I understand that *most* people don’t want to set fruit fly traps up around their house and then count every single fruit fly to see which one is the best. But I do.
Tuesday night is garbage night round these parts. And Wednesday night and Thursday night and Friday night and Saturday night and Sunday night and Monday night and every night.
At least it feels that way. Stupid garbage. I have a regular garbage bin, a compost pile, a compost bin, a recycling box for metals and a recycling box for papers.
Whatever happened to the olden days when we used to just throw our garbage out the car window and it would magically disappear because we couldn’t see it anymore?
That means my compostables (fruits and vegetables) go under the sink for a week. When I pull the compost bin from under my sink, a planet of fruit flies has been known to rise up out of it. They then disperse with military precision around my kitchen. Their preferred assault positions are on the counter, the cupboards, and once, in my pretty, pretty hair.
I decided the best line of defence would be to dance around the kitchen flinging a tea towel at everything that moved but that didn’t work because the fruit flies were like fighter jets and my tea towel was like a sloth on Prozac.
The time they got in my hair I became particularly disgruntled and immediately set out a bowl with vinegar in it and stretched plastic wrap over the top. Punched a few holes in it with a fork and I was done. That’s the solution to fruit flies for a lot of people.
All of the stress from the fruit fly infestation required I have a stiff drink of milk. In the time it took to pour the milk and walk to the other end of the kitchen there was a fruit fly in it. I figured they must love milk so I set my glass of milk on the counter beside my regular fruit fly trap. Then I remembered that whenever I have fruit flies in the summer they always get into my vinegar bottle so I set that on the counter too. THEN I remembered about my DIY bottle fly trap from last year and made a miniature version of it with vinegar as a bait in the bottom instead of rotting shrimp.
And that is how the GREAT FRUIT FLY TRAP EXPERIMENT began.
I left the traps out for 3 days, which is how long it took to eliminate the fruit flies.
I then emptied the contents of each trap into a fine sieve, catching all the dead fruit flies, dried them on a piece of paper and started counting.
And here are the shocking results.
DIY Fruit Fly Traps
In order from least effective to most effective.
#4. MILK FRUIT FLY TRAP
Pour milk in a glass and leave it on the counter.
The milk probably would have caught a lot more fruit flies if it hadn’t turned to yogourt overnight creating a solid surface that the flies could just walk on. It was not an easy nor a fun job to sift out the fruit flies from coagulated, curdled milk.
Milk in a glass caught 7 fruit flies.
#3. VINEGAR IN A BOWL FRUIT FLY TRAP
Set a bowl of vinegar out and stretch plastic wrap across the top tightly. Punch holes in the plastic wrap with a fork or toothpick.
I think most of you probably know this method. It was always my go-to for fruit flies. It came in second to last in my fruit fly trap experiment.
Vinegar with plastic wrap caught 21 fruit flies.
#2. BOTTLE OF VINEGAR FRUIT FLY TRAP
Leave your vinegar bottle out on the counter. Don’t plan on using the fly filled vinegar in the near future unless you’re training to go on Survivor or something.
My old fashioned vinegar bottle caught the second most fruit flies.
Old fashioned vinegar bottle caught 34 fruit flies.
#1. MASON JAR WITH A PAPER CONE FRUIT FLY TRAP.
Roll a stiff piece of paper into a cone and fit it into a mason jar with vinegar in it. The cone should be quite close to the surface of the vinegar.
Yes. I know. Close your mouth, you’ll get fruit flies in it. I had the very same reaction when I saw how many flies this method caught. Once I counted them I WAS GIDDY AND NAUSEOUS.
Seriously.
Using a paper cone and mason jar worked THAT much better than all other DIY fruit fly trap methods. I sifted, dried and counted them.
This DIY method for catching fruit flies blows the other methods out of the water and I suspect it would do the same to any store bought fruit fly traps.
Had you told 16 year old Karen that she would make a pretty good living one day from drying and counting fruit flies she would have responded with a resounding “Yeah that sounds about right”.
If you aren’t sure how to do it or what it looks like here’s my full tutorial on how to make one of these traps.
