8.03.2007

Cold bananas suck but so does living in a barn

Our house is overrun with flies. Initially, we blamed it on bananas. Our children love bananas. In fact, bananas are the one fruit our 18 month old consistently loves. We end up buying bananas almost as often as we buy milk. Which is a lot.

We thought the flies were fruit flies resulting from old bananas laying around. My husband insisted we start storing the bananas in the fridge. But this made the bananas wildly unpopular. Cold bananas being a lot firmer than room temperature bananas. Not to mention they don’t really ripen right in the fridge. We tried defrosting the bananas by leaving them on the counter to warm up a little. However, trying to predict two hours ahead of time when one of our children might potentially be interested in a banana proved difficult.

So then we went back to keeping them on the counter but we’d leave them in their plastic grocery store baggie. I guess hoping that flies would be contained in the baggie. We also made sure we ate bananas before they got old and never leave half eaten ones laying around. This has not worked either. A month and a half later we’re still hanging fly strips in our kitchen and swatting them away while sitting at the computer two rooms away from the bananas.

This is insane. It’s like living in a barn and we’re cows swatting these things away with our tails. Except it’s our house and this is annoying and what on Earth. How can they all be banana related flies? Our kids have eaten bananas for years. We’ve never experienced fly infestation like this. The solution to this problem cannot be getting rid of the bananas. It can’t. Our 18 month old loves them. He loves very few fruits and vegetables. We’re not banning bananas. Of course, we’re also not resigning ourselves to living in a barn either. Our cute new Crate and Barrel dresser would be sorely out of place in a barn.

I had three fly strips hanging in the kitchen on Wednesday. My husband wanted to know what I hoped to accomplish hanging so many. I would think the answer to that is obvious. I’d like to have fewer flies everywhere. I have no idea what to do anymore. Besides complain, obviously. I’m ready to wall paper the entire house in fly paper at this point. I think looking at that would actually be better than tiny flies flitting around my head while I try to watch television. Isn’t it enough that I have a three year old using my bed as a trampoline during Big Brother? Do I need the flies on top of that?

Speaking of Big Brother, they still haven’t voted Kail out. Chick is on my nerves. Although not as much as Amber who feels the need to cry over every single thing. Even when it has nothing to do with her. Even when it’s not bad news. And she can’t just get teary eyed. She has to full on sob. It's beyond me how she functions in everyday life sobbing that much. Chick needs to be medicated.

8 comments:

Stacey said...

Yes, the banana flies I've seen them around before.
We literally had to set off one of those raid bombs while we were away at work to get rid of the fruit flies that appeared one time.
Luckily those suckers have never come back!
Good luck.

Chaotic Joy said...

Yeah, we have gnats here which I have also attributed to the bananas, or maybe the tomatoes since that's about all we have sitting out on our counters. I am constantly swatting while I am blogging.

Oh, and I have a confession. For the first time ever, Hubs and I are watching a reality TV show and it's Big Brother. And really, could there be a more annoying group of people? Is it normally this bad? I don't even know who to root for. And Amber, she is such a cry baby and a really ugly crier at that. I am ready for her to be gone. I am ready for them all to be gone. Bunch of self absorbed twits.

Okay, I digressed...sorry about the flies.

BlondeBlogger said...

Those fruit flies are the worst and very hard to get rid of. Did you check your onions? Those have them all the time.

Yeah, Amber and her weird crying...got to go!

a happier girl said...

I'm going to check and see if we have onions because I hadn't heard they could cause flies. But otherwise I think we'll have to set off bug bombs or something. My husband will be thrilled.

joy - Yes! Amber is an ugly crier. I totally agree. I might not have noticed except that she cries all the time it would be impossible not to. The best was when she wrapped herself around Nick's leg to sob when she was one of the planners that came up with the idea of backdooring him.

Anonymous said...

We grow blueberries and had fruit flies. No blueberries this year, no flies. One other thing that helped was emptying the trash regularly. I think they were in the bin and drains from berries that weren't edible. Winter will get rid of them for you. I'm so sorry for the irritation you are experiencing. It is truly annoying. Some recipes are available online for getting rid of them - bowls of apple cider vinegar with dish soap, etc... but none of them have worked for us. :-(

Anonymous said...

Honestly, how can Kail still be on that show? Amber is working on my last nerve. I sure do like Evil Dick though. He's one of the best BB houseguests ever!

Damselfly said...

Flies, ugh. I think gnats are even worse because they don't care how much you swat your hand, they stick around.

a happier girl said...

Yeah, Dick's like the perfect Big Brother houseguest. Insane and likes to get into fights. Amber's nuts. Sunday night's "I'm not even capable of lying" explanation was priceless. Because, chick lied to her buddy Nick.

damselfly - I agree gnats are worse. Although I'm against pretty much all flying insects at this point.

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