Fruit flies can be incredibly annoying, but seem to be inevitable at this time of year. It can seem that no matter how hard you work at keeping them away, they just keep coming back.
Fruit flies are common pests and can be a real nuiscance around your home. Although they can appear at any time of year, they are usually very active in late summer and early autumn, as they are attracted to extra ripe, fermenting fruit and vegetables – as well as things like drains, bins, empty bottles and cans.
While they aren’t harmful to humans alone, they can potentially carry bacteria from one place to another, such as E.coli, salmonella or listeria, which in turn can make someone very ill. They are also capable of laying u p to 500 eggs at a time, so it’s important to try to do something about it if you have an infestation.
There are many ways you can deter fruit flies, but TikTok content creator Jonathan Farley says he’s found two effective fruit fly traps that “actually works” – and they only takes two minutes to make.
Although he shared two methods, Jonathan explained they are similar in effectiveness, it just depends on the availability of what you have in your kitchen. Firstly, you need an empty, clean jar – or two if you want to make more than one trap.
Then you take a sheet of paper and a plate or bowl, and draw a circle around the plate. Cut the circle, and then make a cut from the outside of the circle to the middle.
For the first method, you can put “an inch” of apple cider vinegar in the jar, followed by “a drop” of dish soap, and then “swirl it around”. For the second method, you put “about an inch of warm water, about 40 degrees” in a jar, followed by two teaspoons of sugar, and then a quarter teaspoon of baker’s yeast, or brewer’s yeast, and a “a drop of dishsoap”, before giving it a stir.
With the paper circles, you want to make a cone shape by adding a piece of tape to the middle of the cut to hold it all together. Then you’ll want to snip off the end, and then stick the cone into the jar.
Jonathan added: “Leave those near your food bin, near any fruit you have in the kitchen, and within about a day they’ll be [inside the glass].” He also warned that once they get inside the jar they might try to crawl out alongside the paper, so you might want to secure it to the glass with some tape.
The theory is that vinegar attracts fruit flies. According to Clegg’s Pest Control, the insects detect the scent of acetic acid, which is the chemical in vinegar which gives it its strong scent. This is the same scent the fruit fly is looking for when on the hunt for rotting fruits and vegetables.
That being said, the vinegar will attract them, not kill them, as it’s not poisonous to them. So that’s why you need to trap them inside, which causes them to drown.
How to get rid of fruit flies
It’s important to note that what works for one person in one home might not work for another. In order to get rid of fruit flies from your home it’s important to keep your home clean and tidy, especially making sure to remove any overripe fruit, vegetables or food scraps.
Be sure to empty your bins regularly, and make sure to clean your drains and wipe any sticky surfaces.
If you don’t have any apple cider vinegar and still want to make a trap, you could use a little red wine in the bottom of a bottle. The narrow neck is believed to trap the flies.