The Best DIY Fruit Fly Trap
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Are fruit flies driving you nuts? Never fear, this DIY fruit fly trap is sure to help.
I tested a bunch of ways to get rid of these pests, but this easy homemade fruit fly trap came out as the winner! Read on to find simple the end to your fruit fly woes.
If you eat a lot of veggies and fruits in your home, then likely fruit flies have been a part of your home as well. Sigh. For that very reason, this past week I had reason to work on finding the best fruit fly trap. Somehow we got inundated with them and had to find a way to get rid of them. Fast.
Those little buggers multiply fast and they were well — driving me buggers!
I scoured the internet to figure out the best way to nab these little pests – but one fruit fly trap worked much better than the others.
First however, I’m going to share with you some annoying and almost terrifying fruit fly facts:
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Facts About Fruit Flies
Did you know these?
– Mother fruit flies can lay about 500 eggs at a time
– The most likely place for a mother fruit fly to lay her eggs is in a piece of fermenting food.
– As soon as the babies hatch, they start reproducing very rapidly
– From the time the mother fruit fly lays her eggs until you see the fruit flies buzzing around is about 7-13 days. Yikes! – instead of saying how things “multiply like rabbits”—should we change the saying to “multiply like fruit flies”? (source)
See why it’s so important to get rid of these pesky critters right away? If you don’t, you could have hundreds in a very short amount of time.
Well, this past week we tried 3 different methods to get rid of these flies and I think we’ve found the winner.
DIY Fruit Fly Traps We Tested
Trap #1 – Hands
Yes, I’m not kidding. This is the way I’ve always caught fruit flies and we’ve always been successful in the past. But this time, the flies were getting the best of us. I’m guessing that you all probably have used this method too, right?
I’m sure you can imagine myself and my two sons standing the kitchen, climbing on step stools, clapping our hands together and slapping cabinets, trying to get rid of every last one.
(I can’t believe how smart these little buggers seem to be. They really seemed to know that they blended well into our dark kitchen cabinets and hid there almost completely invisible. Almost.)
We all thought this was fun (kind of) for awhile, but it got old after awhile.
And standing on a step stool trying to catch fruit flies is an accident waiting to happen.
It was time to find a new way.
Trap #2 – Apple Cider Vinegar and Dish Soap
This method is supposed to work by putting some apple cider vinegar in a bowl or jar and then adding a drop or so of dish soap. The dish soap is supposed to create tension across the top of the apple cider vinegar. The vinegar attracts the flies. They fly in and the soap traps them there.
Tried this for about 5 days.
The result?
Only 2 flies dead. Not anywhere near enough to make a dent in our burgeoning fruit fly colony.
Trap #3 – Inverted Cone
With this method, you put something attractive to the fruit flies in a container and invert a cone (paper is fine) so that it extends to the rim of the container.
The flies travel down the cone but can’t get back up.
Never tried this because #4 – the winner — worked so well. I don’t think I’d bother with this because the other is much easier and a little nicer to look at. And once you see The Winner you’ll see another reason why.
Trap #4 – The Winner!
I know – it’s an icky photo–just stuff from my compost bowl with plastic wrap on top with a few tiny holes poked in it.
Perfect for attracting fruit flies – but not great for nice photos :-).
I love this fruit fly trap.
Why?
Why We Love This Trap
- First of all, it worked! At the height of our fruit fly troubles, I would catch 5, 10 or more flies in there and would take them out on our deck to let them all go.
- Secondly, it’s cheap! (Basically, I just put plastic wrap on top of my compost bowl.) On Amazon, the fruit fly trap I looked at was more than $7. So you can save a bunch of money with this and get rid of your fruit flies effectively – and you don’t need to wait for the trap to arrive in the mail :-).
It’s also cheaper than using my high quality apple cider vinegar which I love and really don’t wish to waste on fruit flies. - Third, I didn’t have to put another thing on my countertop since I could just use my compost bowl. Who needs something else on the whole foods countertop, right :-)?
Here’s how to do it:
(Please note that the original post instructed people to let the fruit flies out of the trap outdoors, after catching them, but some readers pointed out that this would only serve to make the fruit fly problem worse. After doing some research, I realized what a huge problem the fruit fly population is and so I changed the post.
Now you simply let the flies die in with the fruit.)
More DIY Healthier Household Ideas
– Amazing No Streak Glass Cleaner
– DIY Plastic Wrap Substitute
– DIY Foaming Soap
– DIY Facial Oil Wash
– Natural Dishwasher Rinse Aid (3 Ways!)
– Homemade Laundry Detergent
– Best Eye Makeup Remover
The Best DIY Fruit Fly Trap
Ingredients
- bowl
- fruit or food items
- plastic wrap
- toothpick or other sharp item
- dish soap
Instructions
- Place some fruit or other food items in a bowl.
