It’s hard to think that anything bad can come from having too many tomatoes around. They sit so beautifully on my kitchen counter in an Italian ceramic bowl, their colors ranging from bright, striped green to radiant yellow to golden orange to brilliant red. Yet one thing tarnishes their image. Fruit flies. They seem to come from nowhere, and appear to have nowhere else to go and no other target than my tomatoes. Naturally, I’d much rather be out in the garden than standing around in my kitchen with a fly swatter, so with a little research and forward planning, I’ve found a solution that works very well.
I had read that fruit flies like vinegar (not balsamic), so if you put out a shallow bowl of white vinegar and move the fruit or tomatoes to the pantry for a few days, the fruit files will be drawn into it and eventually drown. Well, my fruit flies were very attracted to it, but they weren’t taking the plunge. We needed another option. I found it at Gardener’s Supply:
They sell this soapstone set with two traps, which is what I have. You can also just get the traps if you don’t care for the decorative appeal of soapstone:
Low and behold, after opening up one of the traps, what familiar scent did I smell? Vinegar! The trick to these traps is allowing a way in but not out. Clearly from my bowl of vinegar test, we see that they are indeed attracted to it, they just need a little nudge getting in the pool. Within a day of putting these out, the fruit flies were gone – and I didn’t even move the fruit away! Not to sound like a commercial, but in all honesty, the cost was completely worth it. You can acquire this simple solution by clicking on the picture above.
Life is good and my tomatoes are once again picture perfect.
