John Savage wrote:
On his "Vasili's Garden" tv gardening program last week (Ch. 31, tvs
in Sydney), Vasili toured the garden of an Italian migrant who was
proud to be no longer troubled by fruit fly. He had rigged up dozens
of plastic drink bottles hanging everywhere, mostly, it seemed, in
pairs, and each upright and without its cap and containing a few cm
of Coca Cola plus a tablespoonful of honey. He said he has fruit
flies queuing up to dive in and die, and they prefer this to his
fruit trees. As I surmise, the Coke must function as both lure and
insecticide. There was no mention of ants finding the hanging honey
pots alluring; maybe they have better taste?

I knew there had to be a use for that stuff, besides for cleaning old
coins and demonstrating its spectacular reaction with Mentos mints.

I wonder how Pepsi compares? Or would things go better with Coca Cola?

Most recipes for fruit fly bait contain some sort of fruit like banana. I
recall reading somewhere that coke has some fruit extracts as part of the
flavour besides cola (and cocaine of course). So perhaps the flies home on
that.

David