alcoholic fruit flies

[diggernotdreamer]

I seem to have created a colony of alcohol fuelled fruit flies in my house. A few weeks ago, I put some apple pulp in a basin with a plate on top which I intended putting in my lidded bucket to make cider vinegar. Being me, I put the bowl on top of the washing machine and forgot all about it, that is until a few days ago during a warm day and things must have hatched. I put the bowl outside with all the flies and disposed of it into the compost heap. Since then, in the evenings, some of the flies seem to activate. The OH likes a pint or several in the evenings and I think that I am to blame for what is going on at the moment. The minute some beer is poured, several dozen alcohol deprived fruit flies descend on the pint pot, it is so bad that some have been ingested in the time it takes to get the pot to the lips. I had a bottle of wine last night and this drove them into a complete alcohol fuelled frenzy, they were attached to the bottle lid and they were flying all round my head. Had the last of the wine this evening and they are really angry now, demanding their own glass. I have created some alcohol dependent little monsters

[Flo]

Self sufficient in alcohol dependent fruit flies? There's a new one on here.

[Odsox]

some have been ingested in the time it takes to get the pot to the lips.

So, are alcoholic infused Irish flies similar to Spanish fly?

[diggernotdreamer]

So, are alcoholic infused Irish flies similar to Spanish fly?



I

[BernardSmith]

Late to this party, I know, but one way to get rid of fruit flies is to fill a small glass with vinegar and add a few drops of liquid soap. The vinegar attracts the flies and the soap ensures that the surface tension of the liquid is non existent. Flies that then land to take a sip slip below the surface and drown and drowned flies cannot reproduce. It may take a couple of weeks but the colony will be history.

[diggernotdreamer]

that is a great tip, they were born in cider vinegar and the other day, in the absence of hard liquor, they took to sitting on my vinegar jug, I may have to make this to get rid of the little drunken feckers once and for all, a great deal of them drowned in some rather nice new world Merlot, the dregs in the bottle, but they still seem to be buzzing around at night