Etceteras: Homemade Fruit Fly Trap

Getting rid of fruit flies can be a problem. They hide, buzz around, annoy you and then hide again. You can try swatting at them but they’re hard to swat. I’ve tried different variations of fruit fly recipes over the years but they never worked for me. The fruit flies would seem interested in the different concoctions that I’d make but never be tempted enough to take a swan dive into the cup of liquid.

Then I saw a fruit fly trap post over at Chase the Star. It seems I was missing a very important secret ingredient - Apple Cider Vinegar. I went digging through the cupboards… regular vinegar, rice wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, white wine vinegar… drat, no apple cider vinegar. I put it on my grocery list but thought I’d try an experiment in the meantime.

If the fruit flies liked the apples and vinegar, I could make my own. I decided on the white wine vinegar. After all, I should at least let the fruit flies die happy in a little wine. I chopped up some apples to add to the vinegar. I wasn’t feeling confident so I incorporated ideas from other fruit fly trap recipes, sugar and a drop of dish soap (the soap makes the liquid slippery and harder for them to escape).

Most fruit fly traps use bottles with a paper funnel or a cup with cellophane and holes punched into it. The idea is you want the flies to go into the holes but not be able to escape easily. Here’s my a-ha moment. The white wine vinegar came in a shaker bottle. The tab at the top had little holes already in it. Plus, the bottle had a nice shape to it. This was no longer just a fruit fly mission, I could make the bottle cute.

Using a chalkboard printable I created a little label “Shoo Fly Shoo”.

To make it waterproof I used clear packing tape over the label. Come and get it fruit flies!

I won’t show you pictures of the poor dead flies but it really does work.

Thanks for visiting.

I link at the wonderful parties listed here.