Omelet wrote:
> In article >,
> "Julie Bove" > wrote:
>
>> "Pete C." > wrote in message
>> ster.com...
>>>
>>> Julie Bove wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I will not buy bananas. Got a severe fruit fly infestation
>>>> from that.
>>>
>>> The trick is when you bring the bananas home, immediately soak them
>>> in bleach water, or spray them with a bleach cleaner like Clorox
>>> Cleanup. Let it stand 5 min or so, then rinse and you won't have
>>> any fruit fly issues. Since you don't eat the peel you're not going
>>> to eat any chemicals.
>>
>> I have a really bad respiratory reaction to bleach so I wouldn't
>> dare do that.
>
> I just wash them in hot soapy dish water. That has eliminated the
> fruit flies. There are also special mesh bags you can purchase now
> to store room temperature fruit in.
>
> I've not had a fruit fly problem now for 2 or 3 years, maybe longer.
> :-) At one time, it had gotten pretty bad until I started washing all
> fruits that way as soon as they came in the house.

I've had three infestations since we moved here. I have holes in the
screens in the front door and also the kitchen door. I need to get those
fixed. Finally was able to find a person that does fix them.

When we first moved in, the house had been on the market for a while. With
5 fruit trees, there was a lot of rotting fruit on the ground. Outside the
fruit flies were buzzing and they just came in.

Then I ordered this little refrigerator for fruit that sat on the counter.
It was great while it worked! My old side by side refrigerator was a poor
design and didn't hold much food. I was getting CSA boxes and there wasn't
enough room in there to put it all. With the clear topped refrigerated
fruit bowl, the fruit was actually getting eaten! I think daughter and
husband would see it first thing when they came in and they would just eat
that.

But then the device broke and they are no longer being made. I bought
something that I thought was similar but it turned out not to work at all.
It didn't chill the fruit and was supposed to suck the air out but it
didn't. It just made a lot of noise and rotted the fruit.

So I put the fruit in a big bowl on the counter. Because it was organic
fruit, I think it was much more prone to fruit flies than the regular stuff.

I finally got rid of that infestation and then bought the Costco bananas. I
hadn't even taken them out of the bag they came in. I saw no fruit flies
when I bought them but the following morning the bag was black with them. A
few managed to get out of the bag and that was all it took.