Random thing you loathe right now.

bobbywatson wrote:

I don't know how many fruit flies I've killed in my apartment today. Probably more than 15. I think I'm close to getting all of them though.

Narrator: he wasn't.

bobbywatson wrote:

I don't know how many fruit flies I've killed in my apartment today. Probably more than 15. I think I'm close to getting all of them though.

Electric fly swatters really do work.

They might be drain flies, nesting inside your sinks.

bobbywatson wrote:

I don't know how many fruit flies I've killed in my apartment today. Probably more than 15. I think I'm close to getting all of them though.

Been using a bug zapper and only seen maybe one each year but zapper has killed lots of them.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Electric fly swatters really do work.

For fruit flies, nowhere near as well as a glass of vinegar with a drop of dishwashing liquid and a paper cone does. You'll kill orders of magnitude more that way.

IMAGE(https://lilluna.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/fly-trap-resize-3.jpg)

Why the paper cone?

Mixolyde wrote:

Why the paper cone?

TO MAXIMIZE THE KILLZONE

Spoiler:

Cos without it you'll catch many less (I have verified this empirically in my own kitchen). This way, they're attracted to the smell, so they fly in through the hole at the bottom of the cone, but are too stupid to get back out again, and eventually land on the surface of the vinegar, which you've lowered the surface tension of with the drop of washing up liquid, so where they'd normally stand right up on top of that fluid, this time, GLOOP!

If you don't have the paper cone, what you'll have is a bunch of flies NEAR your fly trap.

Ah, kind of like a crab trap. Clever!

Jonman wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

Electric fly swatters really do work.

For fruit flies, nowhere near as well as a glass of vinegar with a drop of dishwashing liquid and a paper cone does. You'll kill orders of magnitude more that way.

I will give that a try!

I had a fruit fly problem last year after throwing away a pear core in a basket that I did not promptly empty, and Jonman's suggestion is by far the best. I tried keeping spray on hand, a fly paper strip, a zapper, everything, but for weeks, they kept showing up. They'd come in waves because they can lay large quantities of eggs rapidly.

I was a much bigger nerd and 3D-printed a cone, but everything else was basically the same. It was the only solution that worked. I also threw some apple scraps from an old core in there.

Because of the egg-laying bit, you want to keep your trap around for at least a week after you see your last fly, because there might still be a pending wave that hasn't hatched yet.

I put the trap about 2 hours ago and there is already a few dead flies in there. We'll see how many there are tomorrow!

bobbywatson wrote:

I put the trap about 2 hours ago and there is already a few dead flies in there. We'll see how many there are tomorrow!

Are you taking bets? I'm going with 40.

Jonman wrote:
bobbywatson wrote:

I put the trap about 2 hours ago and there is already a few dead flies in there. We'll see how many there are tomorrow!

Are you taking bets? I'm going with 40.

Not 40, but somewhere between 25 and 30.

My high school teacher had to constantly remind us of grades to get us to count fruit flies every day for a semester, but you do it for an Internet bet. I must learn this magic. (Oh, and to this day I remember the name Drosophila Melanogaster...)

Quintin_Stone wrote:
bobbywatson wrote:

I don't know how many fruit flies I've killed in my apartment today. Probably more than 15. I think I'm close to getting all of them though.

Electric fly swatters really do work.

They might be drain flies, nesting inside your sinks.

Ugh. Now I know what I am up against. I hate these fricking things.

I am used to Arizona pests, there are too many different bugs in North Carolina.

Caught about 20 flies yesterday myself. Good tips everyone

Quintin_Stone wrote:
bobbywatson wrote:

I don't know how many fruit flies I've killed in my apartment today. Probably more than 15. I think I'm close to getting all of them though.

Electric fly swatters really do work.

They might be drain flies, nesting inside your sinks.

THANK YOU

Pretty sure these bastards are what keep coming out at night in the bathroom. Had no idea where they were coming from.

