Fruit Fly Trap

Confession:  We have a lot of bugs.    Partly because we live in the country where there are a lot of bugs.    And partly because sometimes we bring a bit of the country indoors. 

During canning and harvest season we get a lot of fruit flies.  

I've never been a big fan of fruit flies.   Partly because they're annoying.   And partly because in the 9th grade we had to raise them in biology class for a genetics experiment.  It had something to do with red eyes.   I think.   Anyway, the fruit flies often escaped and for several weeks the entire 9th grade area and the cafeteria suffered a pestilence of fruit flies.   Yuck. 

When I started making my own vinegar we got a few more fruit flies.   In the summer, when the vinegar warms up, we get more fruit flies.   When we bring in the latest garden produce and it sits on the counter for a day, we get more fruit flies.    Sometimes we suffer a pestilence of fruit flies.   

Yuck. 

I read somewhere about making a fruit fly trap with vinegar and water and soap.    So I tried it.  

And it works.   It really, really works.   

I have two now.   I keep one by the vinegar and one on the kitchen counter where we do food prep - that's the one in the pic.     If you blow up the pic, you'll see the little drowned fruit flies in the bottom of the jar.    My name is Robin E. and I'm a fly murderer.  


This is what you need to make your own fly execution chamber - just in time for Halloween:

• 8 oz jar  [Can be bigger or smaller.  This is America.  Use whatever jar you want.]
• 1/2 cup of water
• 2-3 Tablespoons cider vinegar 
• A few drops of dish soap

The vinegar draws the flies in.   The soap breaks the surface tension of the water, so when the flies touch the water to investigate, they fall in.   Genius.

It'll stay effective for a long time.   It doesn't smell unless you put in a lot of cider vinegar and you're sensitive to the vinegar smell.