Any kind of vinegar makes a good bait and as anyone who drinks knows … so does wine. But I found they seemed to be MOST attracted to Raspberry Red Wine Vinegar. It has all the components they love. Wine, Vinegar, and the sweetness of fruit. Plus it’s great in a salad dressing.
I’ll be emptying my compostable garbage a little more often for the rest of the summer.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some gathering to do, I’m guessing it’s garbage night again.
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I keep my compostables in an ice cream bucket in the fridge. Just sayin’
You have room in your fridge for an ice cream bucket??! I spent 1/2 hour last night rearranging my fridge just so I could fit in the cabbage rolls I just cooked, lol. ~ karen!
I have a worm bin RIGHT in my kitchen. And I am not careful about what I feed them. I throw a few granules of Bacillus Thurengensis israeliensis, BTi, aka mosquito granules, in the spray bottle I used to mist the scraps as I add them…it works great. It works on all types of fly. Throw a few in your houseplants and watch them become inhospitable to fungus gnats.
If this were a recipe it’d get 5 stars. Amazing! My fruit fly problems are no more. Thanks! Really!
Excellent! ~ karen
Gross as it is, I use those fly traps, you know, the sticky ones that you unroll and hang in the window and then watch the flies as they struggle to get off.. Sadistic, or what? But I loathe house flies almost as much as I loathe fruit flies so imagine my delight when I discovered that they (fruit flies, that is) are also caught on that. We live in the country with lots of farm and wild animals around us and have infestations of flies every summer. I also have a couple of bottles with cone shaped narrow necks that came with essential oil and sticks. Perfect because I can’t for the life of me do a proper paper cone and bottle thing. Between them, I have seldom got many live flying bugs of any kind. I use apple cider vinegar with a wee drizzle of dishwasher soap on top in the bottles and change the hanging strips once a week.
Canadian Tire has them and, I would think, most hardware stores.
Karen, I do this too! One day I came home from work and my husband had created this exact trap but he decorated it with little comic depictions of fruit flies and phrases such as “Fruit Fly Party! This way! (down arrow)” “welcome!” “Drinks! Friends! Free! Fun!” (I was very charmed and took a photo of this setup and I would post it here but can’t.) I have been proselytizing this method for years.
LOL. I’m going to HAVE to start drawing pictures on mine. ~ karen!
We will have to try this trap because we get a lot of fruit flies. We always try wine with soap in it. It works ok. Just wondering, how do you like your beautiful countertops after having them for a few years? Are you glad you went with butcher block?
Wine would work too. And I LOVEEEE my butcher block counters and yes I’m still incredibly happy I have them. :) ~ karen!
Freakin shocking and awesome too
I know, it’s all those things and more, lol! ~ karen!
“Once I counted them I WAS GIDDY AND NAUSEOUS“
🤣🤣🤣 OMG I seriously know what you mean. I was contemplating the work that it took and I was getting nauseated just thinking about it!!
Way to persevere for your loyal fans. Thank you from the bottom of my heart (and fruit fly-free home.)
I also add a little dish soap to my apple cider vinegar, but have never bothered shaking it. I just put it in one of those small shallow rectangular dishes meant to put condiments in and leave it on the kitchen counter. In a day or so it’s ready to rinse down the drain and refill if there are any still floating around. For some reason I am sickly compelled to count how many fruit flies are in there every time I walk by. Works like a charm!
I use clean wine corks to repel fruit flies. toss them in a bowl with your fruit or in a bowl near your scraps ….I have not seen a fruit fly for over 2 years now.
I left you five stars in the recipe rating for this one. Yummm.
Seriously, I don’t hate much, but I hate those bugs. On the flip, I love your cone idea because I have a daughter who sometimes loves to store half eaten apples in her room. Ugh.
My husband also loves artfully arranging platters of fresh fruit and veggies on our counter after we visit the farmers’ market. It’s very charming until there is a cloud of bugs hovering over and on it.
I both CAN and CAN’T wait to try your Olympic Fruit Fly Catcher. 🥇 🥇 🥇 for Canada!
I set my kitchen one up a couple of weeks ago and it’s working well again! I can’t say it’s caught hundreds of flies, but that time was a very special circumstance, lol. I hope I never have to catch hundreds of them again! ~ karen
I have great luck with the stuff that’s Supposed to attract wasps. At least my wasp traps are always full of flys, lol.
