Get Rid Of Fruit Flies! {DIY Fruit Fly Trap}
Hey, hey! I don’t know about y’all, but we have had a fruit fly outbreak. I want to get rid of fruit flies because they’ve been multiplying around here more quickly than bunny rabbits.
A few years ago we used sticky fly traps, but they are so redneck and I didn’t really want to use them again. {blush} I decided to give another fruit fly trap method a try. It worked. So very well. And most of you probably have all the supplies needed already. Win-win!
This funny looking contraption is amazing!
It is so incredibly easy to make your own Fruit Fly Trap. You need:
- A jar {the quart size worked great, but something smaller should as well}
- An 8.5 x 11″ sheet of paper
- Apple cider vinegar
- Dawn liquid dish detergent
Pour 2/3 of a cup of apple cider vinegar into the jar. Squirt the dish detergent into the jar. I added an extra squirt for good measure. 😉
Swirl the liquid around to mix.
Make a cone out of the paper and stick it in the jar. You don’t want the paper to touch the liquid. It’s just there to trap flies in the jar before they face their demise in the apple cider vinegar/soap mixture. Bwahaha!
Place your DIY Fruit Fly Trap on the kitchen counter and let it do it’s magic.
Next time you want to get rid of fruit flies remember this quick and easy trick. And here’s proof that this crazy thing works. See the swarm of fruit flies in the bottom? Ewww. I’m SO glad to be rid of those pests.
Tell me, Do y’all have fruit flies in abundance? Have you ever tried this homemade fruit fly trap before?
xoxo
Myra
Sharing at: I’m Lovin’ It, Chic & Crafty.
Isn’t it great to have a good natural remedy? So glad it worked because fruit flies are the worst.
Jen (Balancing Beauty and Bedlam)´s last blog post ..How To Extend the Life of Berries by Weeks
If you trying to get rid of fruit flies – try different types of traps, mix it.
Never heard of this tip, but what a great idea! I hate fruit flies–pesky things! So glad to know about this.
Richella @ Imparting Grace´s last blog post ..Blue Ribbon Mac and Cheese
I recently had an infestation of fruit flies; it gave me the “hebie-gebies”!!! I almost cried. I did 4 different cups with natural apple cider vinegar ( they like it better than the processed vinegar you get in stores). I poured about an inch of vinegar, added some sugar and some dish soap (as they said on YouTube). Tight plastic wrap; with a bunch of holes; big enough to get in. They? stayed on top of wrap; but many were inside…not too impressed; they didn’t just die. Over a few hours…dead. They die from a lack of oxygen; humans do it too. I also hung about 10 fly strips; they really worked. I also continuously left two open bowls of vinegar ( about a half inch); I left them about 40 minutes. I slowly took a piece of plastic wrap and surrounded the bowl and then covered the bowl; pressing around the bowl to keep them in. I then swished the bowl around to drown them. I put in toilet, rinsed, wiped off and did the same routine about 12 times. I thought they came from bananas, but they actually came from a recent loaf of bread that I bought at the store; totally sealed and unopened. Obviously not sealed. Obviously the bread came with fruit fly eggs along with faulty packaging. In order to keep any fruit flies from being around and also laying eggs is extremely easy to do. A wine bottle with about an inch of wine at the bottom. The flies smell decay and fly into the bottle. Since the wine is fermenting, it gives off a gas; which is heavier than oxygen; which equals “dead”! They can’t get out because they die of afficiation. A tall beer bottle of old beer may work too. You just want to attract ( any possible) fruit flies before they duplicate. After dealing with this epidemic all day, they are 90% gone. Yay!!! Try my suggestions, they obviously worked…thank God!!! I was about to seal off my kitchen…lmao. later.
Maybe they were pantry moths. Good thing you got rid of them. They can do a LOT of damage. being from the bread I’d say flour or pantry moths.
Garlic helps.
They literally disappear.
Try it.
We’ve used this several times, but they kept coming back. Until I was told to pour bleach and HOT water down every drain in the house. Apparently, this is where they breed. So we did the vinegar & soap mix and when the air had cleared of fruit flies sufficiently, we poured 1/2 cup of bleach and 2 cups of nearly boiling water down the drains. Voila! All done!
Aubrey´s last blog post ..He’s Two
make sure you don’t use bleach in your drains if you have a septic tank
We have used both ACV and a little bit of left over red wine – both work great! I will add that you may need to use some tape where the cone meets the glass to get a tight fit or they will get out.
Keeping the drains clean is also very important to the process of getting rid of the little buggers!
is there a less potent cleaning solution for drains?
Vinegar and hot water dies the same
Would this help with regular old flies too? Seems to be more in California than usual this year.
