Baking with Drosophila

[pameladean]

No, it's not what you think. But we do have an immense population of fruit flies, both upstairs and downstairs. We are blaming the warm weather, but really, I don't know. Ordinarily, if one wants to get rid of them, one eats or disposes of the fruit in question, takes out the trash, and that's it. These guys are persistent. They are ubiquitous. I was standing on a stepladder moving paperback books from one shelf to another and fruit flies were zipping around my head. They seem curious, like very tiny winged cats. If you are doing something, anything, laundry, washing dishes, bringing in the groceries, one or two of them will come check you out.

I made two vegan pumpkin pies this afternoon, and while mercifully no fruit flies immolated themselves in the filling, they were all over the place. After I had cleaned the blender and let it dry, I went to put the lid back on, and spent about ten minutes shooing fruit flies out. It was like washing windows, where you can't tell which side the smudge is on.

I also made a mince pie, and the fruit flies circled my head like a halo the entire time.

I know one can get traps or improvise traps, but I'm starting to get fascinated with them. I wish they wouldn't literally get up my nose, though.

I hope you all have a stupendous weekend in whatever way suits you best.

Pamela

Comments

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Usually I get fruit flies in August, and after a few traps and the colder weather they're gone in a month or so.

This year I still have some. My kitchen might be more likely than usual to have food scraps around, but it seems strange, as you say. They fly into the fridge and the freezer, and they don't die very quickly in the fridge.

Maybe they are actually some kind of nanotechnology.

[pameladean]

They ACT like nanotechnology, truly.

Ours haven't been interested in the freezer yet.

P.

[guppiecat]

You need to spill more in it.

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

"Baking with Drosophila" sounds like a cooking show, but I can't decide if Drosophila is the hostess or the food item sponsor.

[pameladean]

*snrch*

P.

[pameladean]

I've never had such great numbers to observe before!

I think something will have to be done, though.

P.

[momomom.livejournal.com]

"like very tiny winged cats" really caught my eye too.

[mle292.livejournal.com]

I had a problem with persistent fruit flies once, it was because of a lost and forgotten orange. Once the orange was gone, the flies were gone too.

I'd check behind the fridge if I were you.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Most of the times I have fruit fly problems, it's turned out that a small potato has escaped, rolled behind something else, and expired quietly.

I have memories that are fond now, but not-so-fond at the time of our pantry when we lived in Tanzania when I was a kid. We'd buy a stalk of bananas when the truck came through and hang it up in the pantry, and it would be surrounded by a cloud of fruit flies until we'd eaten them all.

[pameladean]

Yes, these guys really really want our bananas.

I will check for stray potatoes. They don't seem interested in the ones we have in the usual spot, but a well-aged one might be different.

P.

[pameladean]

The top of the refrigerator is too high for me to reach, so we don't keep oranges there. They came in on bananas, which we now (not the original ones, but their successors) keep in a plastic bag. The fruit flies sit on the bag, yearning. It's very pathetic.

P.

[guppiecat]

Years ago I magically got some little grey beetles in the kitchen. I moved them outside, but the next day I got more. After repeating this process for several days, I ceased the relocation process. That's when I learned that they weren't actually sneaking back inside, but were spontaneously generating from the ether.

I thought it was cool to have magical pets, but then they started to die. I named them all Fred, so I didn't feel bad when I had to sweep up dead Freds.

After about a month, there were no more Freds. A year after that, I found a bag in a cupboard that was half beans and half Freds. That's when I learned that they weren't magical after all, and I was sad.

[pameladean]

Of course they were magical. Well, the beans were, because they turned into Freds.

I wonder what the adult form needed to eat.

P.

[momomom.livejournal.com]

I love your story.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

The method for getting rid of fruit flies is to burn an incense stick in the room. They can't cope with the smoke particles and die like... um... and you can sweep them up.

If you like them, fine, but should you get tired of them now you know.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Mine didn't all die, but they did disperse for a while or something. Maybe the method doesn't work as well in this big open space.

[pameladean]

I don't like incense at all, unfortunately.

"... die like... um..." completely cracked me up.

P.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I'm not very fond of them either, but I like them better than flies.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Knowing that they have been using fruit flies for genetic research for a very long time now, I'm envisaging dangerously mutated/evolved fruit flies.... Horror movie?

Sorry you're being plagued, though.

[pameladean]

That occurred to me too, but the above suggestion of nanotechnology might also make sense.

P.

[thinkum]

They seem curious, like very tiny winged cats.

This totally cracked me up. :D

We had a plague of them over the summer, but the colder weather seems to have returned them to their normal, "What, no fruit lying about? We're out of here!" state.

mmmMincemmm! I'm off to make one of those, and an apple, as well. (Hope your knee is happier this morning, after some rest from the piemaking...)

[pameladean]

My knee has forgiven me. It was, thank you for inquiring, never yelling, just muttering under its breath and stomping its, um, cartilage? from time to time.

Hope your pies were happy!

P.

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

Fruit fly traps can be hand made http://www.instructables.com/id/Easy-Fruit-Fly-Trap/

[longstrider.livejournal.com]

There's an even easier one. Mix vinegar with water and just a small bit of dish soap. The vinegar attracts them and the soap lowers the surface tension of the water so they fall in when they try and land and drink.

[(Anonymous)]

thank you so much, I can't seem to find where mine are breeding and they are driving me CRAZY!

[pameladean]

Replying so comment will be visible.

If you would, I'd like anonymous commenters to sign their comments with some kind of distinctive handle. It needn't be "real" by stupid definitions, just something.

I suspect LJ was acting up, though, and you meant to be visible.

P.

[guppiecat]

To be picky, the soap is dissolving the chitin of the insect, which has a dehydrating effect. It can also cause problems with the spiracles, so they can't breathe. It would probably work just fine without the water.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Argh. We get those in summer, too.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

There's a cousin of the fungus gnat that can live in kitchen/bathroom drains and looks a lot like a fruit fly. I forget its name.

[pameladean]

We get those too, but they stay in the bathroom and are a little smaller.

P.

[chakolate.livejournal.com]

Sounds more like beer gnats that fruit flies. If you have beer cans in your recycling bin, that may be the culprit.

[pameladean]

I think I took all those out, but they could have fueled the population explosion.

I do rinse them, but perhaps I was careless.

P.