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Sunday, June 24, 2007

The Fruit Fly Infestation




Does this picture make you want to throw up?
I picked one of the lesser graphic ones.
We have had a fruit fly infestation in our home.
Similar to the massive love bug plague of 2004. Do you remember that?
Who could forget? It was right when we got Justus, and I didn't want to leave the house. The love bugs were truly like an Old Testament plague. I kept wondering when we would repent here in B/CS and make them go away!!!
This is similar, but not quite near that severity.
We may not be the only ones experiencing the fruit fly problem, because I've heard other people complain about them and have seen them buzzing around the fruit at HEB.
It has reached the point where I've wanted to pack our bags.
I love this house, but those nasty little bugs make me lose my mind.
I literally become an irrational human being.
No matter what I was doing to keep the house super clean and remove any food sources for them, they just wouldn't go away.
They were the worst in my bathroom!!! What the heck is in the bathroom with sugar in it? NOTHING. They were just mocking me.
They've been laughing at me.
Every time I would kill some, I would say "Go tell your friends! IT'S ON!"
But they weren't scared.
They just kept making babies and making themselves at home.
Rusty said they only live for like 24 hours, so we've had about 14 generations of these nasty things, and they weren't planning on leaving.
I checked into having our house bombed by our Pest Control Company (One Above Pest Control...they're such nice people.) But Rusty was not ready to spend the money until he tried it himself.
Men.
Well, I have to sing his praises once again. He did it. He bought some spray and some fogger things at HEB last night, and he set it all up before we left for church this morning. I decided maybe we should couple that with some real prayer while we were there.
As we were leaving, we were talking trash to them, trying to intimidate them...hoping we could really back it up with these things.
IT WORKED! I haven't seen one since we got home from church!
We have won!!!
Way to go husband. The fruit flies are gone.
There is hope for anyone else out there whose home becomes infested.
Trash talk and HEB foggers.

12 comments:

Unknown said...

this is funny! we've had the same problem and i've done all the cursing at them...didn't work.
i do know how to trap them though!
put a bowl on the counter with some ripe fruit or fruit juice in it and put plastic wrap on top.
(loose enough to let a few bugs in, but mostly tight enough they can't get out)
once they get in there they aren't as likely to get out and you can squish them individually through the plastic once they are trapped or throw the bowl out!
do you see how i spend my fun free time?

Amanda said...

Yay for no more fruit flies!! Now you don't have to move. I am so glad. :) (Your new blog looks great by the way!!I definately like the no picture look better!)

5 Chicks and a Farmer said...

I know exactly what you mean. The awful thing that we learned about fruit flies is that they come home on your cute yummy fruit from the store, but then they move into the sewer drains (shower drains, sink drains, etc.) and breed there. So, you may want to pour some bleach and vinegar down the drains too to kill all of their nasty colonies!

I HATE fruit flies. They are sooo hard to get rid of. I hope the bombers worked for ya.

Death to those nasty pests! BOOO YA!

Garratts said...

YES! This just recently happened to us. They were infested in our kitchen sink drain.

We got some nat spray and that seem to work pretty good!

I HATE THOSE THINGS!!!

Karen said...

Ha! We have had an infestation in our kitchen sink too! We have tried everything ... guess I will try HEB Bombers ... and some trash talk. What were some good lines to tell those little suckers? I'm not too good at the trash talk part! Haha! It was great seeing yall yesterday at church! Hope your house remains fruit fly free!

Jennifer Bacak said...

I poured bleach down the drain, like Lynsey said, and now my room and bathroom STINK really bad? Is this expected? I'm not sure what to do. I'm just letting it get stinkier until Rusty comes home and figures something out.
The fruit flies are slowly coming back.
Pray for me.
jenn

5 Chicks and a Farmer said...

That is strange. Bleach isn't supposed to make it stinky. It is supposed to make it smell better. Maybe you could try pouring some lemon juice or squeezing some lemon juice down the drains. This makes mine smell better if they get stinky.

So weird. I pour bleach down my drains all of time to get smells out or clean out my drains and it has never smelled bad. Sorry!

I hope you have had some relief today. I don't even like being in the house when we have those critters!

BTW.....like the new look!

Anonymous said...

want to get rid of fruit flies quickly and cheaply?

take a mason jar (or really anything... i just like the jars so when i'm done i can put a lid on it and throw the whole thing away without having to worry about spills/leaks), pour some apple cidar vinegar in it (or you can use regular vinegar-- but i think the other smells less). Then, AND THIS IS KEY, put in a drop of dish soap and swirl it around. leave it on countertop overnight. viola!

Explination: fruit flies are attracted to the acetic acid in the vinegar (so don't pour it down the drain with the bleach!!! it's counter productive!!!)
fruit flies have special 'feet' that allow them to walk on top of water, using the surface tension. however a drop of soap breaks up the surface tension. so the flies 'smell' the enticing liquid in the jar, swoop down to land for a quick dinner like always, and ahhh! surprise! all of a sudden they fall through and drown!

we've had this problem twice in our appartment, and this is the surefire best way to get them gone!

-sarah

Anonymous said...

ok, ignore that first line in previous post... i sound like some sort of infomercial-er...

fortunately, the solution won't cost you three payments of $19.95 and you don't have to have your credit card ready!!! haha!

-sarah

nancy said...

one summer we had some kind of tiny fly that were driving us up the wall. we left to go on vacation and while we were gone tiny spiders moved in and ate the flies! on arriving home we swept the spiders out and had no more problems. i'm not sure how you contact the spiders to come to your house though.

Jennifer Bacak said...

This is what I love about blogs!!! Funny stories and home remedies for something like fruit flies!! It's awesome.
jenn

Anonymous said...

Sarah, thankyou so much... i have tryed so many home remidies.. none have worked.. just read you post and thought.. "im on it..." ive have put out four dishes.. and lets say all the little devils are all sturred up.. i got three before i set the last trap... wooohooo.. three down m million more to go.. wish me luck!

Lisa