Night of the Drosophila
On Monday night, I had a few fruit flies. I disposed of the offending banana and took out the garbage and forgot about it.
On Tuesday night, my "few fruit flies" had blossomed into "mighty fruit fly swarm." All over the cupboards. All over the walls. All over my grandfather's crazy bullfighter picture. Not acceptable.
I spent the evening researching online -- and then built a few beta version fruit fly traps. This morning, I assisted two jars full of tiny, red-eyed, crawling monsters out to the garbage. Recreated the most effective trap for the stragglers. Hoped I wasn't selecting for the flies too smart to be trapped, which will now breed and soon be re-sorting my books and CDs to their own tastes, making it impossible for me to find anything. Do fruit flies make good cat-sitters?
All night, I had guilty dreams about small animals and insects I've killed, inadvertently or with intention. With occasional bouts of wakeful skin crawling.
How to win a turf war with the best lab subjects ever:
1. Acquire a jar, taller than it is wide. My favorite so far has been the Trader Joe's salsa jar -- about as tall as my hand is long and fairly narrow.
2. Put one tablespoon of vinegar (apple cider vinegar recommended) in the bottom of the jar. Add water until there's about an inch of liquid.
3. Drop in some fruit -- banana is the classic.
4. Make a paper funnel for the top. This is the only tricky part: the hole at the bottom of the funnel should be about half an inch, and when you drop it into the jar, the base of the funnel should be about two inches above the fruit/water. So you may have test a couple of times before you tape. The idea is that the base of the funnel is close enough to the fruit and wide enough that the odor can easily escape -- but far enough and small enough that the fruit flies have to really focus to get out. Fruit flies don't focus very well. Or fly in straight lines.
5. Tape the funnel to the top of the jar. Tape all around the edge of the jar, so there's no space for them to creep through. They're going to fly right up between the outside of the funnel and the inside of the jar, so you're blocking their main hope of exit.
6. Set the jar wherever the swarm is mightiest. Wait.
7. Change the jar whenever you can't stand to look at it any more -- and keep using it for a few days after the flies are gone, in case there's another hatching cycle lying in wait.
On Tuesday night, my "few fruit flies" had blossomed into "mighty fruit fly swarm." All over the cupboards. All over the walls. All over my grandfather's crazy bullfighter picture. Not acceptable.
I spent the evening researching online -- and then built a few beta version fruit fly traps. This morning, I assisted two jars full of tiny, red-eyed, crawling monsters out to the garbage. Recreated the most effective trap for the stragglers. Hoped I wasn't selecting for the flies too smart to be trapped, which will now breed and soon be re-sorting my books and CDs to their own tastes, making it impossible for me to find anything. Do fruit flies make good cat-sitters?
All night, I had guilty dreams about small animals and insects I've killed, inadvertently or with intention. With occasional bouts of wakeful skin crawling.
How to win a turf war with the best lab subjects ever:
1. Acquire a jar, taller than it is wide. My favorite so far has been the Trader Joe's salsa jar -- about as tall as my hand is long and fairly narrow.
2. Put one tablespoon of vinegar (apple cider vinegar recommended) in the bottom of the jar. Add water until there's about an inch of liquid.
3. Drop in some fruit -- banana is the classic.
4. Make a paper funnel for the top. This is the only tricky part: the hole at the bottom of the funnel should be about half an inch, and when you drop it into the jar, the base of the funnel should be about two inches above the fruit/water. So you may have test a couple of times before you tape. The idea is that the base of the funnel is close enough to the fruit and wide enough that the odor can easily escape -- but far enough and small enough that the fruit flies have to really focus to get out. Fruit flies don't focus very well. Or fly in straight lines.
5. Tape the funnel to the top of the jar. Tape all around the edge of the jar, so there's no space for them to creep through. They're going to fly right up between the outside of the funnel and the inside of the jar, so you're blocking their main hope of exit.
6. Set the jar wherever the swarm is mightiest. Wait.
7. Change the jar whenever you can't stand to look at it any more -- and keep using it for a few days after the flies are gone, in case there's another hatching cycle lying in wait.
posted by jack despra at
10:04 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home