How To Get Rid of Fruit Flies (Low-Tech Version, High-Tech Version)
The remedies I've tried in the past? Failures. I've been told to leave out a glass of wine, or try a few drops of dishwasher liquid in a container of water. What did I get? House parties of flies who seemed to particularly enjoy a nice Cabernet.
This summer, though, I found the key. The first trick was a variation on the wine-glass method. Fill a jam jar with an inch or two of wine, but then cover the top with plastic wrap. (I know. Seems obvious now.) Secure the wrap with a rubber band, then poke a few holes through it. Flies get in, but can't get out.
Then Terro, the pest control company, sent over a sample of its new fruit fly trap. The trap is a little apple-shaped plastic ball, filled with a non-toxic compound (more or less vinegar and dish soap, looking at the ingredients). It operates on the same theory as the jam jar, and also works quite well. Bonus points to the Terro device for looking a lot nicer on the countertop than a rubber-banded jam jar. I'm tempted to ding it because the contents stained my counter when my curious toddler turned it upside down... but with enough scrubbing, the stain came out, and a red wine spill would have caused problems too.
Customer reviews of the Terro are interesting -- people seem to either love it (17 five-star reviews) or hate it (9 one-star reviews). As you would figure, the lovers say it solved their infestations; the haters say it didn't work for them. Count me among the lovers, because my kitchen is now fly-free -- I may even have the nerve to set my compost container back on the counter.
Short of calling in the Very Busy Spider, how do you get rid of a pesty (fruit) fly?
-- Rebekah Denn