Robear wrote:

My high school teacher had to constantly remind us of grades to get us to count fruit flies every day for a semester, but you do it for an Internet bet. I must learn this magic. (Oh, and to this day I remember the name Drosophila Melanogaster...)

Human understanding of genetics is pretty down to Drosophila. It’s no exaggeration to say it’s probably one of the most important animals every to have lived on this planet.

We each had a couple of pre-populated vials of D. Melanogaster with different visible variants. We had to cross-breed them and identify which mutations the original stocks had by the statistical outcomes of the following generations, and also maintain the original breeding stocks. The most value in that was learning how to keep the little buggers alive lol. They do love their banana mush though.

The cool side effect of the experiment, though, was that the bullies in the class found that their victims were able to detect fly mixing and identify which flies had been added to their stock, leading to an understanding of who had done it to them. Those folks got an F for the semester and punitive on-campus cleaning tasks on the weekends.

The eShop. Feels like browsing the internet in 1997.

I've just spent 15 minutes trying and failing to install DLC for Minecraft for the kid. Jesus its torturous. Minecraft needs me to buy Minecoins in the eshop but searching for "minecoins" in the eShop doesn't find anything.

Oh well, none of my money for you, Mojang.

Jonman wrote:

The eShop. Feels like browsing the internet in 1997.

I've just spent 15 minutes trying and failing to install DLC for Minecraft for the kid. Jesus its torturous. Minecraft needs me to buy Minecoins in the eshop but searching for "minecoins" in the eShop doesn't find anything.

Oh well, none of my money for you, Microsoft.

Funny little fix, big Microsoft game on a Nintendo platform.

My wife asks for help and wants something fixed immediately. I start to troubleshoot, and she says "I did that already, I don't think you know what you're doing."
Me: "Ok." and I walk away.

Sorbicol wrote:
Robear wrote:

My high school teacher had to constantly remind us of grades to get us to count fruit flies every day for a semester, but you do it for an Internet bet. I must learn this magic. (Oh, and to this day I remember the name Drosophila Melanogaster...)

Human understanding of genetics is pretty down to Drosophila. It’s no exaggeration to say it’s probably one of the most important animals every to have lived on this planet.

My Degree is in Biology. Drosophila are absolutely a corner stone of a LOT of experiments. My Lab Partner and very long term gaming partner and I had a good idea for a sketch about Drosophila rights campaigners once.

Yeah. Those poor flies. But we had to euthanize them to figure out their mutations...

I had to wash a pizza. That probable requires explanation. Ordered a whole pizza from whole foods. It was caked on flour on the bottom. Not like a dusting but whole globs of flour. Washed the bottom with water to remove the flour. Pizza was fine otherwise...

The task I have been dreading all week is almost upon me:

Having to put my cats in their carriers for their yearly vet visit.

We found a vet that drives an RV to our house and we hand her the cats. Much easier.

It's a bit pricey when only one is sick. But for yearly checks for both it's not much more than the regular vet.

bobbywatson wrote:

The task I have been dreading all week is almost upon me:

Having to put my cats in their carriers for their yearly vet visit.

Wasn't easy, my arm was a little scratched in the process, and the couch and I got peed on (twice) by Joséphine (the calico at the top), but the operation was successful!

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/3WG5ALo.jpg)

I might have to rent a furniture cleaning thing to clean the couch. It was overdue for a cleaning anyway.

Note to self: Quote != edit.

When we had cats we left a carrier out and open with toys and smelly shirts inside them for the cats to see and play in all the time. Made that chore a lot easier.

Part of it is the way you approach it I think. My wife gets all anxious and I think that stresses the cats out and they are harder to put in (she got bit last time she had to do it), but I can get 2 of the 3 in their carriers with no issues. Cat number 3 though is a real asshole. Best method I have found for dealing with him is to wrap him up in a blanket and stuff him in while he is trying to figure out how to escape the blanket