It’s possible to enjoy seasonal fruit without letting gnats into your kitchen! Just add a little something extra to your basket.
During the summer months, the fruit basket has never been so varied:
Peaches, apricots, nectarines, pears, plums… Fruits you no doubt adore, and you’re not the only one. Midges are attracted to fruit baskets mainly by the sweet smell of ripe, fermenting fruit, which produces volatile compounds such as ethanol. These insects are also attracted by the humidity of the fruit, essential for their oviposition, as well as by the nutrients offered by the yeasts and micro-organisms present on the surface of decaying fruit. Heat accelerates fruit ripening, and as it is left in the open air, it is easily accessible to midges. So what can you do to avoid having to store your fruit in the fridge? There’s a simple trick you can use to make the fruit basket far less attractive.
When we look at the composition of certain mosquito repellents, we often find eugenol.
This is an aromatic compound found in certain plants and used for its antiseptic, analgesic, aromatizing and insect repellent properties. Specifically, its strong, pungent odor is unpleasant to flies and other insects, keeping them away from treated areas. But rather than using a commercial chemical product, you can rely on eugenol naturally. A very pleasant-smelling product, for example, contains eugenol: cinnamon, and in particular Ceylon cinnamon bark. It’s a natural and effective fly repellent.
To use it and prevent midges from settling around your fruit basket, simply place a few cinnamon sticks among your fruit. The smell, pleasant for you, will not be at all pleasant for the flies, so they’ll prefer not to linger. If you don’t have any sticks, you can also sprinkle powdered cinnamon at the bottom of the basket. And if you don’t like cinnamon, you can also opt for cloves, which contain even more eugenol, but have a more pungent scent.
