Saturday, November 20, 2010

Princess of the Flies pt.2 or Bebe goes to Hell

My darling wonderfully gifted and creative child is still in denial. Has no clue why she did it or why it might be a problem for me. or for her. On Wednesday and Thursday , there seem to be no end to the wave of flies. How is this possible?  A quick check on-line tells me why. These little females can lay 500 EGGS! That was some serious banana. Must have been chock full.of larvae. Getting sick thinking of  it...
 I am going to Hell,  I know it for certain.I have  taken the lives (and souls if they have them) of what seems like 1000's of  fruit flies since this whole thing started.
My mass murder spree started on Tuesday with me swatting at them with rolled up newspaper. Not a very effective technique. I am reminded though of a  story that I read as a child....."Take that!" as she struck the flies such a heavy blow with the newspaper that no fewer than seven lay dead upon the table, while the others flew up to the ceiling fan in great haste."Seven at one blow!" said Bebe with great pride. "Such a brave deed ought to be known all over the metaverse , and it won't be my fault if folks fail to hear of it."
I ran from spot to spot trying to catch groups of them until I thought, this will never work, I'll be insane by the end of the day.  Think of other methods.  Think Bebe.Think.........

Method 2-  Fly Strips,  Ok, a bit old fashioned, and kind of disgusting to look at, good for catching a hundred or so.

Method 3- Isopropyl alcohol (wearing protection) in a spray bottle, knocked them down and killed the ones hanging on the counters and on the cabinets. Result, disinfected counters and flies refusing to land.

Method 4- Traps made  out of Mason jars and sniff sniff, my Shiraz. Let the flys go in ... cover quickly with a plastic lid, quick swirl  to get them wet, and let them drown.   Not very effective cause you have to stand there and catch a bunch in the jar . Another downside I didn't like having to share my good wine with a bunch of pests. Method 4A, Trap with apple cider. Produced nothing , I guess they don't like organic cider.

Method 5- (after consulting Google) Made the trap out of Mason jar,  a banana peel  and plastic wrap. Place  peel in jar, cover with taut piece of plastic wrap and poke holes with a fork  in wrap. The holes are big enough for the flies to get in, but they cant find the hole to climb out. This method produced  amazingly good but disgusting  results. I suppose the buggers were partial to bananas. By Friday,  The jars were full and audible buzzing was heard coming  from the jars.  Our  house is almost fruit fly free now and I can get back to the business of being creative  in Inworldz.
What happened to the flies in the jar you ask? Did  I release them outside or not.... ? You know the answer. I am going to Hell and my darling wonderfully gifted and creative child is still clueless (and will not be near bananas for the foreseeable future).

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