Julia and I discovered that it is fruit-fly season here in Michigan. We were preparing dinner Sunday night when she noticed a few fruit flies in the kitchen. By the time we had our dinner and glasses of wine on the table, the swarm had grown enough that we covered our wine with saucers so that we were not sharing it with hundreds of the little bugs.
We had the idea to pour a little of the wine I had gotten the day before which had proved to be hugely unpopular (neither of us liked it) into a small plate, then put the plate on the other side of the room to draw a crowd.
This worked well enough to get us through dinner, and then Julia went surfing to find a better answer. It turns out I was on the right track, but my design made it easy for the flies to visit and then leave. By covering the plate with plastic wrap and poking a couple of holes in it with a toothpick, an idea she found on the web, we suddenly had a party spot for flies from which there was no escape. I guess tipsy flies can't find the hole through which they entered!
That homemade fly-sized Bates Motel (we actually have two of them to offer full service to the large family room) has captured the attention and soon the earthly remains of many of our uninvited guests.
Sometimes, the most tranquil of times must be defended, and we have successfully defended the blissful time we were having up until our visitors presented themselves.
So, today I see the sacred in such mundane items as bad red wine, plastic wrap, a toothpick, and a saucer. Together with a little human ingenuity, they become a bliss defender of the highest order.
1 comment:
What a great story and idea about tackling those pesty fruit flies!
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