This past summer, the warmth and the abundance of tasty fruits brought along quite the Drosophila infestation in my kitchen. I’ve found with experience that the best way to get rid of them is to set out a tall jar or glass with some fruit at the bottom (nectarine pits work best) and just wait a few hours until they’re all in there. Then, lunge at the jar and slam the lid on while laughing maniacally to yourself. You now have a jar of fruit flies.
I was wondering how to dispose of the jar of goodies while chatting with a friend, and I casually asked him if he wanted a pet. I explained that I had a jar full of cuddly fruit flies looking for a home. His confused and icked-out response amused me to no end, so I decided to make this poster to entertain myself.
Click to enlarge to read small text.
I made this with my ancient copy of Photoshop, mostly with the Pen tool. The individual fly illustrations are from a chart of fruit fly mutations, but I’m unsure of who the artist is, despite my efforts to track it down. As far as I can tell, it’s from a book about genetics from 1939, An Introduction to Genetics by Alfred H. Sturtevant and George W. Beadle. Source.
Will you give these fruit flies a home? They need love, too! ;)