A Down Side To Compost, And Getting Rid Of Fruit Flies

Somehow or another the lid to my balcony compost tub got sealed shut (I know who did it, but I'm not naming names ;-)

This is NOT cool. Ordinarily I leave it cracked open, which allows the flies to come and go without accumulating (the practice of leaving things sealed so that fruit flies don't get in never seems to work for me - I guess they sneak in when I open the lid to add compost?)

Anyway, I should have know better when I took some compost out to the balcony yesterday, and found the balcony tub stuck shut. That should have been my cue to take the sealed tub down to the garden and away from the house before opening it. But nooooo...

Instead, (WHOOSH!!) I was nearly knocked off my feet by the cloud of fruit flies that erupted from the tub when I opened it. Not a big deal, except the kitchen door behind me was open.

(sigh)

Since then I've had a gang of about 30 or so flying around in my kitchen, which prompted my Google search of today: "how to get rid of fruit flies".

The beer with dish soap strategy appears to be working (I have beer in a wine glass, with a bit of dish soap around the rim). I got a big kick out of reading the oven idea as well. Hilarious.

Oh yeah, and I've discovered that moving slowly also helps if you're trying to swat them. Inch your way ever so carefully as close as you can get, and then WHAM!!!!

heh heh