I have been really having a time with fruit flies lately, and it has been making me a little crazy, because I haven't really done any large scale vegetable processing for a while now. But I had fruit flies. I was trying to pin down a source, but couldn't. I scrubbed floors and pulled things out to clean behind but I just couldn't get rid of those darn flies. I was starting to worry that they were somehow coming up from a basement drain or something.
Since bugs in the house are a thing with me, it was a bit crazy making.
Today, I pulled the garbage bag out and discovered, much to my shock, that some sort of vegetable matter had evidently fallen down the outside of the garbage bag and to the bottom of the garbage can. When I pulled up the garbage bag, a small cloud of fruit flies flew up.
Well. There's one problem solved. I would probably have figured it out earlier if I had a sense of smell.
We will probably set the 'chop shop' area up in the basement of the new build this weekend. The first day of archery is tomorrow. Tim is not going hunting. In his mind, it is still too warm. We will set up his new meat saw and the stainless steel counters in the corner of the basement. We'll take our freezer down and set it in place at some point.
We will be able to wash the meat, cut the meat, grind the meat if we are making hamburger, wrap the meat, and then immediately pop it into the freezer. Deer processers are getting harder to find, and the cost of processing has increased with every passing year. This will save us about $100 per deer, and is open for anyone in the family to use, should they wish to.
Problem partially solved. Now you just have to get rid of them. /AC
ReplyDeleteThey have very short lives. Now that I've figured out where they were coming from, and taken care of that little problem, I'm sure that I'll see marked improvement in 24 hours. Hopefully, by the end of next week, the problem will be over.
DeleteFruit Flies infuriate me too!
ReplyDeleteUgh!
DeleteThere are worse things than fruit fly... And that is the stage between egg and adult fly. I still shudder.
ReplyDeleteI've dealt with that in the big bin outside. Gag.
DeleteI am cat sitting this week and found canned cat food draw those little fruit flies. I never have them unless I am cat sitting for someone. The cat leaves Monday and the flies will be gone.
ReplyDeleteI wash the cans out and toss them in my recycling immediately. I'm not sure what your grandcat eats, but what I feed mine gets stinky very quickly.
DeleteYikes! My ZEVO has a bunch of what looks like fruit flies trapped on it.
ReplyDeleteDid you lose your sense of smell like me? It does bother me that I can't smell all the blooms and that it's affected my taste as well. Sigh...
I have thought of you and your zevo many times in the past week.
DeleteAt lease the dreaded midges usually stay outside. On the downside you can't get rid of them. Only the weather can.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind bugs so much...outside. I really struggle when they are inside. I just always find it interesting that it seems to be rare to see a window with screens on it there.
DeleteI wish someone could invent a fly zapper. The doctor flies are terrible here in summer. They silently land on your arm and give you a painful injection of poisonous yuch. My piles of fym for the veg plot encourage them to visit us.
ReplyDeleteER....they have, Dave.
DeleteLook at zappers - lots of different models and effective.
DeleteAh, a dirty housewife.
ReplyDeleteA huntin' and some fishin' and a decent vegetable garden, you could become nearly self sufficient.
We strive in that direction. I would like to have three chickens. No more. Just enough to keep us in eggs.
DeleteThey were garbage flies!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds as if you could open a butcher's shop in the basement.
Is that what they are called there? I am about fed up with them, no matter what name they go by.
DeleteNo pigs or ponies?
ReplyDeleteNope...although a pig would come in handy for tilling and fertilizing the garden soil, wouldn't he now?
ReplyDeleteAs you can imagine with our large garden and preservation, we get fruit flies nearly ever summer. I keep them under control using a tightly sealed compost bucket for organic matter and using fruit fly traps. A canning car with an emulsified tomato pulp inside covered with plastic wrap with a few slits cut in the top works remarkably well. Vinegar does too but it isn't free like the tomato pulp is for us. Still, they get down into the sink drain and procreate and it is impossible to get rid of them completely until cold weather arrives. Then we just leave the windows open on a chilly night and they disappear until next summer.
ReplyDeleteWe used to have hunters shoot a deer or two for us every year but the processing fees just got so expensive that it really wasn't worth it to us anymore. We just gave up eating red meat for the most part except for three or four steaks grilled over the summer.
I pour a kettle of boiling water down the drain every night.
DeleteI wasn't able to comment as my Firefox said it won't open that page whatever that means?! Anyway I had to switch to a different browser and now I can comment again. I wonder what caused that?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, my friend gave me fruit fly traps which are small cups with a domed lid that has holes in it and you fill with cider vinegar and the fruit flies go in and drown. It has worked well for her but I haven't seen any around me lately so I'm not sure yet if it works or not!
Who knows what lies in the twisty mind of blogger. I have to log into blogger twice now to be able to leave comments. I never used to have to do that.
DeleteI went into my pantry last night to get potatoes to make mashed and I smelled a bad potato. After searching through a brand new bag or small red ones, I found the offending culprit, washed the rest of them, set them to dry on a kitchen towel, and washed the basket they'd been in. It happens.
ReplyDeleteMy husband always complains about how it's too hot at the beginning of hunting season too.
I had potatoes emptied out. I didn't smell a rotten potato, but they normally are the culprit around here. Nothing. The situation is made harder by the fact that I don't spend much time here doing cleaning things as I should.
DeleteBlogger only just let me see your post! Darn it.
ReplyDeleteEvery year we keep finding tiny little flies inside the house, which is strange as the windows downstairs do not open. P says they must be hatching from somewhere inside the walls!!! Yuk!!!
That would freak me out...
DeleteGlad you found the source of those pesky flies!
ReplyDeleteMe too. It was really starting to bug me.
DeleteI hate fruit flies. They love cider vinegar, so I pour some in bowl, cover it with saran wrap with a few holes poked in it and leave it on the counter. They drown and I'm okay with that:)
ReplyDeleteI have one of those little traps.
DeleteAny household pest you can't get rid of is so annoying. I suppose they must be some use in the grand scheme of things, but it's hard to see what.
ReplyDeleteYou are right about that.
DeleteBeen there! Darn things are such a pain.
ReplyDeleteLike the chop shop. We too process our own meat, maybe doesn't look as perfect as a butcher shop but works for us.
We wanted a dedicated space for it. We always processed the meat in the kitchen and it is such a pain hauling all the equipment out and then putting it away. We got a floor standing meat saw/grinder last fall. We designed a space specifically for that purpose.
Delete