Garden Update and Fly Season

A few days ago, we noticed that we had enormous numbers of flies in our house. After chasing them with a vacuum cleaner for two days and catching about half of them, I decided to make a simple flytrap to deal with the rest.

In a wide, shallow, bowl I mixed water, borax, dish soap, and vinegar. The vinegar acts as bait, attracting flies. Borax, among its many household uses, is an effective insecticide, and I added it in case flies got out of the trap. The dish soap breaks the surface tension of the water, so that any fly that touches the surface is immediately submerged and unable to swim.

I then place the bowl under a desk lamp, and turned off all other lights in the room.

Flies are attracted by the light, but when they fly towards it they hit the water and get caught. This was so effective that I don’t think vinegar is necessary at all.

The trap caught these seven flies within ten minutes of setting it up. No flies made it out of the water, so it is likely that borax is also unnecessary. By the next morning, there were almost no flies left in the room.

I also want to share an update on my garden. This is our tomato bed. We’re trying a bunch of different heirloom varieties this year, as well as Black Krim and Roma tomatoes.

This is a black cherry tomato, our first fruit of the year!

Our bush beans are growing very well, and are blooming like crazy. I think the purple flowers are just beautiful!

The beans themselves will be purple as well. This was recommended to me, since they are easier to spot in a dense patch of bean bushes.

Here you can see most of the garden. Everything is growing so well! In the first bed from the left, there are beats, carrots, and onions. The second bed has broccoli, arugula, chives, and cabbage. In the third bed I’m growing squashes and shallots. The last bed has my kale, herbs, and beans in it. On the far right are my potatoes. I really need to put more tires around them, so that they will make more tubers for me.

~The Homesteading Hippy