June 14, 2017 - 11:22am
Fruit flies in pastry cases
Hello! I manage a cafe and we have a bit of an issue with fruit flies in our current (closed) pastry case. I'm looking to upgrade and I've noticed that many cafes/bakeries in the area (Northern California) have open pastry cases without apparent fruit fly infestations. I'm wondering how they are managing this - does the extra air flow in an open pastry case minimize the moisture that attracts fruit flies? What's their secret?
I am not looking for fruit fly control techniques in general, as I am implementing many of these already. I am only looking for advice specific to the pastry case itself. If anyone owns or works at a bakery with an open pastry case, please let me know how you keep flies away! Any insight will be appreciated, thank you!
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I don't have pastry case experience but used to have flies, sometimes by the dozens, congregate between my window and storm window in my home. Flies do not like peppermint oil. I use peppermint oil soaked cotton balls placed between my window and storm windows and haven't seen a fly since. I would refresh with a dropperful of peppermint oil every week.
I don't know if this will work for fruit flies but it was very effective for house flies.
sometimes they come with fresh fruit, Strawberry tarts seem to be really good at attracting them. I am sure you are cleaning the case daily and not leaving product in it overnight. The best thing is to have a refrigerated showcases at 40˚F and your fruit flies are history, a good practice is not to have carry over of inventory from day to day, the mint thing might keep fruit flies away but it may also flavour the other items in the showcase with a hint of mint which may be almost as big a problem as the fruit flies.
Gerhard