We've learned all about the fruit fly life cycle. They are fertile 12 hours after they become an adult, and are endlessly fertile and can store sperm for life (HOW is that possible?) to make millions more babies. More to fly around your kitchens and bathrooms. We've been invaded, hence the research.
I have now become an expert in not cohabitating with them. : ) (Sorry, Amy) We've tried all methods now (after smacking them wasn't working):
1) Set out fruit juice with a small amount of dish detergent (too lessen surface tension, so they fall in and drown) *Bonus points if you put it in a bottle (cut top off and tape it, upside-down, over the bottle top, so they can fly in..but not out.)
2) Leave out an opened wine bottle (same as above, they drown, and it's harder to get out, since they can't climb up the walls very easily.) I also learned that wine releases carbon dioxide, and it is heavier than oxygen, so it sits right above the wine, and that kills them too.
3) Finally, my favorite. Keep your vacuum hose handy. As you see them land, just creep up on them with the hose on, and suck them up. Even if they start to fly away, you catch them in the airstream. Brilliant!
Number three is how we finally defeated them. I was getting really worried-they were everywhere and totally overwhelming. I think we found the source of our problem. We have a very sweet friend, Sandra, who loaned us her cool Zoku ice pop maker, and we made orange cream pops (yum!), and our boy Clay loved them so much, he ate the last three. The very last one, it seems, he consumed in his room. This wasn't so much the bad part...except he left the wet, sticky handle laying on his bathroom counter! Mix that with the banana peel in his bathroom trash (supposedly covered in fruit fly eggs?), and you have babies, food, and BAM!..a new fruit fly population.
He also failed to mention the swarming flies for two days. Ahem. Out. Of. Control.
So..we've cleaned top to bottom (I'd repaint if I thought there were eggs on the walls!), and we are sucking them up one-by-one. I finally feel in control of my house again. Mostly.
Mary Claire is running high again. If you are following our illness history (hopefully not!) she and Ethan have both had ear infections, doctors appointments, prescription antibiotics, ear infections didn't clear up, doctors appointments, prescription antibiotics, ear infections still aren't cleared up, and we are back to square one. Ethan still has one p.e. tube in, so he isn't ready for another set, but maybe she is? The reason we put them in place at age four, was to prevent all these antibiotics! It adds up to about one every three weeks. (Ethan has had nine antibiotics this year!) I hate it, and the blood sugars always tip us off. : ( Here we go again.
*Ok, and the mucus was an afterthought I should've kept to myself yesterday. Ha! I'm mid-cycle (if you don't understand, it's okay), and don't have the best mucus, so my computer history is filled with too many Increasing Mucus searches. I think I'll leave it at that..I hate to overshare. : ) (Only if you use NFP or have had to work on your fertility would these things mean anything to you!)
Almost September!
1 week ago
