Waging war on the dreaded Drosophila melanogaster

A squadron of tiny black specs prepared for liftoff as I reached for the perfectly ripened peach in the fruit bowl this morning – thousands of kamikaze gnats in a collective protest took flight. The fruit flies have arrived. This time of year is one of fragrant harvests; cherries, pears and peaches; fruits coming to fruition.  And with the fruit the flies.

I hate fruit flies.  I hate they way the appear out of nowhere.  I hate the way they wait in ambush for the moment a desired fruit is about to be plucked from the bowl before they make their presence known. I hate the way they, and all their kin, have already established themselves somewhere in the kitchen even before you know they’ve arrived. They are sneaky buggers.  (Have I mentioned I hate them?)

There are a million fruit fly solutions – the internet predicted my search even before I’d finished typing my question. I imagine I’m not the only one googling the problem today.  You can pay upwards of forty-five dollars and order a reusable trap from Amazon or you can make your own for next to nothing. I happened to have all the ingredients for a do it yourself concoction.

So now my kitchen wafts the pungent aroma of apple cider vinegar and I have strategically placed my hand held vacuum cleaner close to the toxic pool lest some of those annoying insects are reluctant to take the plunge.  If they don’t sink while swimming I will super suck them into oblivion.  They have messed with the wrong fruititarion this time… war is nasty business.