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    Home » House Stuff

    This Fruit Fly Trap Catches 25X More Than Your Bowl of Vinegar Does

    July 3, 2025 by Karen 143 Comments

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    If you're dealing with a kitchen full of fruit flies and want to know exactly which DIY trap works best—welcome. This is where I shine. I tested four of the most common (and weirdest) homemade fruit fly traps, counted every single bug corpse and crowned a winner.

    Table of Contents

    • Best Fruit Fly Trap (I Counted Corpses)
    • The Methods I Tested
    • The Results (Ranked Worst to Best)
    • How to Make a Fruit Fly Trap that Works
    • Materials
    • Instructions
    • Fruit Fly Trap Video
    • Bonus Trap: For Bottle Flies (Not for the Weak)

    Best Fruit Fly Trap (I Counted Corpses)

    Tuesday night is garbage night round these parts. I have a regular garbage bin, a compost pile, a compost bin, a recycling box for metals and a recycling box for papers.

    When I was a kid getting rid of your garbage just involved rolling down the car window.

    That means I have compostable things like fruit and vegetables under my 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.  

    Like you, I have stretched cling film over a bowl of vinegar and punched holes in it with a fork. CAUSE THAT'S WHAT YOU DO WHEN YOU HAVE FRUIT FLIES.

    I thought so too until I set a glass of milk on the counter during fruit fly season.

     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.

    And so it began.

    The Methods I Tested

    🪰 Vinegar in a bowl

    The go-to, vinegar in a bowl with plastic film and fork holes was already on the counter.

    🪰 Milk

    I figured they must love milk so I set an open glass of milk on the counter.

    🪰 Vinegar Bottle

    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.

    🪰 Best DIY Fly Trap

    THEN I remembered about my DIY bottle fly trap & made a miniature version of it with vinegar as a bait in the bottom instead of rotting shrimp.

    The Results (Ranked Worst to Best)

    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.

    Would you like to save this stuff?

    We'll email you this post, so you can refer to it later.

    And here are the shocking results in order from least to most effective.

    #4.  MILK FRUIT FLY TRAP

    Pour milk in a glass and leave it on the counter.

    #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.

    #2. BOTTLE OF VINEGAR 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.

    #1.  MASON JAR WITH A PAPER CONE 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.

    How to Make a Fruit Fly Trap that Works

    Materials

    Instructions

    • Mason Jar
    • Sheet of paper
    • Stapler
    • Vinegar
    1. Make a cone out of paper leaving a small opening at the bottom of the cone for fruit flies to get through.
    2. Staple the cone together and cut off excess paper at the top.
    3. Pour vinegar into a mason jar.
    4. Place the cone in the jar making sure the bottom of it isn't touching the vinegar.

    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.


    Fruit Fly Trap Video

    This method for catching fruit flies blew the other methods out of the water and I suspect it would do the same to any store bought fruit fly traps.

    4 DIY fruit fly traps lined up on a counter with all the fruit flies each one caught over a 3 day period.

    Bonus Trap: For Bottle Flies (Not for the Weak)

    If you aren't sure how to do it or what it looks like here's my full tutorial on how to make a similar trap for bottle flies.


    The bait is more sickening: raw, rotting shrimp.

    Any kind of vinegar makes a good bait for fruit flies and as anyone who drinks knows ... so does wine.

    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".

    This Fruit Fly Trap Catches 25X More Than Your Bowl of Vinegar Does

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    1. Kathie

      July 09, 2025 at 4:41 pm

      Just used the cone method and cleaned up my fruit fly infestation in two days!
      Thanks, Karen

      Reply
      • Karen

        July 10, 2025 at 12:38 am

        Excellent! ~ karen

        Reply
    2. Paul Page

      July 08, 2025 at 10:18 pm

      Ok, you massacred a mass of fruit flies, but what about the common ordinary house fly. Does a cone & vinegar work also or is there another massacre/ slaughter idea? Speaking of slaughter, I remember fondly of an afternoon spent swatting dozens of flys in the house on our farm fully occupied by hogs, cows & chickens & kids who never could close the screen doors.
      Thank you for entertaining me with really great ideas.

      Reply
    3. Paul Page

      July 08, 2025 at 10:17 pm

      Ok, you massacred a mass of fruit flies, but what about the common ordinary house fly. Does a cone & vinegar work also or is there another massacre/ slaughter idea? Speaking of slaughter, I remember fondly of an afternoon spent swatting dozens of flys in the house on our farm fully occupied by hogs, cows & chickens & kids who never could close the screen doors.
      Thank you for entertaining me with really great ideas.

      Reply
    4. Sharon

      July 05, 2025 at 11:24 am

      Hi Karen, have you tried cinnamon sticks? Ants hate cinnamon so I tried putting cinnamon sticks in my fruit bowl and anywhere I tend to see fruit flies. I don’t seem to get them anymore. If I do, I replace the sticks with fresh ones and the flies disappear again.

      Reply
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    My name is Karen Bertelsen and I was a television host. In Canada. Which means in terms of notoriety and wealth, I was somewhere on par with the manager of a Sunset Tan in Wisconsin.

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