"Fly eggs are on EVERY banana! Check the fridge before you go!" [So, if you are squeamish, go ahead and scroll past this post]
- It was the end of Feburary. I had just finished a job for Tony Robbins in beautiful B.C. Canada, Whistler to be specific. I flew home and my mom and I drove the van down to visit my grandparents at their winter trailer abode in Port Richey, FL.
I had just cleaned my solar panels for the first time since early January. Jacob, my long time friend and bandmate from The Little Family Band in Chicago, called me and asked me to come play with the band at a beautiful Irish venue called Galway Arms. I agreed, flew up from Florida, and while I was there, was called out to LA for a job, then Whistler for the aforementioned job.
Anyway, after cleaning the panels, I went into my van fridge to grab a cold drink. I was greeted by a swarm of tiny little fruit flies and a quite pungent .... um ..... stentch.
I had left a banana on the door shelf of the fridge and.... well, I just forgot, or rather neglected to consider checking the fridge before I took off for Chicago.
The result, while fascinating, was ultimately unpleasant.
The fridge, being sealed to keep the cold air in, would be difficult for a collective swarm of fruit flies to 1) find and 2) penetrate. So I concluded, with the faint recollection of information I had read on the subject online once, that the fruit flies....WERE ALREADY IN / ON THE BANANA.
Gross. Right?
Yes.
I looked it up to verify before posting this Lesson Learned and, at least according to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, it appears to be factual.
"....occasionally fruit flies seem to appear in our kitchens as if by spontaneous generation...This is because they can travel into our homes, unbeknownst to us, as larvae on the fruit we buy. The adults lay their eggs, invisible to the naked eye, on bananas and other fruits, which later hatch while the fruit is in our fruit bowls....Since banana peels seem to be the most common bearer of fruit fly larvae, some people prefer to compost banana peels in outdoor bins only."
Check the fridge before you go. Lesson Learned.