flies are just trapped, not killed. Then the smartest ones escape and breed a race of SUPER FRUIT FLIES!!!
September 17th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
Hahahah not to mention, there’s often a few extra ounces of red wine left over at the W/W household. Sorry, been drinkin’ some cab franc, felt the need to be snarky.
September 17th, 2007 at 10:58 pm
I made the same “discovery” Friday night at dinner when looking into my boyfriend’s glass of wine (we don’t drink very quickly) and there were three drowned fruit flies. Eewww! The summer is cooling down so I hope it’s not a problem for much longer around Vancouver.
September 19th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
We got the damn fruit flies on the East coast as well…thanks for the tip, I’ll have to give it a whirl.
September 20th, 2007 at 9:42 am
[...] current strike by Vancouver’s civic workers. I’ve read recent complaints about rats and fruit flies (Jen also provides a handy remedy), while Rebecca gives a general state of the refuse address on [...]
September 20th, 2007 at 11:07 pm
ok you are awesomeness in blog post! seriously, i soo needed this. damn garbage strike.
September 25th, 2007 at 11:38 am
Yes red wine is a winner. But Sam Sullivan is a loser. I am totally and utterly choked at the total lack of effort on resolving the strike. In fact its the total lack of respect for the citizens of Vancouver - that he cannot even take it seriously. He will so ignominiously dumped next election - no Olympics for you buddy. You can watch from the sidelines liek everyone else - there is an election BEFORE 2010 right??