Is there anything more annoying than a cloud of fruit flies swarming your kitchen?  Unless you consider your husband and his buddies swarming your kitchen searching for Super Bowl noshes just as annoying, but I can’t help you there.

I hate Fruit Flies.  Yes, they have a purpose in this world and that is to feed upon rotting fruit and be Mother Nature’s garbage disposal (along with ants…but that’s another column for later).

So how do you get rid of these teeny, fast-flying, prolific little buggers?

2 ingredients and a shot glass is all you need.  HA! I am sure you are thinking the shotglass is for slugging back a shot of Tequila to calm your fruit fly induced anger… well, unless you really do want a shot of Tequila, then go right ahead.

Otherwise, here is what you do….

1. Into one shotglass, pour enough Balsamic Vinegar to fill half the shotglass.

2. Add 3-4 teeny drops of liquid dishsoap.

3. Swirl gently.

4. Leave out on the counter where you see fruit flies hanging around.

If you look closely at the top rim of the shotglass above, you will see the fruit fly.  Mwaahaahaa…he’s about to go for a dunking.

Leave this out for 5-7 days.  Trust me, the fruit flies will be making a bee-line for the Balsamic Vinegar as it smells just like rotting grapes to them and they like nothing better than rotting fruit.

After a week, pour the vinegar through a mesh strainer and count how many little buggers you got.  There’s a prize for the most fruit flies captured.  OK, not really, but just had to throw that in.

The reason this works?  The smell of the Balsamic attracts them, but the dishsoap breaks the surface tension of the vinegar and they can’t land on the surface of the vinegar.  They then fall in and drown.

Woo-Hoo!  No more fruit flies.

By the way, fruit flies reproduce in as little as 10 days (from when eggs are laid to when they can fly).  So repeat as necessary.