Now, if you can come up with an effective cricket bait and trap, I personally, would worship you as a goddess and nominate you for the Nobel prize.
Tomato harvest is nearly upon us (me) and you can betcha I’ll use the cone method!
Thanks for a great recipe – and a good laugh!
Lee Valley sells lovely fruit fly trap lids for mason jars. I got them last summer and they worked perfectly. I always seem to mess up the paper cone and have the hole too big or too small.
Karen, I use the YukChuk under my sink for compostables, seals tight, and I’ve never had issues with fruit flies or odors. And ya gotta love the product name! Here’s the link: https://amzn.to/3ayAImy
I use the Yuck Chuck too! Never ever a fruit fly! It is so easy to use and effective I bought one for my sister. I used to have a fruit fly problem.
I’ve figured out how to keep fruit flies out of the compost bin – line with newspaper and keep a lid on it. But still get fruit flies elsewhere in the kitchen, so will try the vinegar & mason jar cone.
Where the hell do they come from? I DO NOT HAVE FRUIT in the house, yet, I must have trapped over a thousand in the past 3 weeks. I’ve tried wine (works great) but I don’t want to pay to get those little bugger dead drunk! Plus it gets expensive. I’ve found a cheap method: white vinegar with some brown sugar mixed in. Works great. Only $2 total at the dollar store. Ok, can anyone answer how I got fruit flies when I don’t have fruit in the house? :(
Potatoes or Tomatoes?
Good Lord, woman, have you no SHAME?! To glory in the death of so many small creatures, completely ignoring the fact that they have feelings too, each with his/her own hopes and dreams! Don’t you have any conscience at all? I’m going to report you to PETA immediately!
A plastic bottle with a few holes in the lid (the cone is a better idea) with vinegar and a piece of banana in it cleaned up an infestation I had really quickly.
… and guess who happens to have raspberry wine vinegar?! No idea why let alone when I even bought it, but I ‘coned it’ . Hard to see if I’ll catch anything as the liquid is so dark. My bedroom is cooler so I keep my ripe tomatoes in there but the kitchen is like the devil’s armpit, so I placed another coned jar with white wine vinegar in there, just in case. I heard bananas were the worst to attract these bugs so I carefully wash them as soon as I bring them home. The bananas I wash, not the bugs.
ManOMan but that was some piddly counting. You must have needed a loup and long tweezers!
your timing is implacable, ma’am. as i’m reading your article, i’m constantly waiving my arms around me, shooing fruit flys away. lil buggers!!!
i set up your contraption right away and cannot wait to count their dead bodies in the morrow.
thanks again.
karin
My experiment has begun. However I seem to be challenged making a cone with a wide top and narrow bottom. And I always thought of myself as crafty.
Just two weeks ago I was swatting at fruit flies and the thought flitted across my mind- I should read up on the most efficient way to get rid of them……. Thanks for reading my mind!!
Yay! Thanks So much! Any magic potion to use on regular yucky-why-do-you-even-exist flies? ( we have ducks, so we have flies…lots of flies)
I was just about to look for ideas when this popped up in my news feed! A friend of ours suggested leaving out a fuzzy navel wine cooler. Might try both in jars with funnels, though I don’t get paid to count them, ha! Thanks for the info and humor!
Yup!..I believe you cause that’s the method I use..Hey!..that means..for once I could have taught you something…wow…I’m proud of me..and my pretty pretty hair..lol..
We keep our small compost bin in the bottom of the freezer with a liner bag. On garbage day, we just grab the bag and put it out in the bigger green bin for the curb. I haven’t had fruit flies in the house since…
It started off as a summer thing to keep the smell and bugs at bay but now we do it all year round. It also seems to have helped with the raccoons who used to always get into the bins overnight.
That’s what I do with the packaging from raw meat (the styrofoam trays and plastic wrap etc). It all goes in a bag in the freezer until garbage collection day. It has made a huge difference to the formerly stinky cans in the garage, especially when temps hit 30C and up!
Who knew? You Knew!
Thank you!
I believed you when I saw the photos. That you counted them – shows you really care. You follow through with an idea & have a great work ethic.
