You get home from the market, your bags bursting with beautiful fruits and veggies for the week. You stack the fruit bowl high with apples, peaches, tomatoes, bananas, and all of your family’s favorite produce, ready to be grabbed for a quick healthy snack. You stand back for a moment, admiring your preparation and give yourself a mental pat on the back for being so on top of the healthy ball.
You wake up in the morning, ready to enjoy some of that bountiful fruit. When you walk into the kitchen to grab your morning banana, you notice someone has beat you to the fruit bowl for breakfast. Fruit flies! And lots of them!
Guys, fruit flies are jerks. They move into your house (uninvited) overnight and then chow down on all your pretty produce. Plus, they never seem to see when they have overstayed their welcome! Once they have killed one week’s worth of fruits and veggies, they buzz around your kitchen, landing on whatever bit of food you leave unattended for only a moment. Fruit flies have become the bane of my existence this summer, but luckily, I have a deadly party favor for them.
Everything you need to make a quick, easy, and super effective fruit fly trap is probably already kicking around your house. No need to buy fancy sprays or pre-made traps. You can make this killer (pun intended) trap on your own in just minutes. Deadly for the fruit flies, but not for anyone else who wants to eat your fruit.
Literally, all the goodies that you need to make your own fruit fly trap are pictured above. That’s it. All that is standing between you and reclaiming your kitchen from the annoying fruit flies is:
apple cider vinegar
a few drops of dish soap
a mason jar (or any drinking glass will do)
a piece of paper,
tape
a pair of scissors
a small piece of fruit (optional)
To construct your fruit fly trap:
1. Pour some apple cider vinegar into your jar/glass. How much will depend on how big your jar/glass is. You just need enough vinegar at the bottom of the container for the fruit flies to drown in.
2. Now add a few drops of dish soap to the vinegar. The dish soap breaks the surface tension of the vinegar so that fruit flies can’t just get out and fly away.
3. Drop a small piece of fruit into the vinegar/dish soap mixture. This step is optional, though it does help in the effectiveness of the trap. The fruit flies are attracted to the smell of the fruit and will (thus) end up in your trap that much easier. However, they seem to end up in the trap just fine even if you don’t put the fruit in. So, decide for yourself if you are willing to sacrifice a strawberry for the sake of a fruit fly free home.
4. Fold your piece of paper into a funnel and tape it so it holds its shape. If you are using a small jar/glass, you may need to give your piece of paper a bit of trip so that it doesn’t end up in the vinegar itself. Place the funnel in the opening of the glass/jar so that the small opening of the funnel sits right above the vinegar. Fruit flies will wander into your trap via the funnel but their teeny little fruit fly brains will prevent them from being about to figure out how to escape the same way. Another optional step is to tape the paper funnel to the jar/glass so that the fruit flies can’t escape out the side and so that the funnel stays put.
5. Ta-da! Your fruit fly trap is constructed! Now place it next to your produce bowl and watch as those annoying fruit thieves fall in by the masses. This trap should be good for about a week before it needs to be changed out.
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