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You’ve never known true annoyance in life until you’ve had to deal with fruit flies swarming your basket of lovely summer fruit on the counter.
You’ve never wanted to throw up in your kitchen until you’ve found fruit fly maggots on a bowl of cherry tomatoes you forgot existed.
I hear.
Image Credit: Taste of Home
There are all sorts of tips and tricks for getting rid of fruit flies, but listen – none of them work 100%. So when I heard about a trap that really works, well…consider me riveted.
First, let’s go over the 5 most popular kinds of traps, so we can see which one worked the best for this Reader’s Digest writer.
I promise, this will be fun.
5. Leave out a piece of rotten fruit – No fruit flies captured
Image Credit: Taste of Home
This seems like a good idea, because it gives your bad fruit a job, and we know fruit flies love ripe fruit.
You just chop up some fruit that’s past its eating prime, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and secure it with a rubber band, then poke some holes in the top with a toothpick.
In this woman’s test, though, no fruit flies were captured.
4. Milk, Sugar, Dish Soap, and Black Pepper – 3 fruit flies captured
Image Credit: Taste of Home
These common household items are easy to find, at least – 1/2c milk, 2tsp sugar, a squirt of dish soap, and a sprinkle of black pepper on the top.
You heat the milk and sugar on the stove until the latter dissolves, then stir in the dish soap (to make the surface sticky enough to trap the flies), cracking the pepper on top last.
It only caught 3 flies overnight.
3. Balsamic Vinegar + Red Wine Vinegar – No fruit flies captured
Image Credit: Taste of Home
Use equal parts and pour them into a glass. Cover it with plastic wrap and a rubber band, like the rotten fruit, and poke your holes.
You would think, based on how much they enjoy both vinegar and wine, that this would be a winner.
It was not.
2. Dish Soap, Apple Cider Vinegar, and Hot Water – 18 fruit flies captured
Image Credit: Taste of Home
Squirt your dish soap (just a little) into a glass, then add apple cider vinegar until the glass is about 1/3 full. Blast steaming-hot water into the glass to form a thick layer of bubbles on top.
The fruit flies were instantly interested in this one, and she caught 18 overnight.
1. Beer + Rotten Banana – 8 fruit flies captured
Image Credit: Taste of Home
One thing you probably need a use for and one you hate to toss, I guess.
You put a piece of a rotten banana in a jar, then pour in enough beer to partially cover the banana. Grab a cone-shaped coffee filter and poke a small hole in the bottle, then set it on top of the jar (make sure to hold it in place somehow.
She thought this was a sad waste of beer, trapping only 8 fruit flies overnight.
Well, there you have it my friends – the dish soap, apple cider vinegar, and hot water were the clear winner.
Go forth and conquer – that fruit is yours, and you paid a pretty penny for it, too!
