Fruit flies are very harmful and the home of many diseases, they carry many harmful bacteria which can make you sick. They sit on our foods and make them harmful for us to eat. Fruit flies have a very short lifespan, going from egg to adulthood within 8 to 9 days. Their lifespan depends on the environment condition and the availability of the food. They reproduce at very fast rate. Larvae of the fruit fly develop under the skin of ripe fruit, damp, garbage. They are attracted to fruits and other food, mainly which is fermenting or rotten. They are bane at many homeowner existences because they apply every trick to catch fruit flies. To get rid of nasty little creature you can apply following traps to clear out them from your home.
Ways to Catch Fruit Flies:
1.) Apple Cider Vinegar to Trap Fruit Flies
You don’t need to panic from fruit fly invasion. You can make your own trap with apple cider vinegar to catch fruit flies. Fruit flies can’t resist the smell of fermentation and, apple cider vinegar is made from fermented apple. Heat apple cider vinegar to enhance the fragrance so that flies get attracted towards it. You just need a simple ingredient to make this trap.
- You need a jar and a funnel. Half cup apple cider vinegar and a drop of dish wash soap. A piece of ripe fruit which is not compulsory.
- Pour apple cider vinegar into your jar. It should be deep enough for the flies to drown, then add two drop of dish soap. The dish soap will break the surface tension of the vinegar so that flies just can’t sit on the top and fly away.
- You can make your own funnel if you want, roll a piece of paper and insert it into the mouth of a jar or you can also use ready made funnel.
- The flies will go into the jar to drink apple cider vinegar but would not be able to figure out the way to get out, and will drown.
- If you need some extra temptation, you can also drop a piece of ripe fruit. If in case, flies don’t drown, place the whole trap in the freezer for 20 to 30 minutes, they all will die. You don’t need to remove the old contents if you want to reuse the trap.
2.) Mango Trap to Catch Fruit Flies
Fruit flies like fruit that’s why we called them fruit flies. They cannot resist the fragrance of fruit for which they live their life. Nothing could be better than fruits to lure them. You just need a simple ingredient.
- You need a glass jar, if you don’t have glass jar so you can also use some other transparent plastic jar to see the activities or how many fruit flies you catch. A plastic wrap to cover the glass jar or a toothpick. Some piece of ripe mango to attract fruit flies or a soap water.
- Place ripe mango at the bottom of the jar and add a soap water so that the flies will drown in soap water when they will enter the jar.
- Cover the jar with the plastic wrap, use a rubber for more security. Poke the holes in the plastic wrap with a toothpick, so that flies can enter the jar from the holes.
- Once the flies will enter the jar, they won’t be able to get out. When you will decide the jar is full enough, submerge the jar in a warm soapy water for 10 minutes. Rinse out the jar and repeat the process.
3.) Red Wine to Catch Fruit Flies
A drunk fly is very strange to hear but they can get intoxicated as we can. They are very fond of red wine. They will even get mixed to it if any is left out. When they will try to drink wine, they will get drown in it. If they did not drown, you can use soapy water to drown them.
- You just need a simple ingredient to make the trap. Just a little bit of red wine left in the bottle.
- Pour it into the glass jar or you can use the same bottle if you don’t need it.
- The flies will come to get attracted from the fragrance of red wine.
- They will drown in red wine after getting intoxicated, then die a merry death.
4.) Milk to Get Rid of Fruit Flies
This recipe is made by an Old farmer in 1850 to get rid of fruit flies. This is a very good trick to trap flies and kill them. This will help to get rid of gnats and other flies easily. Simply follow the below-listed instructions to catch fruit flies.
- You need one pint of milk with a ¼ cup of raw sugar. 2 ounces of ground pepper.
- Then combine all the ingredient in a saucepan. Simmer them for 1o minutes. Pour the whole mixture into a jar and place these dishes around the house.
- When the flies will come for some peculiar reason, they will drown to the mixture.
- You can also add dish soap if they seem to be landing and flying away.
5.) Bowl Trap to Catch Fruit Flies
Another trap that can help you to catch fruit flies also known as gnats is bowl trap. The sweet in the bowel will work as a bait to allure the flies. All you have to do is
- Place sweet bait on the bottom of a large bowl. Put a piece of old and skinless fruit such as banana, orange along with vinegar in a bowl. You can also mix honey and sugar as flies get attract towards sweet things.
- Cover the bowl with the plastic wrap and poke numerous whole using fork or toothpick.
- Try to make the hole as small as possible because flies can escape from the large hole.
- Set the trap where fruit flies mainly seen and leave the trap for the whole day.
- When you will check your trap at the next day they will drown on liquid, you can kill rest of the fly by putting your trap in the freezer.
- You can also pour the soap water from the hole to kill them. Rinse the bowl with the hot water and reuse to make a new trap.
6.) Lemongrass Essential Oil to Get Rid of Fruit Flies
Lemongrass essential oil has the very strong smell that keeps flies at bay. The oil is used to be intended as a preventive measure. Oil doesn’t kill the flies but it will keep away them.
- Take two cups of hot water and add 10 to 15 drop of lemongrass essential oil.
- Pour this mixture in the spray bottle.
- Spray this solution around your kitchen counter or the place where you noticed these flies more visit. This is a homemade spray to keep flies at bay.
7.) Honey to Catch Fruit Flies
You can also use honey to catch fruit flies. The sweet smell of honey will attract the fruit flies onto your trap. They will get the trap on the sticky texture of the honey.
- You just require simple ingredient to make this trap but it very effective to catch fruit flies.
- You just need some honey and card.
- Smear one side of the card with a layer of honey and put this card where the fruit flies usually visit. When they will come for the honey, flies get to stick to the card.
- Throw away the card once it will get fills up with dead fruit flies. Replace it with the new one.
8.) Lemon Scented Soapy Solution to Catch Fruit Flies
A lemon-scented, soapy solution is another good option to catch fruit flies or gnats. Spray the solution of soap, lemon scented on the counter. The fruit flies will get attracted to the lemony smell and the soap will kill them.
- Mix 2 tablespoons of lemon-scented liquid dish soap in 4 cups of water.
- Put the solution in a spray bottle.
- Spray this soapy solution on the infected area to kill fruit flies.
- Finally, clean the counter with clean water to get rid of the soapy solution.
9.) Rotten Fruit Trick to Catch Fruit Flies
This remedy is quite smilar to the apple cider vinegar and red wine. Fruit flies easily get attracted toward rotten fruits. Now you are changing the content which you usually do to trick fruit flies. You are switching to rotten fruit.
- Place a rotten fruit in the jar and cover the jar with plastic wrap.
- Poke some holes with the toothpick, the holes should be small, so that the flies won’t be able to get out.
- Then pour the soap water in the jar to kill the trapped flies.
10.) Preventing Fruit Flies in the Future
Your last step is to make sure those fruit flies do not appear again for which you need to apply preventive measures.
- Keep counter clean. Fruit flies don’t just like to eat fruit. They also feast for crumbs, spilled food, spilled juice. Wipe your counter at least once a day with a clean cloth and spray.
- Cover you fruit bowl because it will become a ‘singles bar’ for the fruit flies. Put fruits on the platter and cover it with a cake dome. You can still see the healthy snack but fruit flies can’t feast on them.
- Cover all the things which smell bad; means the sources of odor in your home like drains, garbage cans, litter boxes.