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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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...)

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

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

[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.

[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.