I hate fruit flies! They’re really easy to attract. Some fruit left a little too long, an escaped grape or blueberry, or just really hot humid weather and every day food. If you don’t want fruit flies to keep reoccurring, you must clean up the source. I find that once I figure out the main attraction, if I use vinegar and water, that is sufficient to clean up the source. However, you must get rid of the live flies if you want the problem to go away.
While Jon loves to use an electric tennis racquet shaped fly zapper, I like my way better of getting rid of fruit flies.
The morning after
You need:
- Small bowl or custard cup
- Apple cider vinegar
- Dish soap
1. Put the apple cider vinegar at least and inch or two deep in your container.
2. Add a few drops of dish soap.
3. Leave out overnight.
In the morning, voila, lots of dead flies in the bottom of the bowl.
The reason this works is the fruit flies are attracted to the sweetness in the apple cider vinegar. The dish soap breaks the surface tension of the vinegar, so the flies land on the liquid and instead of standing on the surface, they fall in.
I have found sites that say you have to stretch plastic wrap over top and poke holes in it. I did a side by side comparison and found that the bowl with no cover was more effective.
Comparing traps with and without plastic wrap
I have found that this works wonders. However, new ones will show up if you do not get rid of whatever is attracting them.
Happy greening!
Alicia
Related posts: Getting the Ants Out – Naturally!
Pistachio Project’s Simply Natural Saturdays
I wouldn’t argue in favor of using plastic wrap over soap, but it’s hardly fair to do a side-by-side comparison. The plastic wrap will be a barrier to odor, so the flies will obviously be more attracted to the uncovered cup. To demonstrate that one technique is actually better than the other would require two trials with the same fruit fly population on different days (or in different rooms).
Have to agree that your side by side comparison isn’t very fair. The hole in your plastic wrap is too big. They will fly right out.
I have used both method with the same results. I have opted to skip the plastic wrap because I’m lazy! LOL one less step.
It’s the warm season here and i enjoy sumemr fruits. I’m no Martha Stewart so left over fruits are in the garbage and there are bananas on counter, etc. The fruit flies are legion this year. I hate to use RAID for such a tiny lot, but they are so thick right now! if i can help it, i don’t want to keep running to the nasty outside garbage cuz i fill big plastic bags it would not be practical or that sanitary either. What can i do to deter / kill off these pests (they don’t even care that much if there is food they congregate on white surfaces, etc. So Annoying!)Please don’t say a 10-gauge cuz they are much too quick for that. Thanks in advance. If there is nothing natural, then please tell me what you have used that is MILD and maybe not as strong as RAID. Thanks!TANKS for these great suggestions!fluffernut interesting, never heard this one. thanks. i was bout to bomb the house with something disgusting like that and leave so, yeah, good tip.
Thank you for sharing this! We had a fruit fly outbreak last summer and it was a total nightmare! This looks super easy and natural. We also have one of the tennis racket bug zappers and my husband tried it on the fruit flies too, I agree your vinegar/soap method is better!
annie @ montanasolarcreations
Not only that, it is also easy to prepare. You don’t have to run out of your house house to get the materials needed because they are right in your kitchen. With this method, you can definitely succeed on how to get rid of fruit flies in your house.
I’ve used the plastic wrap method with great success. The good news is, you can dump and recover with the same sheet of plastic wrap. I have a few variations though:
I use apple cider vinegar with a dash of fruit juice or (and this is fantastic) remnants of whatever one was just had or the old wine no one wants to drink.
Second, I put the plastic wrap tightly over the cup so it is taut. I poke 1 hold with a toothpick and move the toothpick around a little to stretch the hole slightly bigger.
We had a bad stint with fruit flies last year due to the openness of our house, and this method worked wonders! The wine was a huge draw for them!