Seriously, I appreciate this. They showed up again a few days ago & I was about to do the saran wrap set up.
I have made these traps for years and thought they were the best…then one day, my son came home from McDonald’s and had left an apple juice glass (clear plastic glass with a clear plastic lid with the cuts in it for the straw) and it had caught way more fruit flies than my trap. So no I just use that, works like a charm!
That was one SERIOUS infestation of fruit flies. I can’t stand it when there’s anything upwards of half a dozen.
I would like to try a pair of tiny earrings made like this for my daily “walk the dog tribulation”. Some sort of buzzing gnat comes streaking out of the woods and straight into my ears. I can hear them coming and try to cover my ears but some beat me to it. No one else seems to have this problem. I know they aren’t gnats since they buzz and are a bit larger and heavier. I do bathe every single day! I have clean ears but apparently my brains have some odor that drives them wild. I have learned to put citronella into olive oil and smear it around my ears every time I go out. It works. My ears are soft and it smells good. But having it in tiny bottles that I just clip on seems like a better idea than stuffing cotton into my ears or pulling my T-shirt over my head like Beavis and Butthead. (which I have done) I’m thinking that hanging tiny bottles from my glasses might be the trick and you have inspired me along with the rotten shrimp trick – but I’ll stick to citronella. I don’t need to trap them just mask the odor of my brains. You are smart and active. Too many brilliant people don’t act on their ideas. You are my action hero.
Your pics of dead fruit flies were interesting on their own. The first one looks like The Big Dipper, the second like a dog on it’s side. After that they just look like mob scenes! I will be putting the directions on how to make the best trap in my Misc file–I hate fruit flies! Once again you have saved us from a terrible fate. Thanks, Karen!
Truly a handy experiment. Those buggers can get the best of you if you don’t act quickly…..but even better is the visual I will be thinking about all day…. “a sloth on Prozac”!!! Thanks Karen!!
I like the fact that you were able to keep all of the fruit flies intact, albiet for a few fruit fly bits in photo #2. Lol.
that’s Karen … a true artiste!
Thanks for noticing Mo, lol. I was pretty proud of that myself. ~ karen!
I use the red wine vinegar also,but add a drop or two of dish soap. Put a lid on it, shake it till bubbly, then remove the lid. They land on the bubbles and cannot get out, eventually sinking to the depths of the vinegar to their bubbly death.
Then, there was the bald face hornet trap, using the shop vac. They were nesting inside the soffit overhang in my house. Great entertainment, it was. If anyone is interested, I can give details.
Yup, I got a nest of ants out of a small hole in my wall with the hose attachment of my Dyson vacuum. It’s a great vacuum AND entertainment!
I’ll bite; what are the details?
We filled the tank halfway with water and a good splash of bleach, and then put the hard extension on the end of the hose and duct taped it to the downspout with the hose right at the opening where the lil buggers were coming and going (not without a bite or two ) and waited for early dusk. Once we saw that they were coming back for the night, we turned on the vac. When they flew toward the opening the vac, it sucked them into the tank to drown. Once it was dark we’d turn off the vac for the night. Over 3 days we trapped several hundreds of them each day. Sorry, but I did not get an exact count. lol We learned that the neighbors didn’t notice the vac running a couple hours each night, either.
Now that DOES sound like fun! ;-) Per Jeff Foxworthy, “You might be a redneck if you consider a six-pack and a bug zapper to be quality entertainment.” I don’t know where you’re from. but at heart, this little old LA gal (that’s Los Angeles!) appreciates the simple joys in life!
That emoji is supposed to be winking, not frowning. Oh darn, now all sorts of people will flame us for our idea of entertainment. Which reminds me, time for me to flame Karen – murderous wretch!
Mmmmm – wonder if it will work for ordinary South African horrible, disgusting, in your summer face flies!!
Must give that a bash and see if it works.
PS: You have a lot of patience counting all those dead fruit flies….. #just saying :-)
I should be asleep since it’s past 1am here but I’m lying in bed cruising my iPad cuz I hab a code and I can’t freekin’ stop sneezing. And I keep having to wipe off the screen. Well that’s a disgusting image. Sorry. What was the topic? Oh yeah, fruit flies. So what I wanna know is where the heck do they come from? One day they’re not there and the next it’s an invasion of the little buggers. That’s all I got for now. Maybe I’ll go get me some Jack Daniels to help me sleep and catch some flies too . . . win, win. Night night.
