Sunday, August 29, 2004

Ex-Terminated!

The other day, I noticed that whenever I went over to my sink, there were a good number of tiny little flies. Now, my sink is usually in pretty good condidion (no standing water or anything), but I thought, "Maybe my sink needs a good scrubbin'." I figured that about 20 minutes with a scrubber and Lysol would have done the trick, but no, they're still around. So I went wandering around my kitchen, looking for ANYTHING that the flies might have been attracted to, and to my dismay, I discovered a red wine bottle that I hadn't rinsed out sitting in the recycle, swarming with at least a dozen flies. Oh bother.

So, after I disposed of the buzzing bottle, I set about the internet, seeing if there was a Home Remedy way of getting rid of the pests. I came across one that said put about 1/4 quart of water with 2 tbsp each of sugar and vinegar, and a couple of drops of dish detergent. Awesome, except for the following: 1) I don't know what a "quart" is; 2) I only have "brown" sugar, and; 3) I only have "balsamic" vinegar. But I figure, hey, sugar is sugar, and balsamic vinegar is like red wine, and that seemed to be their drink of choice, so I felt I had the necessary ingredients. I poured the foul mixture into a tupperware container, and waited.

After a good fifteen minutes, I checked back: no-one had dropped in. They flew around the bowl once or twice, hovering above the surface; a few were even walking along the side of the bowl, but no-one had chosen to dine. So, my patience with these freaks having run out, I started to smack them against the wall. So far, this new strategy has worked out well; lure them to the sink area with my noxious brew, and then sweet, violent death. It's more effective, and a heck of a lot more satisfying.

1 comment:

Jago said...

A quart is approximately a litre. So, a 1/4 quart is one cup (250 ml). Why didn't they just say a cup of water?