5 Effective Homemade Fruit Fly Trap Ideas

If you’re looking for natural ways to get rid of the fruit flies in your home, you’re in the right place. DIY pest control methods are some of the best and easiest ways to get rid of bugs in your home without using any kind of harsh chemicals. In this article, we’ll explain the benefits of homemade fruit fly traps like white vinegar traps, apple cider vinegar traps, fruit peel traps, wine bottle traps, and even a trap from the 1800s to help get rid of your fruit fly infestation using common household items.

Read on to learn more about the best homemade fruit fly traps, and if you think your fruit fly problem may be too big to handle yourself, get a quote from a local exterminator below.

How To Get Rid of Fruit Flies in Your House?

If your kitchen becomes a fruit fly breeding ground overnight, you have several options for how to remove fruit flies from your home. Many homeowners opt for DIY pest control methods, like the fruit fly traps listed above, since they’re a more natural way to handle your fruit fly infestation.

Fruit flies are different than most common household bugs, so you have to use a different approach to get rid of them. If natural methods like fruit fly traps won’t work, you can also hire a pest control expert like Terminix to handle your fruit fly problem. Hiring an exterminator may cost more than natural methods, but it’s the most effective way to remove flies from your home.

To learn more about how much it costs to exterminate flies, read our informative guide.

Are Fruit Flies Attracted to Sugar?

One might assume that fruit flies are attracted to sugar because they enjoy the sweetness of fruit, but it’s the breakdown of the fruit that they’re really after. These insects feed off the fermentation when organic material begins to decompose, so they’re more attracted to the parts of the fruit that are rotting.

When creating a homemade fruit fly trap, opt for an attractant or bait that offers this type of fermentation, like vinegar, beer, wine, and ciders, instead of sugary solutions. It may seem counterproductive since it doesn’t contain any fruit, but it offers better results.

If you’re looking to keep flies away and out of your home, throw away all your rotting fruit and vegetables. Fruit flies are notorious for swarming your open fruit bowl, so start there.

Where Do Fruit Flies Come From?

If you’re wondering, “Where do fruit flies come from?” that’s a valid question. Fruit flies usually get into your home in one of the following ways:

• Flying through an open window or a door
• Crawling through minute cracks in the structure of your home
• As microscopic eggs laying on produce from the grocery store

Fruit flies will not bite, but because fruit flies breed so rapidly, once you let them in, it’ll be weeks (sometimes months) before they die off naturally. Because of this, many people turn to traps to get rid of their fruit fly infestation.

Using Store-Bought Fruit Fly Traps

Maybe you’re short on time, or you just don’t like DIY projects. Whatever the reason, if you’re leaning toward buying a trap from a store or online retailer like Amazon, I recommend against it.

For starters, most traps that you can buy are made of natural ingredients anyway, which are the same ingredients you’d use in your own DIY fruit fly trap. Also, fruit flies are naturally more attracted to the ingredients in homemade traps than they are to the chemicals in some chemical traps, so they tend to be less effective.

While not all store-bought traps are bad, they’re also more expensive than just using what you have at home. With a little bit of effort and some common household items, you can solve your fruit fly problem in no time without spending any extra money.

DIY Homemade Fruit Fly Traps

In short, here are the benefits of homemade fruit fly traps:

• You probably already have everything you need
• They’re usually the cheapest option
• They’re the most effective way to catch fruit flies and gnats

Unless you just moved into a new place, you probably have all the supplies you need to make a homemade natural fruit fly trap. These types of DIY hacks are cost-effective and simple to make, so if you’re a budget-conscious homeowner, they’re definitely your best option to trap fruit flies.

Why Fruit Flies Love Vinegar

Vinegar is an ideal meal for fruit flies because it’s made up of fermented organic matter. Because fruit flies will always fly toward the acidity of broken-down natural materials, they can’t resist the scent.

For fruit flies, vinegar acts as Kryptonite: they fly right into an open container of it and then drown themselves in the liquid. It may seem tragic, but it’s one of the best ways to get rid of your fruit fly infestation.

