An infestation of fruit flies are one of the most irritating things most of us have to deal with from time to time. To say fruit flies in the kitchen wreak havoc on the nerves is an understatement!
My house has been invaded by fruit flies more times than I care to recall. They used to drive me crazy! If a sandwich was made, they’d be all over the bread. Ugh! If there was any dishes at all in the sink, they’d be swarming all over them. If I tried to cook something, they’d be on the food I was attempting to prepare. Just icky!
I tried various store-bought fruit fly traps over the years and frankly they didn’t do much of anything to get rid of the fruit fly invasion. Then my brain kicked in!
[bctt tweet=”How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies” username=”Bloggingology”]
Since the fruit fly is attracted to the fruit, it stood to reason I could use that idea to trap the fruit fly using the fruit to lure it into the fruit fly trap. I didn’t have to spend money – I had everything I needed already. And best of all, building a fruit fly trap was super easy and quick.
If you have a war going on in your house and the fruit flies are winning, then give this a try and you’ll quickly see the fruit flies lose the battle. Build your own fruit fly trap and get rid of those pesky little critters!
These homemade fruit fly traps really do work!
Things You Will Need:
- You will need small jars or plastic bowls (like margarine comes in), something that you don’t want and can throw away. Once the fruit flies are inside the container traps, you do not want to open it and let them back out! Be sure the containers you use are not wanted or needed. If you have a large infestation of fruit flies, you will need more containers. For the purpose of this post, I would say have about 4 to 8 small containers.
- You will need one or two bananas – two if you’re making more traps.
- You will need some plastic wrap such as Saran Wrap. Generic works fine.
- You will need rubber bands – one for each small container – to hold the plastic wrap in place.
- You will need a toothpick or ice pick or something like that to poke a few holes in the plastic wrap after it’s attached to the small container.
What To Do:
- Using the kitchen table or counter, spread out all the things you need from the list above. First, remove any lids or tops from the small containers and throw them away. You won’t be using lids or tops for the fruit fly trap.
- Next, cut the bananas up into small pieces. You can mush the banana up if you want to but it’s not necessary. I always use the peeling also. If you have 4 containers, you probably only need one banana. Now divide the chopped up banana up equally into each container.
- After I put the banana into each container, I usually kind of smear the banana around also on the insides of the container to help the banana scent be all over the inside. It seems to attract the fruit flies more that way, at least in my experience.
- Tear off or cut a small piece of plastic wrap to cover the opening of the container. Be sure to make it larger than the opening so that when you place it tightly across the opening a couple of inches or so hangs down the sides of the container. Place it on the opening of the first container and stretch it tightly. Then place a rubber band around the neck of the container to hold the plastic wrap in place.
- Be sure that all the sides hanging down are under the rubber band. Otherwise the fruit flies might get out. Now take a toothpick or ice pick or something like that and poke a few tiny holes in the plastic wrap that’s across the opening of the container. Anywhere from four to twelve holes is good – depending on the size of the opening – more holes for a larger opening and less holes for a smaller one.
- Now that your fruit fly trap is built, pick it up and turn it over and let the bananas fall onto the underside of the plastic wrap. This gets the banana scent onto the plastic wrap inside and helps to further attract the fruit flies.
Repeat the process for each container until you have all of the fruit fly traps made.
Set the fruit fly traps that you just made all over the kitchen, especially where fruit flies are located such as the sink area. If they have migrated to other parts of your home, place them there also.
After a day or two, depending on how bad the fruit fly infestation is in your home, the containers will begin to fill up with the little critters. Allow the containers to remain no longer than one week. Repeat the entire process if needed and start with fresh fruit fly traps. When disposing of the filled fruit fly trap containers, be sure not to open the container! If possible, place them inside plastic trash bags and tie them tightly and take them out as soon as possible.
How the Fruit Fly Trap Works:
The banana in the fruit fly trap that you’ve made attracts the fruit flies. They love bananas, among other things. They smell the banana scent and they crawl into the tiny holes poked in the plastic wrap to get to the banana. Once they get it, they can’t get out. I’ve never had one to escape!
The trap basically attracts the fruit flies so that they’re all located in one place. It does not kill the fruit flies, it just traps them so you can get rid of the fruit flies in your home.
