Recycle Beverage Containers into a Super Fruit Fly Trap

Fruit flies are a real nusiance. I came up with a neat idea for a trap that works to get rid of Fruit Flies quickly.

It uses a recycled beverage container and four pebbles or something similar, to lift it a quarter inch or so off of the counter. For bait, a little bit of red wine or cider vinegar works well.

Here is what you need: an empty plastic water bottle, juice or soda container with a bottom that has a raised center.

Drill a small, 1/8” hole in center of this raised bottom. I used a 3/32” drill to start a pilot hole and then widened it to 1/8”.

Use hot glue to add something to the bottom corners to raise the trap a little bit so that the flies will be able to crawl or fly up into the center hole.

Put a small amount of red wine, cider vinegar or similar aromatic liquid in the container so that it is just below the hole in the raised center of the bottom and your trap is set.

To release your captured flies, just step out side and take off the top. They will happily fly away unharmed.  For the more blood thirsty, just do nothing. They will soon land in the liquid and be unable to escape.

Good luck!

Art of Rat Killing without Traps or Poison

Take a common sponge, dried, cut into small pieces

• soak in lard, melted tallow or meat gravy.
• Place these pieces within easy access to the rats.

They will eat greedily and the moisture of the stomach will cause the pieces to swell and kill the rat.

Water may be placed within reach, and will hasten the results by expanding the sponge.

How to Keep Apples Fresh and Sound all Winter

I discovered a very superior way of preserving apples until spring. By it any apple in good condition when packed will be equally good when unpacked, and even those rotten because not in good condition when put away will not injure any others.

• Take fine dry sawdust, preferably that made by a circular saw from well seasoned hard wood, and place a thick layer on the bottom of a barrel.

• Then place a layer of apples, not close together and not close to the staves of the barrel. Put sawdust liberally over and around, and proceed until a bushel and a half (or less) is packed in each barrel.

• They are to be kept in a cool place.

I kept some in an open garret, the thermometer for a week ranged close to zero. No bruised or mellow apples will be preserved but they will not communicate rot to their companions. There is money in this, applied to choice apples.

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Editor's Note: This actually works. When I was a kid, it is how my Father kept carrots from the garden all winter.

Make Tomato Catsup

Boil one bushel of tomatoes till they are soft,

• squeeze them through a fine sieve;
• add one and a half pints of salt,
• two ounces of cayenne pepper,
• and five heads of onions, skinned and separated;
• mix together,
• then boil till reduced one half;
• then bottle.

Unerring Test for Good Flour

Good flour is white with a yellowish or straw colour tint.

• Squeeze some of the flour in your hand; if good it will retain the shape given by the pressure.
• Knead a little between your fingers; if it works soft and sticky, it is poor.
• Throw a little against a dry perpendicular surface; if it falls like powder it is bad.

To Soften the Hands

Before retiring, take a large pair of old gloves and spread mutton tallow inside, also all over the hands. Wear the gloves all night, and wash hands with olive oil and white castile soap the next morning.

To Restore Velvet

Where velvet has been crushed, hold the wrong side over a basin of quite boiling water, and the pile will gradually rise.

Do not lose patience, for it takes a considerable time, but the result is marvellous.