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Homemade Fruit Fly Trap – The BEST Way To Get Rid Of Fruit Flies!

Homemade Fruit Fly Trap – The BEST Way To Get Rid Of Fruit Flies!

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Get rid of fruit flies and gnats with this easy Homemade Fruit Fly Trap


 

Hi lovelies!

It’s finally Fall, and you know what that means…

It’s not just pumpkin spice season…

It’s also…FRUIT FLY SEASON.

That’s right – fruit flies are running rampant in Michigan (and I would guess everywhere else, too) because it’s harvest time and they can’t pass up a good meal.

And somehow, someway, they find themselves in our homes, flying around garbage cans, or dancing circles around that bag of potatoes sitting on your counter waiting to be made into chowder tomorrow night.

I recently left a bag of potatoes on the counter, thinking I had an extra few days to spare so I could use them in one of my freezer meal dishes.

There were only a couple of them left, but it was the perfect amount for what I needed, so I left the potatoes to rest on the counter and went to bed as usual.

I didn’t think much of it because they still felt firm and didn’t seem to be overripened at all.

I woke up the next morning to a bunch of tiny fruit flies flying around our kitchen!

Gross.

Fruit flies love ripened fruit and produce, and they were particularly attracted to the 2-3 potatoes I had left in the bag overnight.

I’m not sure how it happened, but the potatoes had seemingly aged overnight and were obviously no good to use in that night’s dinner.

It’s not the first time we’ve had fruit flies, though it’s been quite a while since we’ve had them. Luckily I knew how to take care of them in just one day.

In today’s post, I’m going to share my quick and easy homemade fruit fly trap that attracts fruit flies and takes them out ;).

*This post contains affiliate links, however, all opinions are my own.

Homemade Fruit Fly Trap

homemade fruit fly trap with tons of fruit flies trapped

Over 20 fruit flies that were attracted and ‘taken out’ by my homemade apple cider vinegar fruit fly trap.

Getting rid of fruit flies is super easy – I even featured how to do it in my latest YouTube cleaning video (see below)!

Scroll to the 13: 18-minute mark to see the fruit fly trap live in action ;).

 

DIY Fruit Fly Trap Supplies

To get rid of the fruit fly population in your home, you’ll need:

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diy homemade fruit fly trap finished

How To Make A Fruit Fly Trap

In a small, shallow dish, pour in a tiny amount of apple cider vinegar.

Then, place a small drop of dish soap in the cider dish, and swirl to combine the ACV and dish soap.

While the ACV attracts the fruit flies, the dish soap changes the surface tension of the liquid in the dish.

To put it frankly, the flies can dip down into the cider, but can’t get back out.

homemade fruit fly trap with apple cider vinegar and soap

As you can tell, in just 3 hours I was able to trap and kill over 20 fruit flies using this DIY fruit fly trap! I didn’t even realize we had that many in the house, but I’m glad to see them taken care of.

Size (Of The Dish) Matters!

If you’re considering using a small cup or another container, I can tell you from experience that it will not be (as) effective. I tried testing this solution the first day with a child’s size cup filled halfway with apple cider vinegar and a few drops of dish soap – I had plenty of interested flies, but none of them were trapped.

The small, shallow dish with very little liquid does the trick perfectly!

If you need an idea for how much liquid to use, always go with less – use the photos I’ve included in this post for reference. I’d say there’s probably only a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in the small dish and the tiniest little drop of dish soap in my dish.

Keep A Fresh Dish Out Even After They Are Gone

After you’ve killed the fruit flies in your home with this homemade fruit fly trap, be sure to keep a fresh trap out for a few days afterward.

Fruit flies lay their eggs (up to 500 at a time) on rotting fruit and veggies, or inside unkept sink drains, so you may have some new flies popping up within a few days.

Fruit fly eggs mature to the larvae state in approximately 30 hours (source), so that’s something to keep in mind!

how long do fruit flies live

Fruit flies can live for up to 50 days in optimal temperatures.

If You’re Worried About Killing Fruit Flies…

I recently had this comment posted on one of my social shares for this post, but someone was concerned with the cruelty of killing fruit flies with a homemade trap. 

In my experience, if you don’t take care of this pest problem, you’ll end up finding fruit flies in your morning coffee, cereal bowls, soup, any kind of drinks, etc.

They drown themselves in whatever they can find.

I’d rather attract them in this trap then have to remake food or not be able to eat because it may seem mean to kill them.

Fruit flies also breed and reproduce quickly, and they are also not endangered.

So no guilty feelings allowed, okay? 😉


Have you made this fruit fly trap before? Pin this for later and tell me how well it worked for you in the comments below!

*Post originally published September 2019, updated October 2020. 

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