I bought a bag of apples from Trader Joe's and left out the bag; didn't refrigerate. I ate one apple and just left the bag out, closed but after beginning to suffer from a plague of biblical proportions I noticed the apple bag was filled with infestation and threw it out. I foolishly thought that would solve the problem but things got worse. They dive bomb my face and seem to eat my face, even fly into my nostrils. My face cloths, laid out on the sink, damp, were smothered in them and they were on the walls, doors, just everywhere and in every room. I'm old and never had to deal with this before. So I started to research. I made traps using saran wrap with holes poked with my tooth/ gums scraper, a pointy sharp instrument. Covered the containers with the Saran Wrap with the holes poked after applying a rubber band to seal the wrap around the rim of the container. The most successful was a container with leftover shrimp salad sauce from Zabar's: a mayo with sugar sauce, to which I added organic apple cider vinegar Bragg brand from Whole Foods and a squirt or two of face cleanser. One trap had a pear core with the vinegar and soap. This was also very successful. So I think adding some sugar might be a good idea or any fruit. Poking the holes was tricky since I have two sizes of these flies, one a bit larger than the other. Not sure whether they are both fruit flies but they both act the same. One advantage of the BEAPCO traps is they have a great opening which should allow all my flies in easily, and few out. I expect that poking the holes in the saran wrap is more effective with holes only in the center area. I put holes everywhere and they try to get out around the edges so keeping the holes in the center area might make it more likely for them to get in and not out. Another advantage of BEAPCO is that they can tip or fall and only a little splashes out, while if my traps tip or fall it would make a catastrophic mess. A disadvantage of BEAPCO is that you can't easily add stuff like fruit bits into BEAPCO since it doesn't open. I started making my own traps three days ago. I have five of my own now and the fruit fly population is less but still vast, and very offensive. My BEAPCO order arrived today and I put out two of BEAPCO, one with plain Apple Cider Vinegar, BRAGG ORGANIC from Whole Foods. One with their lure. Both are attracting the flies and in a few days I'll compare the results of each. I positioned them next to each other and I will set more of them soon in a similar way. It may take a long time for me to win this war but I'm prepared to fight to the end. Update: The inner hole on BEAPCO isn't as narrow as I thought. So you can add bits of fruit or fruit juice and I'd recommend that for increased effectiveness. I ended up setting seven of the BEAPCO and five larger ones I'd previously made. I lost one BEAPCO when the tray tipped and one empty trap disappeared. I set half with their enclosed lure and half with the apple cider vinegar and some with a bit of fruit. My apartment was so badly effected the problem isn't solved yet but it is very greatly improved. The traps are working with the plain enclosed lure as well as with the Bragg Organic apple cider vinegar. The later is only slightly more effective. I will update after a longer time when the differences in success may be more easy to see. Both have a lot of corpses in them but I find it hard to count them. I'm assuming one will fill up first. It's been five days since I started fighting back. There had been many coating walls and door in the bathroom for example and now few but there are still quite a few crawling on the outside of the traps and my jars and bottles. Remarkably less than before. I understand to keep traps out for a long time after they seem to be gone because of their gestation period of ten days, but I have to assume that when I think they are gone they may not be really gone, so I intend to wait at least a month after they seem to be gone before removing the traps. I had a little trouble pouring the cider into the BEAPCO traps. A bubble forms, some spills. I have some tiny funnels somewhere and that would be a good solution for pouring. Also squeezing the traps a bit helps the cider to get in there. The bottle BEAPCO provides is good for this so one might add some regular apple cider vinegar to their bottle, too. I think that would be a successful mix. I assume they have some soap mixed with theirs which helps the flies sink to the bottom, and drown sooner. I'd consider mixing in some fruit juice or sugar into their bottle too. Their bottle has a narrow thin tip that fits well into the traps and doesn't spill. If you really feel their mixture isn't as good as theirs, throw out theirs and use their bottle for your own mixture. I figured out the box finally. The front seems to suggest you do add fruit to the mix and their pictures with the layers inside their traps depicts their traps with added fruit! But their directions don't even mention fruit. I think that's because of translation from the French, perhaps? Over a two week period I put out several traps, three in the kitchen, three in the bathroom and four in the bedroom dining room living room area where I spend most of my time. It took more than two weeks to resolve the problem but I believe the great war has been won. I will leave the traps out for another month to be sure they don't reinfest. It's my opinion that Apple Cider Vinegar with a bit of fruit or sugar, and a bit of liquid soap, is equally effective as the commercial traps sold in this package. Cover a container with saran wrap, seal with a rubber band, and poke very small holes in the center area of the saran wrap after sealing with a rubber band. These traps are equally effective to home made, smaller, less intrusive and they are effective. I don't think that they are less effective than regular commercial Apple Cider vinegar but they are nicer to have around. The important thing is all these methods do work; you just have to wait long enough. With a severe infestation like mine, it takes a few weeks for the problem to seem gone but make sure you keep the traps out for another few weeks minimum, so the hatched eggs can also be trapped. Now I have yet another question. I do have some moths. Does anyone have a solution for getting rid of moths? Why is the picture above different from what we get? The traps they depict have layers of stuff in them and the solution is a different shaped bottle. Seems quite odd...
