exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

It is that time of year again where the fruit flies are out on mass and tormenting me continuously 24/7 :hide: :pullhair: :cussing:

The flypaper is all over the ceiling and is barely catching any :roll: So some experiments were done this weekend.

Dawn suspected they would be attracted to vinegar. So the first part was basically water with vinegar in which did seem to attract the little buggers, but they never went in and drowned.

After Dawn did some intensive googling, " the Internet" acclaimed placing clingfilm over the top would work because there will be attracted to the vinegar and there would not be able to get out again. Though I saw a flooring that because it would also be covering up the scent of the vinegar. So I did not really see the point in that experiment, but she was adamant it would work so that experiment was done... And basically caught 3 flies.

Then we get onto the "exxos edition" fly trap version 1 :lol:

This one had a cup of mostly water and vinegar the same as the previous two experiments. Though it was witness the flies would spend all day crawling around the outside of the cup but never drowning. So I put some flypaper over the top of the cup to give them somewhere to land which would trap them! and this one has caught about 30 other things now!

So now I am working on version 2 of the exxos fly trap (TM). Still under construction.

This on will entail is a lot larger surface area. Will have sticky flypaper around the outside of the container to catch the majority which land on the outside. Then sticky flypaper around the top of the inside to catch the ones which are a little braver. And also have strips across the top as per version 1 to catch the ones which want to land in the centre of the chaos. So basically all three observed landing places will be covered. I suspect this will catch around 90% of the buggers!

So currently below are:

1) Pot with vinegar and water - 0 flies caught.
2) Pot with vinegar and water with clingfilm - 3 flies
3) Pot with water and vinegar with flypaper on top - ~ 30 flies.

Cannot wait to see what version 2 does :twisted: :twisted:

Try vinegar with apple juice - seems to be irresistible at least to ours.

And don't forget that single drop of dishwashing detergent to get rid of the surface tension that might otherwise save these nasty buggers from drowning.

mfro wrote: 02 Jul 2023 21:38 Try vinegar with apple juice - seems to be irresistible at least to ours.

And don't forget that single drop of dishwashing detergent to get rid of the surface tension that might otherwise save these buggers from drowning.

Good point. Some of them do "go swimming" once they land in the vinegar.

I use apple cider, which is fermented apple juice. I add a spoon of sugar and a drop of dish soap.

The sugar sweetens things a bit and the soap causes the flies to drop in as opposed to land on the cider.

I don’t use plastic wrap and the flies seem to still go in.

Apparently apple cider in the states is not the same as elsewhere. I assumed it was fermented apple juice but according to this it is apple juice with apple bits:

https://www.aicr.org/resources/blog/app ... nutrition/

I did try with sugar in also and the flies didn't seem interested in it :shrug:

Exxos flytrap version 4 :)

This one seems to be catching about 15 per hour.


#genocide

chue wrote: 03 Jul 2023 03:51 Apparently apple cider in the states is not the same as elsewhere. I assumed it was fermented apple juice but according to this it is apple juice with apple bits:

https://www.aicr.org/resources/blog/app ... nutrition/

What you want in the US is Hard Cider.
Not the kind with added alcohol, but home brew fermented.

OH seems I didn't post version 5:

Green sticky fly ball thing in a tub with a bit of vinegar. Works very well.

Only about 3 weeks past and Lola suddenly took a interest in it :shrug:


Turns out , from a panicked girlfriend, it was covered in maggots :lol: Plus something about its supposed to be killing them not breading them! Well , they breed on the back of the ball , that was what lola was looking at. But they were stuck on the ball anyway. So they would have breed elsewhere and not being caught at source. So I call it a win. Girlfriend not convinced :lol: :roll: Its got a new ball now :)

I've only ever seen fruit flies when I worked at a wine producer, they were attracted to the fermentation. Never seen them anywhere else though. Why on earth are they attracted to your house, you making home brew? :D