Sunday, November 25, 2007

I be the Lord of the Flies, mwhaha!

Ok, so I must preface my story with this: Boys are dirty creatures that I will never fully understand. Ok, on with the tale.... So a week-ish ago my hubs and I started noticing fruit flies in the kitchen. We had one banana left from a bunch and made sure it got eaten that day. Still the flies persisted. I started noticing them on the high chair so I made sure it was extra clean every night. Still the flies pestered us and I began to live in fear of inhaling the little creatures. I cleaned the counter tops yet again, I checked the kitchen trash can and the fridge for anything offensive that the flies could be attracted to. Still the flies were with us and I was in my stewing pot.

So a few days ago the hubs and I had decided that we were fed up with our kid's sloppy rooms (there's a whole other post, gack) and decided to do some rearranging of things in the boy's room. (We call firstborn son 'The Boy' for your future reference. He is 5ish and dirty as aforementioned.) We sorted a bunch of stuff, threw some things away including a desk that just collects junk. The hubs then moved the toybox. It was then that we discovered the promised land of the fruit flies. They were all flocking to the mecca behind the Boy's toy box, which was the location of a half eaten, rotten, stinking banana. Yes, you may feel free to gasp in disgust now. It was smeared down the wall, which we guessed must have happened as it fell from the top of the toy box and slowly worked it's way to the floor in that narrow space.

My hubs, God bless him, cleaned up the ghastly mess and we both lectured the Boy on various topics of food in bedrooms and cleanliness in general. I have no doubt that these lectures were meaningless to the Boy but we felt obligated. At any rate, it's now 4ish days later and we still have house guests. So I googled how to get rid of the flies and found a cheap (free, haha) remedy. I poured some balsamic vinegar into two juice glasses, and put paper funnels into them, taping them in so there would be no gaps. The flies have been getting in and being that they have brains the size of.... well... fruit flies, they are then unable to get themselves back out. The slaughter of the fruit flies is a bit gross and fascinating at the same time, as there are some drowning in the inky pool, while other more suspicious flies are still perched at the top of the funnel, contemplating. I've squished a bunch through the paper funnel when they got near the top of the glass prison, so I may have played my hand too early and scared some of them away.

I'll check for bodies in the morning and let ya'll know how it went!