Fruit flies are the devil.

Over the past week and a half, I've noticed fruit flies in our apartment. At first it was just one or two, but then there were more. After researching how to get rid of these little pests, I set out several traps such as this one:

There are little holes punched in the top, so the fruit flies can get in but can't find their way back out. I put 3 of these around the house, figuring that would take care of our little problem.

No such luck. It actually appeared that the traps were serving as a breeding ground for these little suckers. After letting the traps sit out for several hours, there were literally about 50 flies in each cup. A lot more than I had noticed flying about our crib. Hmmm. Were they getting trapped inside, and then laying eggs which were hatching in record speed, or did we have a lot more fruit flies than I had originally guessed?

So for 2 or 3 days I would set my little traps, and every 6 hours or so I'd take the cups outside to release the flies. It was working ok, but not solving the problem fast enough. This past Saturday I decided to scour the entire apartment, washing everything, in hopes that would help the fly situation. At one point I opened the closet in the guest room where Matt keeps all his clothes. There were literally THOUSANDS of fruit flies inside! All over the walls, his clothes - it was truly disgusting. I noticed there were a lot on his backpack, so I grabbed it to take it outside and try to shake them off. Once I got it outside, I noticed a brown spot on the side of one of the pockets. Hmmm. I unzipped the side pouch, and here is what I found:

I can't even begin to describe to you what this smelled like. Not only was the smell TERRIBLE, but there were tons of flies all over it, and all their nasty little eggs were everywhere. After throwing up a little bit in my mouth, I went inside to prepare myself. Matt was on call (lucky him!) so I had to deal with this. Lovely. This is what I came up with:


The bandanna to mask the smell and keep me from puking, and the tongs to extract the banana. Yes, that was a banana in case you couldn't quite tell. I took the backpack out back, where I removed the banana and threw it in the woods. Here's a close up:

The source of all our misery. This has been in Matt's backpack since our trip out West. That was the 2nd week of June. It is now the end of July. Awesome.

So. I've finally solved the mystery. Now all that's left is figuring out how to get rid of all these freaking devil flies. I've already had to throw away a loaf of bread and some English muffins because the flies have found their way inside. Someone suggested I use vinegar, and it seems to be working pretty well. Here are the flies I've managed to kill since Saturday night:

My self-made fly death camp.

And this is just one bowl. I have 2 sitting out. It feels oh-so-good to see them floating in the vinegar. Apparently, soapy water works well too. This little death trap was unintentional, but worked wonders:

Hopefully over the next few days this problem will be solved. And Matt is on banana restriction for life.