Lemons And Cloves Might Be All You Need To Solve This Common Kitchen Problem.

Before plug-in repellents and neon flytraps, kitchens kept their own food-safe line of defense. Lemons studded with cloves have been set around and hung in pantries for centuries. They look decorative, almost festive, but they're performing a valid service backed up by chemistry. Citrus peel releases limonene, and cloves contain eugenol, two volatile oils that flies can't stand due to their sensitive smellers, as they use odor to help navigate. Together, they form an aromatic miasma that overloads and short-circuits the tiny olfactory hairs insects rely on to find food. To us it smells pleasant, clean, and festive; to flies it smells perilously overwhelming. Talk about a great hack to keep bugs out of your kitchen.

Recipes for clove-studded fruit, called pomanders, appear in European manuscripts from the Middle Ages, when folks pressed cloves into oranges or lemons to perfume clothing and ward off illness. Kitchens kept the habit long after the plague left town, probably because it's cheap and effective. A halved lemon pierced with a few cloves works in the same way those pomanders did: the volatile oils in the spice slightly preserve the fruit, keeping it fragrant longer. Once set out by a fruit bowl or window, it stays potent for several days before drying into a miniature sculpture of a naturally scented pest deterrent. Plus, you can use the other half of the lemon to clean the rest of your kitchen.

Perfume with a purpose

Making one of these fly-keep-aways is about as easy as it gets. Slice a lemon in half or into thick rounds, press whole cloves onto the surface, and leave it somewhere that attracts gnats or fruit flies. As the lemon dries, its surface releases limonene vapor, and each clove (wetted and activated by the lemon juice) leaks eugenol. The smell might be strong at first, then mellows to a subtle, resinous, clean background aroma. You'll know it's time to replace it when it shrivels completely or starts to look gray. If you're in an especially warm, humid environment, the fruit may just mold, so sadly, your climate isn't right for this method.

If it reminds you of Christmas, it's because this is the same chemistry that gives traditional pomanders their spice-shop warmth. Folk medicine recipes have long implemented similar mixtures of citrus peel, vinegar, and herbs like wormwood, rosemary, mugwort, and lavender as vermifuges, compounds meant to repel pests and parasites alike. Cinnamon scattered on counters is still used to keep sugar ants away.

Bay leaves dropped into flour jars discourage pantry moths. Coffee grounds deter mosquitoes when rubbed on outdoor tables. There are many common pantry staples to keep pests away from the olden days that might seem archaic, but they're actually nontoxic, effective, and accessible