- Add a drop or two of dish soap.
- Secure a plastic wrap over the top and secure, if necessary, with a rubber band.
- Poke small holes in the top of the plastic wrap (with a toothpick, the sharp end of a knife, or something like that).
Notes
Have you every tried a DIY fruit fly trap?
Have another pest problem you are battling?
PS using a deep container like the 5 gallon bucket is the trick because many of the fruit flys like to just walk around the rim, when you put the dish towel on , all you are catching is the ones inside the bucket, the ones on the rim , the sneaky so and sos tend to fly away. so using a deep container is a must.
I have fruit fly problems every year, do a lot of canning from the garden its is just inevitable. I bring my tomatoes from the garden in 5 gallon plastic buckets, and as I process them I put the scraps etc in one of the empty buckets. If I leave the bucket on the counter in a short time that scap bucket is loaded with fruit flys. I sneak up throw a dish towel over the bucket and take it outside, remove the towel and a bazillion fly away. Repeat this process for several hours or even over night and eureka fruit fly problem is greatly reduced or gone. However if you keep doing this with the same scrap bucket after a day or so, I am not sure if I am capturing the old fruit flys or growing new ones in the bucket so I empty it and wait for the next load of tomatoes to process. However reading this notes some one said it takes 7 days from laying eggs to flying pests so maybe doing it for more than one day is ok.
i don’t believe you people, fruit flies are a PEST CAUSING MILLIONS OF $ A YEAR damage to the fruit and vege industry,and you are letting them go,join the real world people,i bet none of you have to rely on growing food for a living,i bet none of you have a nice plum or other fruit tree in your garden and when opening a fruit when it is ripe find it full of maggots,the industry spend millions of $s every year to eradicate them and you idiots treat them like nice little pets.dont complain about the price of fruit and vege:s in the shops,if they didn’t have to spend so much on eradication the prices would be cheaper,CATCH AND KILL.
Oh man. Hadn’t thought about that……are they growing in population?
The ultimate trap.
Love all the ideas. I found this by accident.
First you make a basic trap. I use a plastic yogurt container with 1/2″ water plus one drop of soap. I use a bit of Banana peel or a lump of any fruit. Cover with stretch wrap and poke a hole with a fork. The hole should be about 1/8″ diameter. You don’t need a large container but you can use your favourite basic trap.
Now get one of the hard plastic containers they sell fruit in. It’s usually a clear box and must have several holes in it to let the air circulate.
Now put your basic trap inside the plastic box. You can leave some of the fruit in there if you want..
This makes a two part trap. The flies get into the large box easily through the large air holes. That keeps them in the area of your small trap which works better since there are no drafts or disturbances to drive the flies away. When I see a whole bunch of flies inside the small trap, I lift it up and swirl the water around so they all drown. Please don’t release them so they can damage other fruit trees.
Thanks for the great idea! I will have to try it!
i have a lot of different fruit trees and would much rather you kill the little suckers than let them go and destroy someone else’s fruit..fruit flies and blow flies are easy to get out of your house..turn off lights draw curtains so its dark in the affected area, flys are attracted to light they head to my flywire laundry door i follow them out to the laundry and close the door to the kitchen behind me..they land on the flywire wanting to get out and i have a bit of sport with my tennis racquet electronic fly zapper and electrocute the little mongrels.
I hadn’t thought about that w/ fruit trees. I am hopefully getting some soon so I guess I might have another perspective on it soon. Do they do a lot of damage to the trees?
Thanks for doing all the leg work on this. Your article was the first I clicked on when I searched. #4 worked amazingly! I was catching fruit flies in 10 minutes and have been relocating the little pests most of the afternoon. I had a bunch of the CoverMate covers that I have never used and used them as the plastic wrap/rubber band. They basically look like shower caps, but are intended for covering food. I imagine a cheap shower cap would work well too. Grapes and strawberries were my bait of choice. Thanks for the the tip and for helping me rid my kitchen of fruit flies!
You are so welcome!!! Glad it worked and glad they are gone!
I’ve been successful when using the apple cider vinegar with dish soap AND the bowl or jar covered with plastic wrap of which some small holes have been poked thru. It’s a bit slower with said method, yet it works.
Glad to hear you’ve had success! I haven’t had many this year so haven’t need to do anything, thankfully!
#4 is the best. I thought I just had a few,but I set up fruit left for a couple hours. Omg there were at least a dozen in bowl and more trying to get in.
Great to hear it!!
I think the fruit fly population in my home is evolving — I seemed to have selected out the dummies and the smarter FF are left…..so far this season they are evading all traps #1-4 ! I may try the Triple Sec suggestion as well as the fly paper/wine idea. Right now I’m keeping everything dry and sealed, fruit/veg in fridge and sucking the little buggers up with the vacuum. I’m sure I look like I’ve lost it…(my mind that is, ha!)
