WHY WE STARTED A FRUIT FLY COLONY IN OUR KITCHEN

Jake Reedy
Sep 7, 2018 · 3 min read

“Dude they’re getting upstairs” -Freeman Butler, an upstairs resident

“It’s honestly disgusting” -Hannah Scow, more than friends with one of our current roommates

“Very tasteful and appropriate” -

“Although a female fruit fly adult will only live about a month at best, in that short time, she can lay 500 eggs.” -insects.about.com

Inthe past few days a lot of friends and family have pestered me and my roommates, demanding to know what’s the deal with all the fruit flies in our kitchen. Here’s the story:

Our decision to throw out our china and glasses and replace them with plastic plates, bowls, and and cups in an effort to conserve water sparked a desire within me and my roommates to do more. With this effort under our belts to become one with nature and not waste precious water (imagine California) cleaning dishes, we could not be stopped. We decided to think beyond the question “what can we do to HELP nature?” and asked ourselves the radical question “How can we BECOME nature?”. We wanted nature and we wanted it whisking past us.

Just weeks before the colonization of fruit flies I had visited the largest butterfly pavillion in Colorado during a “get loose-n-hang out” activity for a week-long leadership training seminar. I had never really seen that much nature. It was a rough week because Nancy, my favorite administrative assistant at the company told me she wouldn’t go bowling with me and my cousins. So picture it, there I was, wondering and doubting that Nancy would ever get a clue about what we could be if she were to do activity-based dates with me when a part of nature fluttered before my face and landed right on my nose. 🦋 👃 Shocked, I lost my footing but quickly gained balance. I couldn’t believe it… natured had hand selected me. me!!! Never had I thought that week would have been the week of the #1 best “get loose-n-hang out” company activity of my life. That day, things changed. I got into gear.

a before and after picture of me from the Colorado Butterfly Terranium security camera. wow

It was obvious what I had to do. You could have renamed me “Jake a banana opener” because I must’ve opened 4–5 banannas in one sitting and placed them exposed around the kitchen. It’s been 8 days. What used to be a stale and cold (though water conserving) environment is now a full on fruit fly terranium. You can hardly walk from the fridge to where we would like a dishwasher to be without nature softly buzzing in your face and sometimes landing on part of your mouth. The nicest part is that they get everywhere! It’s similar to a beautiful summer night in the south where the fields are accented by fireflies but it’s just that these guys don’t NEED to light up. We love how when we open a cubboard or rustle anything up it’s almost as if the room gets darker because so many are in the air and block the little light we have. For some reason the fruit flies love paper towels and that is a benefit because when you make a mess and gotta clean it up your greeted with half the colony swarming in and around your face. You’ve never felt anything like it.

It’s really so nice what we have going on at the apartment. Yes we tried to do this and yes we love it! If you have any suggestions on how we can make these fruit flies mulitiply at a rate of 5x a day instead of their steady 4x a day that would be great! We love entrepreneurship and we love growth so don’t be shy!

Jake Reedy

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