Fruit flies and canning pizza sauce

We have a question about getting rid of fruit flies. We have been canning peaches like crazy and the pests are everywhere. Do you know how we can get rid of them?

My mom has a great pizza sauce recipe I was hoping you could go over and tell me if it is safe to can and for how long. It calls for 10# tomatoes peeled, cored, chopped in a food processor or blender, 3 medium onions chopped, 4 cloves of minced garlic, 3 Tbs. olive oil, 1 Tbs each basil, oregano, Italian seasoning, 1 Tbs. salt, 1 tsp. red pepper, 1 tsp. black pepper and 1 tsp. sugar. It says to saute the onions and garlic in the oil, add the rest of ingredients and simmer for 2 hours. Put through a food mill, return to heat and cook till thickened. It recommends using pints, leaving 1/4 inch head space and processing for thirty minutes in water bath canner. How does this sound? Should I change anything?

Mia Sodaro
Frazier Park, California

Ahhh, the fruit flies! I get ’em too. Especially when I can fruit or tomatoes. I’ve had pretty good luck using the fruit fly traps that are available in many stores and online. You can also punch a nail hole in a canning jar lid, put a cup of vinegar and sugar into a pint canning jar, put on the lid and ring and trap flies that way. They go in but drown in the vinegar. To keep them from getting out of hand, store your fruit, before you can, in an out-of-the-way spot — on a porch, in the basement, or in the garage. When you can, quickly remove all seeds/pits/skins, etc. out of the house. They will go away after canning. Mine always do!

The pizza sauce sounds great! It’s about like my pizza sauce. I process mine for 35 minutes in a water bath. Otherwise, you should be good to go! Does this mean you have tomatoes this year? I sure hope so. — Jackie

3 COMMENTS

  1. Mia,

    Good thinking!!! We homesteaders are such a creative bunch! I’ll sure use John’s method. I’ve got tons of tomatoes all over the house and with them, there’s sure to be fruit flies.

    Jackie

  2. Thanks Jackie! We are loaded with tomatoes for the first time! They really loved this summer’s heat and the south facing wall we planted them against. As for the fruit flies, John got creative. We wound up taking the bowl the peach skins and pits were in, covering it with Saran wrap and taping it around the the bowl. Then we used a tooth pick and punched little holes in the top. We set it in another room and by the end of the night we had caught thousands! I went from working with a swarm in the kitchen down to 5 over night!!

  3. For fruit flies…rather than ruin a canning lid. Roll a paper cone with a fairly small hole. Put into any type of jar that has something good in the bottom…ripe banana, vinegar/sugar, or some of what you are canning that attracted them in the first place. They will fly down into the bottle but will not be able to get out.

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