Yes, this worked great for me too! I actually used a shallow bowl and no paper cone–the soap broke the surface tension of the vinegar and the flies couldn’t stand on top of it so they just drowned. But if that ever doesn’t work, I’ll definitely try the cone 🙂 Your blue jar is so pretty!
Diana´s last blog post ..Chocolate-Peanut Butter Pretzel Sandwiches
If you have a lot of fruit flies, start by vacuuming them first. That gets the numbers down and the flytrap can get the rest.
What a great idea to use the paper cone! I always just use a shallow bowl but sometimes they get smart and don’t fly into the vinegar.
Kathy´s last blog post ..Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
ugh fruit flies are so annoying! thanks for this great tip, I’m sure I’ll be using it this year!
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I use this method but in a bowl with plastic wrap over the top and poke holes in it. I am amazed everytime I do this at how well it works! People are amazed when I show them how many it traps.
This works perfectly!!!!!
I hate fruit flies!! Very annoying!! They like cat food and that is what causing these pesky pests. Thats for the tip!! I am going to try this.
I just did this and it worked so great!
I have had fruit flies like never before this year and my kids are blaming me because I bought flightless fruit flies for some praying mantises I had for my class. I just made the mixture, so I can’t wait to see how it works (along with the bleach). We vacuum everyday because we have two dogs already. Thank you so much for the tip! So excited. I keep looking to see if I caught anything yet.
Does regular vinegar work?
I’ve never tried regular vinegar. I think the ACV works because of the sweetness of it.
Hey,
I use the same thing (pretty much) but I just pour straight coke into the jar (about all coke is good for!) and it seems to do the job.
You’re welcome.
I used rice wine vinegar and that seemed to work just as well
I am going to try this, and set the jar right next to my fruit bowl, so hopefully they will choose the jar and not the fruit!
Great idea indeed. Just wanted to clarify a few things-
Do you leave an opening o the bottom of the paper cone to let the
fruit flies go inside the jar?
What makes them not to fly out ?
Apple cider vinegar has an attractive smell, but what is the function of the liquid soap ?
Thanks
Yes, you leave an opening at the bottom of the cone. The cone makes it very difficult for the flies to get out. The soap is to kill them when they get in the water. 🙂
The soap simply breaks the surface tension of the vinegar. Otherwise, the little hairs on the fruit fly legs let them stand on the vinegar, and then they can fly away.
My husband made a trap similar to this. I simply put cider vinegar in a small flat dish and added a couple of drops of soap. Both the trap and the dish were in the same room. The flat dish caught more flies than the trap. We tried this over several days – he feeds wingless fruit flies to his dart frogs, and one batch wasn’t wingless – and the flat dish with nothing on top continued to catch more flies. Regular white vinegar will work, too, but the aroma of the ACV seems to attract the flies better. The hint about keeping sink drains clean is essential for keeping fruit flies under control.
I just use straight ACV in a small juice glass. Works like a charm.
a 12 0z soda bottle with any liquid with a sweet smell (water with a teaspoon of sugar) will do the same thing
Wonder if something similar could work for yellow jackets? They drive me crazy raiding my hummingbird feeders!
I used this last year for the first time except I used a small shallow dish. Put some apple cider vinegar in there and as soon as I put a couple drops of dish soap, the fruit flies were flying in the dish. I used Dawn the first time but I’ve used other types as well — now I only had about 20 fruit flies (yes I counted) but if you had lots I would use this method with the jar and the paper cone. Very effective …
Think this would work outside? We just bought a house with a few fruit trees in the back yard, but the previous owners didn’t care for the yard much, and there’s rotting fruit everywhere with fruit flies in abundance. I was hoping to clean up the rotting fruit, and then trap the little buggers before they can get to the new fruit that I haven’t picked yet. I just want to get the population down to a manageable size.
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It might! Let me know if you try it! 🙂
i like using a dark colored mug instead of a clear bottle or jar…then you can’t see all the dead bodies in it quite so well…
What is the purpose of the dish soap?
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Someone before commented above that it breaks the surface of the ACV and the flies drown. I always thought it poisoned them… however it works, it does work! I’ve been doing this for a few years in a shallow bowl w/o a cover. But, if you can’t stand the smell of ACV I suggest using plastic wrap and poke a few holes in the top to trap them. Best of both worlds.
Thanks. I like the plastic wrap idea.
Brenda´s last blog post ..The Writing of a Love Story, Part 2
I’ve done the plastic wrap cover with small no-bigger-than-toothpick holes poked, and I’ve literally seen them climb in, then out.
The cone works best because they are attracted to the ACV, yet can’t find the small opening near the bottom, and they have a “fright-flight” to go “up” and can’t get out when the cone is taped to the jar or vase.
