Yeast, fruit flies, and you

this is a great article! I keep my empty bottles in my kitchen opposite side as my fruit bowl and every once in a while the bananas or peach declines to the point of mush. The fruit flies don't notice the rotting fruit whatsoever. They hang near my empties. Never understood until now!

 

Ever since I completed that weird experiment where I transported myself from one pod to another I too always choose beer over fruit

 

I made little fruit fly traps this summer (jar with liquid, fruit, and dish soap with saran over the top and a hole in it). On two different occasions I made one with vinegar and one with beer.
The beer won out hands down both times. Now I know why. And here I thought they were just little drunks...

 

I find apple vinegar works like a champ. That being a said a nice acetic flanders red seems to work even better, lol.

 

Every time I set a glass of zombie dust down I find a fruit fly in it when I pick it back up. They are nowhere to be found elsewhere in the house. They magically appear for that shit.

 

I never understood why my mother's family always called them "drunkards".
I thought that was just cute country dialect but they were on to something real.

 

That's pretty good.

 

As would half the people on this forum....

 

A year or so ago I had a problem with fruit flies. As a homebrewer I am real concerned since there is lots of nasty beer spoiling bacteria on fruit flies. In my homebrewing area I 'made' the fruit fly trap of apple cider vinegar and some soap in a small jar and place it next to my primary fermenter. I caught a few fruit flies but most of the fruit flies preferred to fly around the airlock looking for way to get into my primary.

I know now the 'trick': use beer instead of apple cider vinegar in my trap!

Cheers!

 

Do you still include the soap?
For better drowning or surface tension or whatever?

 

Yes, the soap (a drop or two of dishwashing liquid) is to reduce the surface tension and 'encourage' drowning.

Cheers!

 

I always leave my last dregs for my dead fruit fly homies.

 

Man if I don't rinse out my emptys before I take them out to the garage I get a colony of those little guys in a hurry. Thankfully this is only a summertime problem because I'm fairly bad at remembering to rinse them out.

 

I couldn't figure out why my cat was always hovering around my empties collection, until i found the unwashed bottle inundated with these little suckers. They have good taste. Cheers, flies.

 

Ha! You deserve much more than 1 like for that!

 

We are having a crud burst of fruit flies here too. Unusual.

 

Hmmm, interesting.

So from other sources it seems slugs are attracted to beer, any beer. This shows that fruit flys are attracted to the better smelling beers. Sounds like the slugs may be just interested in the buzz, but the fruit flys care about the flavors.

 

The earth is only 10,000 years old and spontaneous generation is still true. Fruit flies do seem to come from (next) to nothing. I saw more this year than ever before.