Ugh. I think this kind of thing is happening everywhere. The strong are surviving. Viruses too. Best of luck!!!! You haven’t lost it. When bugs are involved we get creative!
This sounds awful, but I swear I have had incredible luck drowning more fruit flies by leaving a cold cup of coffee on the counter. For some reason they love it!
No kidding! Well, might be worth it. Thanks for sharing!
So THANK YOU! ?? We wouldn’t of had the idea if we didn’t read these different DIY traps!
You are welcome!
We did Mason jars with fruit, dawn dish soap, and water.. then put plastic wrap(clingy plastic) cannot think of the name AT ALL! & poked holes with a fork, about 4 times, they could get in, but couldn’t climb out (the ones that didn’t fly right to the bottom) because the wrap was pushed in and they would get all caught up in it and eventually ended up in the soapy rotted fruit water.. sounds so fantastic! Yughhhh… :/
Yay! Good for you.
We just puta banana peel in the bottom of a plastic bag, pull the ends up leaving a small opening at the top and then close it quick. They seem to love the banana in a bag here.
Interesting!
Thank you! This really is the best!!! I’m just as happy to let the little buggers go outside rather than having to dispose of their bodies. 🙂
Thank you and I agree!
Flypaper suspended from the bottom of a cupboard and down into a plastic cup. Add a bit of red wine at the bottom. Not exactly home made, but I caught a ton of them in just the first few minutes! The wine is very aromatic and attracts them from all over the kitchen.
Nice tip!!! Thanks!
To an insect, water molecules are large balls that they can walk on.
Soap breaks the water down into much smaller “balls” that they can’t walk on and sink.
This is how soap cleans by making the water able to get into smaller places.
I am learning all kinds of new things today.
When I was a young country boy, there was a kind of insect that would skate on the surface of water such as a creek or pond.
If one would pour a few drops of soap on the water, the bug would sink.
Thinking back on it, I feel bad for killing them for no reason.
The reason soap cleans things is that it breaks the water molecules into smaller parts.
If you can imagine the water as large balls that the bug can skate on and change them to BB size so they can”t.
Skitter bugs – that’s what we used to call them.
We LOVED your idea number 4 and the apple cider vinegar one. We actually did number 4 and also put some apple cider vinegar in a small lid and covered it up just like with number 4. We put them side by side. The apple cider vinegar one has killed LOTS of the flies and number 4 has been used to “successfully relocate” many fruit flies to the great outdoors. Thanks for the blog with the GREAT ideas. They have helped save my sanity. 🙂
Thank you for the kind words and for reading. Much appreciated!!! Hope to see you around again.
My father had a huge fruit fly problem so my brother and I went on a mission to find the best fruit fly trap. We tried all the ones you listed plus a few more. The best solution we found was a glass jar filled about 1/4 full with Triple sec and a couple drops of dish soap with a piece of cantaloupe in the bottom. We covered it with plastic wrap, poked several holes in it and set one in the sink next to the drain and one on the counter. Within 24 hours all the flies were gone. I imagine just about any sweet liqueur/rotten fruit combo would work but we had the best results with Triple sec and cantaloupe. The sweet smell lures them in, the soap reduces surface tension so the flies can’t sit on top of the liquid and the liqueur gets them drunk and drowns them (Hey, at least they die happy!). Just make sure the holes are fairly big so they can find their way in easily. They’ll be too drunk to find their way back out.
Ha!!!
i may use Chinese Insecticide Chalk around the edge of the glass where the fruit fly attract to the smell . i want to sêeì it really work , because to toxic may kill the bug before fly hatch thí way it may get rid òf them all. I can not wait until i have Chinese Insecticide Chalk. Will let you know .
Wow! I chopped up my banana peel, put it in a small glass bowl and covered with Saran Wrap.
Poked some small holes and they came!
Thank you!
You are welcome!! 🙂
I use trap #2 version with a glass bottle of coke emptied. The difference is I placed a teaspoon of sugar with apple cider vinegar and about 5 drops of dawn dish soap. It kill about 20 of them in a week and the next two weeks about 12 once the eggs hatched.
What does the Dawn do? Thanks!
It makes the liquid have a different surface tension so the fruit flies drown.
Thanks!
Dawn (soap in general) is a surfactant… which means that when it is dissolved in a liquid it will reduce the Surface Tension of that liquid. Surface Tension is the property of water that allows you to fill a glass with water until it crowns over the top of the glass, i.e., overfill the glass without spilling. This same Surface Tension allows insects to walk on water/ liquid.
Reducing / eliminating the Surface Tension will help to ensure that the fruit flies can not fly away after landing on the apple cider vinegar.