Category: around the house

Over the last week there’d been an increasing number of fruit flies in the house, which I originally blamed on a plantain which Danielle had purchased a week ago. I suspect that by the time it was placed in the under-counter compost bin there were fruit fly eggs in the skin of the plantain, and it’s likely that others eggs were laid in the normal garbage can.

Friday morning when I opened the compost bin to deposit coffee grounds I was greeted by a liberal sprinkling of small, wriggling maggots, pupae (as seen above), and a fair number of flies which immediately took flight. The container was quickly sealed back up and placed in the garage to be dealt with later. This morning when throwing away coffee grounds the normal garbage can was found to contain another illustration of the fruit fly life cycle, so it was time to take action.

Every fruit fly-containing bag was sealed inside of a larger garbage bag which had it’s top folded over and sealed especially well. Each can was scrubbed with painfully hot water and sodium percarbonate and left to dry in the garage, and I used isopropyl alcohol to entrap and kill any lingering flies. There is a black foam activated charcoal filter located in the top of the compost bin, despite the cleaning with hot water I suspect that it too may have live eggs in it. Fruit flies have a relatively short lifecycle, so I’ll leave it in the garage for a few days then clean it again, keeping an eye out for larvae.

Since this afternoon’s cleaning and extermination efforts I haven’t been pestered by flying insects I think that I’ve won war on fruit flies in the house. I guess I’ll know in a week.

This morning I finally got all the plants on the front porch rearranged, planted new flowers and herbs, and lightly fertilized everything. Shown above is a lemon tree that Danielle bought, then some (typical for me) salvia, then the nifty purple plant whose name I’ve forgotten. Some peppermint was acquired and planted in the same place that the rosemary started, the sage now has its own pot and will hopefully flourish, and the garlic was moved in with the green onions. The purple plant whose name I can’t remember is also doing very well after Danielle cut it back over the winter.

If you’d like to see the rest of the photos of this year’s flowers and plants, click here: Flowers 2011.

This is a public service announcement about your drains.