My husband and I have had a fruit fly problem since we moved into our apartment. They show up in the weirdest places- like our bathroom. We were hypothesizing that they actually come from other people’s apartments through the ventilation system and into our apartment through our bathroom fan. Lately, the issue has gotten severe. The fruit flies have taken over and even attack us by flying directly at our faces.
When the problem started, I looked online for solutions and decided to put apple cider vinegar with dish soap in a bowl. The idea was that the fruit flies would venture in for the apple cider vinegar and then, get stuck in the dish soap which would keep them from flying away. This didn’t work. It mostly just made our apartment smell like vinegar. I posted my conundrum on facebook and some helpful friends told me to mix apple cider vinegar with water in a bowl and cover with saran wrap with little holes in it. The idea being that the fruit flies will get in through those little holes and won’t be able to find their way out. This worked alright, except when the fruit flies did manage to find their way back out- which was quite common. Either they would find their way out or they couldn’t find their way in, in the first place.
Some friends of ours swore by just putting apple cider vinegar in a bowl and leaving it out, they had a similar problem and it worked for them. We tried that- without the dish soap this time- and caught none. I came to the conclusion that our fruit flies are just plain smarter than other people’s. We even tried putting wine in a bowl… which also didn’t work. The fruit flies were attracted to the traps, but would just hang out around them without actually taking the plunge into the liquid.
One of my husband’s coworkers told him to just use apple cider vinegar as well, so for lack of a better idea, we tried that again. The next generation of fruit flies were just as intelligent as their parents and didn’t fall for the trap. So, my husband decided that we needed to be more creative. He ditched the apple cider vinegar and cut up some overripe banana and placed it in a bowl of soapy water. After all, fruit flies are called fruit flies for a reason. Unfortunately, the banana failed to attract them. Once again, we caught none.
Finally, I tried putting a banana peel in a container with a funnel, within one hour I had caught two fruit flies which is a lot considering how badly our other traps failed. The fruit flies would sometimes still escape though, so this trap was better, but not fruit fly proof.
Then, when I was making bread, a fruit fly landed in my yeast, sugar, and water mixture and died. I picked it out before continuing with the bread making process, don’t worry. I decided that since the fruit flies liked the growing yeast smell, I would put some yeast, sugar, and water in a bottle with a funnel. Unfortunately, they weren’t attracted to the yeast trap- although I wonder if it had more to do with the small opening of the bottle that didn’t allow for a strong enough scent to attract them.
A few days later, I discovered the best fruit fly trap to date. Are you ready for it? Simply pour some apple cider vinegar into a large mouthed jar or bottle, then place a funnel in the bottle. The funnel needs to have a small end very close to the apple cider vinegar. The small size makes it harder for them to get back out- and being close to the apple cider vinegar makes it more likely for them to get stuck in that before being able to find their way back out. Some still get out, but to date this has definitely been the most successful. So, if you have a similar problem, I would suggest trying the funnel idea first and save yourself months of trouble. Just remember to hide the trap away when you have company, it does smell after all and some people may not take delight in your success of trapping fruit flies and watching them float in their vinegary grave.
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