How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies

For the past month or so, my kitchen has been plagued with fruit flies.

Did you get that? “Plagued” lol

Okay, it hasn’t been that bad, but any fruit flies are bad fruit flies right?

I hate reaching for a banana only to see 5 or 6 take flight – and you can’t catch the little buggers.

(Again, “Buggers” lol)

So it was time to set up a trap to protect our produce, keep the population under control – they multiply like flies (I’m on fire today!), and to achieve a general sense of cleanliness in my home.

This easy trap takes two ingredients and two minutes of your time to make, and is crazy-effective in culling, and hopefully eliminating your fruit fly infestation.

Take a dish, glass or jar and put some apple cider vinegar in the bottom of it. Add a couple of drops of dish soap to break the surface tension and catch their little legs as they land.

Roll up a piece of paper to a funnel shape – you want it pretty narrow at the bottom, say the size of a dime – and then wide enough at the top to rest on the top of the jar without the pointed end touching the liquid.

That’s it! Tape the funnel to hold its shape and then set out your trap/traps near where the fruit flies frequent.

This was one night’s worth of carnage:

I’ve only seen one other fruit fly frequenting our banana buffet, so I’m going to leave my trap out for a few more days – just in case there are babies or cousins yet to surface.

Gross – and yet so gratifying!

I did try this without the funnel by using a cellophane wrap over the jar with holes poked through it, but they were too smart. Something about the narrowing funnel bamboozles their little brains – I guess it would bamboozle me too if I thought the only way out was a 20 storey climb.