Getting Rid Of Fruit Flies The Easy Way

Fruit flies can be obnoxious to deal with in the home at any time of year. As long as you have a bowl of fruit sitting out on your table or on the countertop, you’ll draw some fruit flies. Most people used to deal with these fruit flies with a flyswatter, or some insect spray – or in extreme cases with solar light kits. Flyswatters require some skill in sneaking up on these insects. Insect spray can leave a lot of unwanted, noxious chemicals in the air. There are better ways of trapping and/or killing fruit flies to get rid of them. All you really need is some bait, a jar, and an open-ended cone made from paper.

Get Them Drunk

Homeowners don’t need to call a pest control company to get rid of fruit flies, all they need to do is get them drunk. By filling a jar with wine or vinegar, you can draw fruit flies into it to trap and kill them. Take a jar and fill it about a third of the way with wine or vinegar. Place the open-ended cone on top of the jar, so that the pointed end is inside the jar. The fruit flies are drawn to the smell of the wine or vinegar and crawl down inside the cone into the jar. However, they aren’t smart enough to figure their way back through the opening in the bottom of the cone. They will either drink the wine and get drunk and drown or stay trapped inside the jar until they can no longer fly and drown.

Another Alternative

Those who don’t want to harm their fruit fly guests can also just fill their jar with some appealing fruit bait. Cut a small piece of banana, apple, or pear and place it in the bottom of the jar with the same set up as before. The fruit flies will be drawn by the smell of the food and go inside to eat or lay their eggs. However, they are still unable to escape from their new prison. After a few days, you can take this jar full of fruit flies outside and release them humanely to live the rest of their lives outdoors.

You don’t have to house fruit flies during the summer or any other time of the year. These two simple tricks are easy ways to catch fruit flies and keep them out of your face. You can use wine to trap them or use solid food to trap them without killing them.

Image credit: Some rights reserved by Smabs Sputzer