Oh, my gosh! I'm about to be carried away by a colony of fruit flies hovering over my kitchen counter. They are so gross! My husband and I have been picking the last of the tomatoes, and now, after a full summer of fresh veggies but NO FRUIT FLIES, they are here! Yesterday we washed all the tomatoes that are on the counter and chopped up and did away with any tomatoes that had a crack or soft spot. But the fruit flies seem to have mulitplied over night, and I am feeling over run with the pesky buggers.

Please share your non toxic fruit fly remedies, as I am exhausted from the hand to hand combat I've had with them this morning - I 'clapped' them for about 15 minutes until I thought I would go nuts because I only managed to squash about 3.

Put about a tablespoon of vinegar in the bottom of an empty jar; add a couple of drops of dish detergent; fill about 1/4 to 1/3 full with warm water; punch half a dozen holes in the lid and give it a shake to make bubbles.

Works like a charm . . . they are attracted to the vinegar smell . . . get caught in the bubbles and end up drowning. When you've got a hefty supply of dead flies; just dump 'em down the drain; rinse the jar and start over.

Before I discovered the vinegar routine, I'd had years so bad they were all over the house not just in the kitchen. Now, I set out a couple of jar-traps at the first sign of the little devils. It really is amazing.

Thank you, Meowee!!!!!

I'm going to try it right now!

This is from a site about "other uses for Coca Cola."

"Get rid of fruit flies. Use an electric drill with a one-quarter-inch bit to drill a hole in the cap of a two liter Coke bottle. Leave one inch of Classic Coke (not diet or caffeine-free) in the bottom of the bottle, and set outside (or inside). Fruit flies will crawl into the bottle to enjoy the Real Thing, but won’t be able to get back out."

Wow... yet another use for Coke!!!!!

Check your house plants, too - the little buggers move in! If they HAVE taken up residency in your plants, I do the following: Use an organic dish detergent solution (about 1 part to 20 parts water), mix, and let stand until bubbles are low. Then pour this solution through your houseplant pots, allowing to drain completely. Do not water again for at least three days.

Good luck!

Heather

I second this! It's like fruitfly crack -- they cannot resist!

Suffering under an infestation after some tomatoes fell out of a hole in my kitchen garbage bag, and then got really gross... I read about this solution on an all-natural bug killing site, and within about 2 days, my little red-eyed menaces were all in fly heaven.

I've got my trap set up. I didn't have a jar with a lid, so I used a wide mouthed plastic cup (actually it's a smoothie cup that goes with my hand held blender), and I've got foil on top with some holes poked in. I can't wait to see how it works!

Thanks everyone!

We had a bad problem with these things and someone told us to get peppermint extract and put it on cotton balls and set them around. It really did work.. They were living in the kitchen drain and I would keep the sink clear at all times and spray with bleach. This does get rid of them.