Hello fellow Galaxians,
Wow! Summer isn't here yet, and the flies are already driving me nuts. I absolutely hate them. They seem to enjoy taunting me day and night. One way we take care of the fly problem is to make a fruit fly trap.
We accidentally left strawberries and an apple core on the counter one weekend. When we came home, we found a swarm of fruit flies buzzing the kitchen. Short of fumigating the house it was almost impossible to get rid of the pests. There are several great fruit fly traps sold at the hardware store but why pay the money when you could throw a couple of ingredients into a jar and catch them by the hundreds.
Fruit flies love ripening fruit and are always hovering close by. With excellent senses they can detect ripe fruits from far away. Most of the time they hitch a ride home from the grocery store on your fruits and vegetables. There is a good chance that fruit flies have already laid eggs on the surface of the fruit you just bought and a new generation are about to hatch. Once they hatch, a swarm of uncontrollable insect will plague your kitchen. With a very short life span, going from egg to adult flies in 8-10 days, which means you will have hundreds in no time. They love moist, damp places, such as sink drains, and are attracted to any food scraps left on the counter.
Don’t worry too much about the fruit fly invasion because the traps will eradicate them. The first plan of action is to get rid of any fruits or vegetables on your counter. Put them all in the refrigerator. Clean your kitchen counter tops and look carefully at the places they are landing because you might have missed some crumbs. Keep the area around the sink drain dry and the garbage lid down. To keep the fruit flies from breeding in the sink drains, pour a little cleaner or bleach in the drain.
First, experiment with a little cup of apple cider vinegar to see if the fruit flies are attracted to the vinegar. They love the smell of fermentation, and apple cider vinegar is made from fermented apples. The point of this experiment is to see which types of vinegar work the best. If all you have is white vinegar and no flies are attracted, then we know the trap will not work. You must go buy some apple cider vinegar. If the vinegar is in fact attracting the flies pour enough in the bowl so they have room to drown. Next, add a few drops of dish soap to break the surface tension of the liquid so the flies can’t just sit on top of the vinegar but sink and drown. Now, some of the dish soap smell good to us but might repel fruit flies so check to see if the combination of vinegar and soap is attracting or repelling.
Items Needed:
Mason jar or glass jar
Plastic funnel or rolled piece of wax paper
Apple cider vinegar, one cup
Couple of drop of dish soap
Ripe fruit or an apple core
Dab of Vaseline or tape
Step by Step:
Add the vinegar, dish soap and pieces of fruit to the bottom of jar. If you don’t have a funnel, then roll up a piece of wax paper and secure with a piece of tape.
I have found a little dab of Vaseline around the mouth of Mason jar helps to seal the gap between the jar and funnel.
I have seen those little buggers climb up the side of jar and escape through the gap. The flies will enter the jar through the funnel attracted by the vinegar, but won’t be able to figure out how to get out, and will die. If they don’t die than take the jar outside and dump. Clean it out and reload with fresh bait.
Using a toothpick poke 4 holes in the plastic wrap big enough for the fruit flies to crawl through. Once inside the jar they won’t be able to escape. Set these traps throughout your house where fruit flies seem to be gathering. The flies will be drawn into the trap through the holes in the plastic wrap, but won’t know how to get back out. Eventually, they will drown in the liquid. Once you have caught your limit than rinse out he jar, refill, and repeat!
So, there you have it--a cheap way to fight the good battle. It's us or them--humans versus flies. Maybe this will give us the advantage.
Peace Peeps,
Broke Girl
