As of late September 2026, the fruit bowl on my Port St. Lucie kitchen counter is doing what fruit bowls do down here this time of year: a banana goes soft, a mango sits a day too long, and a small cloud of fruit flies shows up to supervise. The fix most of us reach for is already in the cupboard. A splash of vinegar in a bowl, left out overnight, and the problem is considered handled.
I kept that bowl going for years. The flies land on it, a few end up floating in it, and that looks like progress. What I never asked was what the rest of them were doing in the meantime, or where the next batch was coming from. Here in Florida, where my fruit bowl never really goes away, that turns out to be the whole question.
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What UF/IFAS says
The University of Florida’s extension entomologists wrote a guide to homemade insect traps, and they do not oversell them: “Trapping alone may not solve persistent infestations, and the source of the problem (such as exposed food, moisture, or other variables) should be addressed.”…