keeping bananas without attracting fruit flies

[nanette1985]

Just got rid of all the fruit flies. I'm in the mood for bananas now. How to keep them in the kitchen and not have to start over with fruit fly destruction?

Put in fridge?

 

[dawp]

they'll turn brown in fridge but, I'm told, they last longer.

they usually don't last long when I buy them.

 

[FeuerFrei]

Smear petroleum jelly thickly and evenly over the banana

 

[leftyman]

When life gives you fruit flies, make fruit fly salad.

 

[Scotteq]

What he said.....
You can also freeze them and mash 'em into an ice cream like consistency. Maybe with a little squirt of Hershey's syrup.

 

[OverVolt]

Eat them before fruit flies appear then buy more bananas. Cause bananas are like the only fruit I find palatable.

 

[zinfamous]

When life gives you fruit flies, make fruit fly salad.

lol.

anyway, I think I am qualified to help.

When the flies are in season, they are unavoidable. Managing them is easy, however--and all in all, drosophila are rather harmless and nothing to worry about. The best thing is that they are slow and easy to catch (because they are basically drunk the entire time)

melanogaster like warm temperatures, say 24-25 C. these will be most active late in the morning and late in the afternoon. assume that your bananas will arrive with pupae just waiting to hatch--because they will. And all of the flies around and outside your house will by laying their eggs near all of your fruit (hint, they only like old/fermenting fruit because they like alcohol; not fruit).

create a simple trap by placing a banana peel in the bottom of a jar, sprinkle some dry active yeast over the peel, and make a pin-point funnel out of a mailer card or some piece of junk mail. tape the ridges around the funnel and the jar so that the only opening in the trap is the small hole at the bottom of the funnel. The flies will climb in to the jar to lay their eggs and never be able to fly out.

Toss this jar and make a new one every ~10 days or so. The egg > pupae > adult stage is roughly 14 days for melanogaster in ideal settings. by the 2nd or 3rd trap that you replace, this should insure that all of the stray drosophila have hatched and found their way into your traps.

If you give them a source of fermenting fruit to compare to the fresh fruit, they will always go after the smelliest stuff--and one peel in a jar fermenting for 10 days is not going to produce any discernible odor for you.

They also really seem to like fermenting mangoes, but bananas are the standard de-facto bait when trying to catch them.

 

[waggy]

with kids and a bunch of fruit around we have the little buggers. Zin's suggestion works great.

I take a glass jar put surran wrap around the top and punch small holes in the top. oh i put about 1/4th a inch of beer in it. It attracts them like crazy.

 

[zinfamous]

with kids and a bunch of fruit around we have the little buggers. Zin's suggestion works great.

I take a glass jar put surran wrap around the top and punch small holes in the top. oh i put about 1/4th a inch of beer in it. It attracts them like crazy.

the added benefit is that they drown easily so you don't have to worry about masses of flies accumulating and continuing to lay more eggs int he trap--hence no need to really keep tossing that trap.

....except that several day-'s old stale beer is a bit worse than one banana peel

 

[waggy]

the added benefit is that they drown easily so you don't have to worry about masses of flies accumulating and continuing to lay more eggs int he trap--hence no need to really keep tossing that trap.

....except that several day-'s old stale beer is a bit worse than one banana peel

yeah. you gotta change the beer every other day.

so i do my part and open a beer and sacrifice a little for the trap!

()

 

[Schfifty Five]

Smear petroleum jelly thickly and evenly over the banana

and then what?

 

[el-Capitan]

easiest way to get rid of them :

small bowl
add vinegar
cover with ceran wrap
poke a few small holes into it
leave for work
come home and collect all the flies
repeat above for a few days

 

[Krazy4Real]

lol.

anyway, I think I am qualified to help.

When the flies are in season, they are unavoidable. Managing them is easy, however--and all in all, drosophila are rather harmless and nothing to worry about. The best thing is that they are slow and easy to catch (because they are basically drunk the entire time)

melanogaster like warm temperatures, say 24-25 C. these will be most active late in the morning and late in the afternoon. assume that your bananas will arrive with pupae just waiting to hatch--because they will. And all of the flies around and outside your house will by laying their eggs near all of your fruit (hint, they only like old/fermenting fruit because they like alcohol; not fruit).

create a simple trap by placing a banana peel in the bottom of a jar, sprinkle some dry active yeast over the peel, and make a pin-point funnel out of a mailer card or some piece of junk mail. tape the ridges around the funnel and the jar so that the only opening in the trap is the small hole at the bottom of the funnel. The flies will climb in to the jar to lay their eggs and never be able to fly out.

Toss this jar and make a new one every ~10 days or so. The egg > pupae > adult stage is roughly 14 days for melanogaster in ideal settings. by the 2nd or 3rd trap that you replace, this should insure that all of the stray drosophila have hatched and found their way into your traps.

If you give them a source of fermenting fruit to compare to the fresh fruit, they will always go after the smelliest stuff--and one peel in a jar fermenting for 10 days is not going to produce any discernible odor for you.

They also really seem to like fermenting mangoes, but bananas are the standard de-facto bait when trying to catch them.

Interesting... thanks!

 

[DrPizza]

I was going to say that it's weird - I never have a problem with fruit flies on bananas. Then again, it has to do with what Zin said above; I always have fresh fruit & seasonally, have plenty of fresh veggies on the counter. The fruit flies smell that tiny little bruise on one apple in the bunch & say "screw the bananas, there's some nice hard cider over here."

 

[T9D]

Never had fruit flies bother banana's at all.

I have a bunch here now though that keep getting to fruit in the garbage. Man they are annoying. I got a top for the garbage now though so hopefully that will be the end of them.
All my other fresh fruit stays in the fridge.

 

[Fritzo]

easiest way to get rid of them :

small bowl
add vinegar
cover with ceran wrap
poke a few small holes into it
leave for work
come home and collect all the flies
repeat above for a few days

This. Apple cider vinegar works best. (And he means plastic wrap (Saran Wrap is a brand)). You can use fruit juice or any pungent/fruity liquid.

 

[zinfamous]

I was going to say that it's weird - I never have a problem with fruit flies on bananas. Then again, it has to do with what Zin said above; I always have fresh fruit & seasonally, have plenty of fresh veggies on the counter. The fruit flies smell that tiny little bruise on one apple in the bunch & say "screw the bananas, there's some nice hard cider over here."

yeah, sometimes we head to Napa when we need to collect new stocks (well, not so much anymore because our drosophila are more, uh "exotic" than melanogaster)

but if you ever want to find a shitload of them, wineries are one of the best places to look.

 

[FeuerFrei]

and then what?

... and then ... you sit back and let the flies collect on your yellow, sticky fly-magnet. Mmm ... looks delicious, no?

 

[Howard]

... and then ... you sit back and let the flies collect on your yellow, sticky fly-magnet. Mmm ... looks delicious, no?

boring

 

[Murloc]

I've never seen fruit flies on banana, even when there's other fruit with plenty of them on them. Or maybe it's because I don't eat banans in the summer and autumn since there's plenty of low distance fresh fruit available. Or more probably, the other fruits are more attractive.

I'd just put a net over it and eat the fruit in a few days, it's not like fruit flies do anything bad.

 

[BladeVenom]

Eat them before fruit flies appear then buy more bananas.

That works for me.

 

[brainhulk]

grow a banana tree

 

[Centauri]

Also known as a fruit fly tree.

 

[bononos]

Just got rid of all the fruit flies. I'm in the mood for bananas now. How to keep them in the kitchen and not have to start over with fruit fly destruction?

Put in fridge?

Use a food cover or a colander.