Their eggs ride home from the store on your fruit, usually. :P
The cone trap so what I use, too. Da best!
And here all along I thought you were supposed to use honey to catch more flies. ?
Ants. Ants are what I need help with. Those bastards come in and help themselves to everything in my kitchen which isn’t hermetically sealed. I fear I might be featured one night on the 6:00 news after burning down my house in an effort to get rid of them. (I’d do it if I thought it would work.)
Try sprinkling some cornmeal where the ants are coming in — they drag it back to the nest and then starve to death because they cannot digest it. I used it on a huge nest in my lawn — I mean like 18 inches across — and it worked. These were the large black ants (they would bite me whilst I was trying to garden. Ouch!). Cornmeal also prevents weeds seeds (or any seeds ) from sprouting, too.
Haven’t tried that yet. Thanks!
I use Dr. Bronner’s liquid peppermint soap to keep ants out. I mix it with a little water and spray it where they come in and they stay away. Makes your house smell nice and is non-toxic!
I’ve used peppermint oil, but so far it only makes them reroute, or they leave for a day and then come right back. They’re persistent.
Plain cinnamon has worked for me. Also cleaning up with orange oil based cleaners has helped. Treating your yard and house surround with beneficial nematodes as well as keeping an organic lawn care program including supplementing the microbial soil food with molasses can help quite a bit. (Odd as that last bit may sound, it has been observed in field trials of non related study)
Interesting. I’ll try it. Thanks!
Diatomaceous earth, food grade. Dust it all over. Bugs can’t touch it.
you can also use baby powder
I usually keep a jar of vinegar with a pump or two of soap mixed into it on the counter for flies. It keeps the numbers way down but there are usually still a bunch buzzing around this time of year. But no more! I bought an electric flyswatter off amazon and hunted those buggers down with glee! Best $10 I have ever spent. Now whenever my two year old hears the zap of a fly biting the dust she exclaims “I got it!” for me.
I have a decanter (with a pouring dispenser spout). It contains some old ice wine that I use in place of sherry for cooking. I made the mistake of leaving it on the counter – discovered it is also very effective at trapping the little bugs.
Nice dedication though – counting the flies for us ;-)
Great tip! Great timing…again. Canned peaches and made salsa this weekend so I have a ‘few’ fruit flies around.
You know what else the little bastards like? Tequila with ruby red grapefruit juice. Evidently they like to share drinks with me too. I stopped drinking that mix because they love it so much.
Some might say that you have a bit too much time on your hands, counting fruit flies and all. Just sayin’.
Yeah, but she does it for a living. How many of us envy her for that?
Or some might say, WOW. I wish I was so smart that I could actually make a living by doing something as easy as counting fruit flies. ;) ~ karen!
Well that was a joke that clearly landed on its arse. My apologies, Karen.
Oh I knew it was! Not to worry! ~ karen!
having a mouth that every time it opens says something at some point that lands on its arse I found this ooops explanation priceless and one that I will keep in mind the next time I decide to give my adult offspring advice or a friend an opinion re: what I think about anything she has just bought or dated or read etc.!
Hi Judy, love your comment. You and Karen are very gracious. I, on the other hand, need to stick to my day job. Cheers, Ardith
I’m darn glad we don’t have fruit fly here, but I admire your dedication. Now if someone could figure out how to keep ants out of the house… and don’t tell me about sugar traps, because these tiny monsters just laugh at them. They eat MEAT. Yep, they’d probably carry us away if we stayed still long enough and I’m sure they’ll be back this summer.
Hi Heidi
Sprinkle corn flour where your ants are. Non-toxic to us and pets, and ants love it. They’ll cart it back to their nest, eat it, and peg off as they can’t digest it! You’ll need to do it for ab out 2 weeks to ensure you get them all.
I’ll try that… nothing else has ever worked, so I may as well. I swear the whole of Hobart is on a giant ant hill, though. The wet winter may have slowed them down a bit!
CINNAMON works wonders