To kill the fruit flies. 🙂 The ACV attracts them and the dish soap does the rest.
great tip, thanks!
Diane {Created by Diane}´s last blog post ..Oatmeal Cinnamon Cake
I love seeing these ideas!
We did ours using a wine bottle. It works great and fits right into any kitchen decor.
http://www.simplydixon.com/2013/06/19/wine-bottle-fruit-fly-trap/
Jeremy´s last blog post ..Wine Bottle Fruit Fly Trap
Tried it….it worked! Thanks for the idea!
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Wonderful!!!
I started having problems with fruit flies this last week and remembered this post! Tried it and it worked!! Thanks!
I seem to have fruit flies all the time. I took an empty salsa jar, punched a few holes in the lid and fill it with AVC and refresh the ACV every few days. I’ve never use the soap but the FFs can’t get back out of the holes so eventually they just die away. I am totally going to try the bleach in the drains thing though, I’ve not heard that so thanks to whoever it was above who gave that tip!
This really works! And its fast! Those little buggers were driving me cray! Thanks for the drain info as well, I had no idea!
Thank you so much for this post! I found it at such a needed time. We recently had water in our basement, and now we’re over run with fruit fly’s. So I’ve now bleached the drains and put out a few of your traps. So hoping they work.
I have use this for 2 to 3 yrs i just use a small jar lid and put the ACV and dawn and work very good but now i need to do the sinks.
I read about this remedy: put a cup of apple cider vinegar and a squirt I’d liquid dishwashing soap in a bowl. Flies will visit the vinegar. The soap somehow keeps them in there, where they drown. Ii’s simple, cheap, and quite effective.
This actually works. My glass is full of fruit flies and my fruit is not. Thanks.
We’ve had a horrible outbreak of fruit flies in my office. I remembered this post and have made a trap using a tall bud vase, Dawn and sugar water. There is a pretty pink bow tied around the vase which I’m hoping will attract them as well! I’ll let you know how it goes.
Turns out what we have is an outbreak of fungus gnats from infected plants not fruit flies. But this works for them as well! I ended up getting some apple cider vinegar after all and we set three traps. So far we have caught 90+!
We did the same thing with the cone but we used Crushed apples and bananas in the bottom. That drew them in pretty good.
oh i just hate fruit flies after i got stuck in the car with them for 2 hours. Hundreds of fruit flies in a tight space is not fun.
I put all the ingredients in a small spice bottle, the kind with small holes on the top . You can leave it on the counter or put a few around the kitchen. No one will know you are trying to kill bugs. It just looks like a spice bottle on the counter.
Thanks for this great tip! Can’t wait to try it out!
Will any dish soap work?
Q:
you said Apple Cider Vinegar(ACV)….
what about fruit juice? suga water?
We do not use ACV in or around the house, only the white vinegar, & that’s only IF, if I have made enough for the year…
I have heard of this, but never tried it…never had a reason to…still don’t but it’s nice to know regardless.
Just what I needed to find! I’ve been using white vinegar and that worked really well for a while but then they speed going to it. Hopefully the cider vinegar and soap will do the job!
Nice blog post. We built our own variation of this for outdoors in the UK 🙂
http://www.weeksfamilyeco.org/blog/2015/april/fly-catcher-deployment/
Yes, this worked nice on behalf of me too! I truly used a shallow bowl and no paper cone–the soap stone-broke the physical phenomenon of the vinegar and also the flies couldn’t stand on prime of it so that they simply sunken . however if that ever doesn’t work, I’ll undoubtedly strive the cone.
I used this method for fungus gnats in plants. They look like fruit flies. Anyway it worked. I also planted a few beans in a pot near the house plants and the gnats got caught on the underside of the leaves of the bean plants because they’re sticky underneath…have that fuzzy sticky hairy looking things on the bottom. It also resulted in a few home grown green beans 🙂
I found a quick & effective way to eliminate fruit flies. Get out the SHOP VAC!!!!
Hi, I’m having it bed we have a very bad infestation. I’m using the traps. But I also need to something extra. I have heard that bounce dryer sheets help to deter all types of bugs, like roaches, bed bugs, flying insects and of course gnats. How can I use dryer sheets to get rid of them in my home
Also is there a safe solution I can make to spray them with, that can be sprayed on skin, furniture, kitchen area? See I don’t want to have to put everything away. I just want to spray and kill, then clean up. I hope you can understand exactly what it is I’m asking for. Thanks you in advance.
This article incorporates ideas on how we can thriftily avoid flies which may contaminate our food and causes us to get ill.
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Thanks for the information. I really like the way you express complex topics in a lucid way. It really helps me understand it in a much better way.
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