Gnat Trap

Last fall, we had an invasion of gnats!  They were very annoying because they would fly around your face.  I'm not sure what caused them.  I checked the soil in my potted plants and they did not seem to be coming from those.  It could have been the sauerkraut that I was making at the time.

http://windyacresnaturalfarm.blogspot.com/2012/12/how-to-make-sauerkraut.html

In any case, I am not one to use poison around the house, so we just patiently tolerated them.  Then, one day at work I noticed a co-worker had a saucer of vinegar sitting on the window sill of her office.  When asked what that was for, she said it was to kill the gnats that had been a nuisance in her area of the building.

This sounded a little far-fetched to me, but I decided to try it at home and here is the result.

I was told to put a drop of dish washing detergent in the vinegar to break the surface tension so that when the gnats landed they would immediately sink.  It certainly worked!  I kept a dish of vinegar out for a couple of weeks and had to empty it every other day because of all the gnats it collected.

Eventually, the gnats disappeared.  I'm not sure if this is a result of my killing them all or if it is because I put the sauerkraut in jars and refrigerated it about the same time.