White Vinegar Trap

Since fruit flies love vinegar, white vinegar is the perfect bait for a fruit fly trap. To make this trap, all you need is a glass and some plastic wrap. You can even use a mason jar and a lid if you’ve got that lying around. Use the following steps to make your trap:

1. Pour some white vinegar into a glass/jar and cover it with a piece of plastic wrap. Use a rubber band or tape to hold the plastic wrap in place at the top of the jar.
2. Poke a few small holes in the plastic so the scent can emanate out. Then, poke a larger hole in the center of the plastic for the fruit flies to get in.
3. Add a few drops of dish soap to keep fruit flies stuck inside the vinegar.

If you end up using the jar and lid instead, poke holes in the lid as directed above. Fruit flies will follow their noses to the source of the smell, but the dish soap will keep them stuck in the glass, trapping them and eliminating your fruit fly infestation.

Apple Cider Vinegar Trap

Apple cider vinegar is the perfect bait for fruit flies because it’s made up of fruit that’s been distilled to the point that it is fermented. White vinegar is great for catching fruit flies, but they’ll be much more inclined to fly into a trap if you use apple cider vinegar.

To make an apple cider vinegar trap, use the instructions for the white vinegar trap above, but use a cup of apple cider vinegar instead. Fruit flies will fly into the container, but the dish soap will trap them. You can even use white vinegar and apple cider vinegar traps together to see which one performs better.

Fruit Peel Trap

Much like the vinegar traps above, this homemade fruit fly trap relies on the insect’s sense of smell to reel them in. This can work in a glass, a jar, a small bowl, or even a plastic Tupperware container.

Simply take the garbage pieces of fruit that you’d normally throw out (think banana peels, avocado skins/pits, the tops of strawberries, apple cores, overripe fruit, old fruit juice, etc.) and place them into a container.

Then, use a piece of paper to form a funnel and tape it to the top of the container. After a few hours, the fruit flies will pile inside through the funnel. They’ll fly into the large hole in the top of the paper cone, but they’ll be unable to fly out because the hole at the bottom is too small.

Wine Bottle Trap

Wine is another great bait for fruit flies because the fermented grape juice is the perfect blend of sweet and sour. For this trap, all you’ll need is a bottle of wine and some dish soap.

The next time you’re enjoying some wine, leave a bit in the bottom of the bottle. Then, add a few drops of liquid dish soap to help trap the flies. Fruit flies love all wine, including red wine and white wine. They’ll dive headfirst into an open, uncorked wine bottle just sitting around.

Once they fly into the bottle to feed on the wine, the dish soap will cause the fruit flies to sink and trap them in the bottle. Not only will your kitchen take on the musky, alluring aroma of a nice open bottle, but you’ll be catching all your annoying fruit flies at the same time.

An 1800s Fruit Fly Trap

If you’re familiar with the Old Farmer’s Almanac, you may have heard of this trick. This simple fruit fly trap was published in an issue from the 1800s.

It’s extremely simple: just simmer a glass of milk, a cup of sugar, and a half-cup of raw pepper on the stove. Once it cools, put the mixture into a bowl and set it on the countertop.

The fruit flies will sense the fermentation of the sugar in the milk, and the pepper works as the active ingredient to suffocate them, clogging up their mouths with thick granules.

Are Homemade Fruit Fly Traps Safe?

Homemade fruit fly traps are often safer and more effective than store-bought chemical traps, making them great for households with children and pets. Since they don’t use any harsh chemicals, you don’t have to worry about these traps getting into the wrong hands.

You’ll still want to make sure traps like the wine bottle trap are out of reach of children to prevent them from getting into it, but the wine itself isn’t dangerous. These homemade traps use natural ingredients, so they’re much safer than chemical traps.

The Bottom Line About Homemade Fruit Fly Traps

Fruit flies are unpleasant at best, but they’re easily swayed away from your food with the right kind of traps. Using just a few everyday household items, you can make the perfect bait to lure them in and trap them for good.

Still, sometimes DIY methods just aren’t enough to eliminate your fruit fly infestation. If you think you might need professional help from an exterminator, use the form below to connect with local pest control pros.