6 2009-10-16T02:59:47-11:00 false About 6 weeks ago, I noticed these tiny bugs in the worm bin. They have wings, but they didn't fly, they just kinda hopped around. I thought they might be fruit flies, but the hopping confused me. I was a bit concerned, but figured I'd just watch them to see what happened. Over the weeks, they'd start to fly up after I opened the bin. And then about 2 weeks ago, I noticed the same bugs flying around upstairs. Uh oh. I was pretty sure they were either fungus gnats or fruit flies, but I wasn't sure which. I made a couple of traps out of pop bottles, like this one: http://www.persistenceunlimited.com/2008/04/diy-fly-trap-from-a-plastic-bottle/ (only I left off the coat hanger and just set it on a horizontal surface). You can find lots of homemade fruit fly trap designs on the internet. One advantage of this design is that it's very stable -- if you accidentally knock it over, it won't spill. I put apple cider vinegar in mine to bait the flies, but you can use any sweet liquid, like red wine or orange juice or sugar water. I also added 4 inches of shredded paper to the top of my bin. The vendor I bought the bin from recommends this to keep the flies from getting down into the bin. Now that they are in there, this may be pointless, but I figured it was worth a try. The traps are working really, really well. You do have to dump out the contents ever couple of days and add fresh bait. I'm hoping to eliminate this infestation so that I don't have to use the traps indefinitely -- we'll see if that works. I was leaning on the counter the other day looking at the trap and my husband asked me what I was doing. "Watching my fruit flies" I said. "They aren't pets!" was his answer. 5 false 69679 false false false Entry 2009-10-15T17:00:00-11:00 DMY Public 2009-10-16T03:00:48-11:00 1713 Cloudy 39 F