How to Build a Fruit Fly Trap

fruit attracts fruit flies

Who doesn't know them, the small but annoying fruit flies that seem to appear out of nowhere and take over your fruit plate? Thanks to their ability to track down fermenting fruit and their super fast life cycle, they multiply quickly once they found your fruit supply.

The best way to get rid of these buggers would be to store all fruit (and vegetable) in the fridge but many people (including myself) think that fruit loses some of it's flavor when you keep it refrigerated. Another popular answer to the fruit fly problem are vinegar traps. A combination of water, vinegar and dishwasher soap is put in a small bowl and the fruit flies are supposed to land in there and drown. This has never really worked for me so I was looking for another way to get rid of fruit flies.

Fruit Fly Trap that works!

Building a Working Fruit Fly Trap

I've always thought it strange that fruit flies would prefer vinegar over fruit (which they didn't!) so I decided to make a fruit fly trap with fruit in it. It's very easy to build and you'll probably have everything you need in your home. After a few days, when the fruit starts fermenting, you'll find plenty of dead fruit flies in your trap!

Things You'll Need:

1. Small Glass: This can be a normal glass, an empty pickle jar or a glass bottle with a large mouth.

2. Paper or Cardboard: You'll only need a small piece of either.

3. Fruit: In my experience a piece of banana peel works best but any kind of fruit will work. You'll just need one small piece.

4. Water

5. Dishwasher Soap

6. Tape: Masking tape, scotch tape, adhesive tape - basically anything that will tape things up.

Build the Fruit Fly Trap:

1. Make a funnel out of the paper/cardboard and tape it together. It should have a finger big opening.

2. Add a bit of water and dishwasher soap to the glass (about two fingers high)

3. Cut a piece of fruit and put it inside the glass

4. Put the funnel on top of the glass. The opening of the funnel should not be in the water but a little bit over it. You might have to cut or adapt your funnel to fit.

5. Seal the sides of the trap (where the funnel meets the glass and there is usually a gap) with tape.

6. Done!

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