Damn You, Fruit Flies!

Soooo.....snails have been a pretty big problem in the garden lately. I came outside this morning to discover all but one leaf on one of my Sweet Potato vines eaten down to the nubs by these little bastards! I've had little trays of beer set out in the garden and, as it turns out, snails get pretty excited when you offer them beer- like college students and those guys in South Tampa whose biceps are bigger than their torsos...Anyway, they just LOVE drinking and they fall into the beer and drown. Bye-bye snaily. Unfortunately, I'm a pretty absent-minded gardener, so I forget to change out the beer in the traps with regularity, which brings me to the new plague sent to me by the gardening gods- fruit flies. There were thousands of them in the garden this morning- hanging out in the big yellow flowers adorning a couple of squash vines and, disturbingly, in the rancid beer (not dead, mind you, just drunk and a bit ornery)...Now how to get rid of 'em without spraying nuclear waste all over my food producers?????  The answer can be found, apparently, in a solution of Apple Cider Vinegar, Water, and Dishwashing Soap (for viscosity, not flavor!). Check out this little instructional vid from The Urban Farming Guys...

 In fact, check out their YouTube page- tons of videos on their awesome project in Kansas City- they're creating community in a pretty rough urban area. Urban farming, off-grid energy, etc. Seriously, look them up. Every city could use this kind of help!