“I’ll be darned. I’ve been looking for something to get rid of my fruit fly infestation and absolutely nothing has worked. But I set up your vinegar/dish soap combo in my kitchen this afternoon and I have nearly 20 dead flies in the bowl!” ~Jessica
It’s that time of year again… fruit fly season. They are EVERYWHERE and they are so GROSS, and such a nuisance.
I don’t know if “fruit fly season” is a real thing, but here in my little part of the world, fruit flies arrive in abundance during the summer months (and September and October). Getting rid of them before they take over our house is a challenge every year.
After trying a few different fruit fly traps, I’ve found the one that works best for me.
This fruit fly trap will help you eliminate fruit flies from your house in no time at all.
MATERIALS:
- small glass bowl
- ‘fermented’ vinegar (apple cider, balsamic, wine vinegar) or a sweeter wine. My personal favorite is white wine vinegar.
- dish soap
How to Make the Fruit Fly Trap
1. Fill the bowl about 3/4 full with the vinegar or wine.
White vinegar or plain fruit juice doesn’t work very well to attract the fruit flies. Fruit flies are attracted to, feed from, and lay eggs on rotting, fermenting fruit/vegetables, so it’s necessary to have something that’s undergone a fermenting process. If all you have on hand is fruit juice, you can add some chopped-up bits of rotting banana to the mix, which will help lure the flies to your trap.
2. Put a small drop of dish soap on your finger and gently swirl your soapy finger on the surface of the vinegar.
Why the need for dish soap? Fruit flies are small enough that the surface tension of the liquid can support their weight, so usually, they can land on a liquid and not fall in. Dish soap breaks the surface tension, so the fruit flies drop into the vinegar and drown. Yipee!
3. Make sure you remove ALL fruit from your counters or fruit bowls
The only source of temptation for the fruit flies must be your bowl of vinegar.
4. Put the ‘bowl of death’ on a window ledge, counter, table… your floor even.
The fruit flies will be drawn to the fermenting smell (thinking it’s food), land on the booby-trapped vinegar, and fall to their demise.
(Insert evil laugh here)
5. Sit back, coffee in hand, and enjoy your reclaimed kitchen – it no longer belongs to the flies but to you!
I can’t tell you how much joy it brings me to see the bowl filling up with little dead fruit flies. Weird? Maybe. But if you’ve had a fruit fly infestation in your house, you know that same giddy feeling of discovering that the little pests are no longer hovering around your bowl of salsa and nachos but instead “resting peacefully” in your little death trap.
Oh, and for the record, even though I love to kill the fruit flies in my house, I am not an ‘insect hater’. I love and greatly respect the insect world and know their value to our earth and environment. I just had to get that cleared up.
While I have been using your “recipe”, my container differs from yours. I use an empty 16.9 Oz. water bottle. Discard the cap and cut around the bottle just above the straight side where it begins to narrow. Cut the bottle side down and around a little more than half way and discard the cut piece. Done! Now put your “recipe” in and turn the funnel shaped piece on top, making sure that it doesn’t touch the liquid. Works like a charm and I have even caught flies in it.
Thanks for the idea!!
My sister-in-law gave me this tip. Put the mixture in a small jam jar with a pencil-sized hole in the lid. You can put it on a window sill, or on a patio table. The mixture does not evaporate so quickly.
I’ll be darned. I’ve been looking for something to get rid of my fruit fly infestation and absolutely nothing has worked. But I set up your vinegar/dish soap combo in my kitchen this afternoon and I have nearly 20 dead flies in the bowl!
Awesome, pays to try someone’s recipe , I love it💯👏
You’re a lifesaver. Thank you!
Does this work for regular flies?
Allesia, I have found the occasional regular house fly in the vinegar solution, but I don’t think it would eliminate an infestation of them, as they’re typically not drawn to fermenting fruit.
Do I need to change the bowl, and if so, how frequently?
Marie, you only need to change the bowl if you find the collection of dead fruit flies unsightly. You will notice that, due to evaporation, the liquid level in the bowl will decrease – I often just pour in a little more white wine vinegar to top it up.
Can you eventually put your fruit back out on the counter?
Robin, yes you can eventually put your fruit back on the counter… at least here where we only have fruit flies during the warmer months of the year. If you live in a location where fruit flies thrive all the time, you might have to keep your fruit tucked away!
Omgg this is working wonders they’re all attracted to the bowl and im so excited! I can’t wait till they’re all home!
I had a problem with fruit flies but couldn’t find the source. They had become quite a problem in my bathroom! I finally called an exterminator out of desperation. He told me that they were not fruit flies, but DRAIN FLIES! He said I could deal with the problem myself by using a bottle brush to scrub the inside of my drains. Goo tends to build up on drain walls and the flies lay eggs in the goo. Get rid of the goo and no more flies! He said that after brushing down the drain walls, I should follow up with bleach. “Fruit” flies have a source. If you don’t have fruit lying around, consider your kitchen drains as a possible source for these annoying insects. I regularly scrub down my drains, and don’t need to use bleach.
Drain flies (gag)… they sound worse than fruit flies! I’ll be doing a scrub down of my drains for sure. Thanks Nancy!
Thank you so much! Found this on Pinterest and within 30 minutes there were 7 floating in the bowl. As soon as I put the bowl out I could see them flocking to it. I didn’t even realize there were seven flies in the house! I thought we had three or four pesky ones. Can’t wait to see how many we catch by the end of the day!
Should I use balsamic vinegar or a chocolate wine? Those are my two choices! Thank you!
Balsalmic vinegar would work best, I’d say! – Crystal
We’ve had a ton of fruit flies over the past month! SO gross! My hubby set up a trap, but it hasn’t been working the best. Hopefully this one will! Thanks for sharing!
WOW! Within 2 minutes, I saw a “casualty” and I almost started to cry! I was so happy… Thank you so much for posting this helpful thing so that my family and I can reclaim back our home.
It works! Within minutes, the stinkers were flocking to the bowl. Thanks!
Do I need a rotting banana to go with this formula or can I get away without using the banana? Please tell me YES! Thank you for sharing this.
Lola, YES! You can do this without the rotthing banana 🙂 I actually never use one, and never have a lack of fruit flies in it.
This trap is remarkable!!! Granted I’m sure I looked a bit odd digging through my trash outdoors for a rotten banana however I just set this up not even 2 minutes ago & already have 5 casualties & many more taking interest. For whatever reason we battle with fruit flies in our home this time of year & they’re everywhere, I’m hopeful this is the remedy I’ve been searching for…
Great article. Been wondering how to get rid of these pesky little things!
We were having a HUGE problem with fruit flies at our house and my aunt told us about the apple cider vinegar and a drop of dawn soap. It’s been less than a week and I see like one or two every once and awhile now. It works great. It’s awesome coming home and seeing all the dead fruit flies at the bottom of the bowl 🙂
I hate these little buggars! Giving this a try tonight! Thanks for the info.
Me too . Omg its so bad in my kitchen it will smack u in the face when u walk into the kitchen . I been ordering out for my granddaughter and daughter.
I hope this helps you!