"The Pesky Fruit Fly"

Imagine sitting at your kitchen table enjoying some breakfast and having a fruit fly land in your cereal. Nice thought isn't it?

I'm sure everyone has encountered that lovely little black spec flying around them when they are trying to enjoy a nice meal.

That lovely little black spec flying at turtle speeds, however, seem like ninjas because either they disappear when you try to catch them or, they just aren't there.

The fruit fly is part of the Drosophilidae family, and has a very short lifespan.
Drosophilids are considered nuisance flies, which definitely can describe this little guy.
Fruit flies can be seen year round, but mostly in the summer/fall seasons because they are attracted to ripened and fermented fruits and vegetables. Adults are about 1/8 inch long. Something very interesting I thought was that their entire life-cycle from an egg to an adult is completed in about a week.

Being such a nuisance, did you know that fruit flies can also have the potential to contaminate food with bacteria along with other disease-producing organisms? I definitely didn't know this.
I'm sure now everyone is going to try their hardest to make sure they never buy fruit or vegetables again. Well, instead of becoming unhealthy the best way you can avoid those pesky problems would be to get rid of a fruit flies source of attraction. Any produce that has ripened should be eaten, discarded or refrigerated.

If the problem persists there are certain traps that you can make very easily. I know this because I've done it plenty of times. You can make a trap by placing a paper funnel- you can use a rolled up sheet of notebook paper. What I have used before is a paper plate rolled into a funnel, it works just as well. Put this into the jar, which will have a little bit of cider vinegar at the bottom. Then, just place these traps where fruit flies are seen. It will look something like this picture.

So the next time you are enjoying that delicious breakfast and the little ninja comes flying at you, know you aren't alone.