How to host a fruit fly party

Do you have a problem with fruit flies in the summer?

I do.  They are all over and they drive me ca-ra-zy!

I can't remember where I first saw the idea (I'm thinking it was on The Idea Room somewhere, but I couldn't for the life of me find it).  Get an old jar (cleaned out), put some fruit in it, and roll a piece of paper into a funnel. (I'm sure you could use a real funnel too.  I'll have to try that.)  Place the paper in the jar and watch the flies come flocking to the party!  For some reason, they can get in, but not out.  Silly bugs.

That doesn't sound too hard, right?  So, I decided to try.

Then, Mister came home and was super impressed with the idea, but wanted to experiment with it a bit.  I had an apple in mine, he used a banana and some canned fruit.  He also used a shorter tube.

We set out both jars in the same place to see who threw the best fruit fly party.

It's kind of hard to see in this picture (because they are so itty bitty!) but there are hundreds of flies in this jar.

My jar has maybe 20 flies in it.  

Now we know.  They like bananas (they rot faster) and fruit cocktail and the shorter the journey to the party, the better.  Also, we've learned that it can be productive to let the husband build on our ideas.  =)

P.S.  I read recently that it works to put plastic wrap on top of the jar, secured with a rubber band, with holes poked in the plastic wrap.  Maybe we'll try both and see who wins that party.