Sunday, July 10, 2011

Putting party hats to good use

Have you ever been plagued by a fruit-fly infestation? If you said "No"....well, I don't believe you. It's happened to all of us. And to me just recently.

So I did what we all do these days, I went online. When I typed in "fruit fly trap," I found a bunch of sites that describe how to make one, and I promptly did so.

Here's what you do.
1. (This is the most important.) Get rid of whatever it is that the fruit flies were attracted to in the first place: an over-the-hill banana, something delicious in the garbage. Whatever it is.

2. Take a sheet of paper, form it into a cone and tape it together.

3. At the tip of the cone, snip off an opening that is just slightly larger than a fruit fly.

4. Put a piece of banana or some vinegar in the bottom of a tall glass. Put the paper cone into the glass and tape it around the glass's edges (to seal off any possible escape route).

The fruit flies, who are attracted to the smell in the glass, go down through the opening in the paper cone and then can't figure out how to get out. They may be prolific, but they're not very bright.

Now for how party hats come into play. 
Most party hats are in the shape of a cone. If you happen to have one, you have a ready-made fruit-fly trap. The bonus is that your fruit-fly trap is both sturdy and decorative.