Follow our step by step guide with pics on how to get rid of those pesky fruit flies. It’s simple, safe and no toxic chemicals are needed!
JUMP TO HOW TO GET RID OF FRUIT FLIES
First, we had bed bugs and now fruit flies
When I told my husband Tomasi I’m posting on fruit flies he rolled his eyes and said this:
‘So you first told the internet we had bed bugs and now you tell them we had fruit flies, gosh people are going to think we live in utter filth!’
That thought didn’t even cross my mind and now that I think about it, I do feel a bit sheepish. So now I feel the need to explain myself! well, we have two cats and we haven’t got fleas yet (knock on wood).
We were gifted with awful bed bugs a few years ago when we stayed one night in a shady hotel up the coast. The bed bugs used our overnight bags to hitchhike back to our place.
Seriously my battle with those blood-sucking creatures almost broke me. I almost enrolled myself in a nuthouse! You can read about how bed bugs tormented me in My real-life nightmare battle with bedbugs post.
Thinking of the terrible ordeal and nightmares we went through having bed bugs, fruit flies are lightweights! However, in saying that any infestation is a real pest. Fruit flies are annoying and having them in our own homes impacts our wellbeing!
How we invited fruit flies to our home
Growing up, our family witnessed the endless magic produced by my mum’s green thumb. We had access to top-notch organic homegrown produce such as custard apples, pomegranates, grapefruits, papayas, bananas, dragonfruits, guavas, kaffir limes, lemon and so much more including herbs and veggies.
My mum is truly amazing when it came to growing edible plants. She could basically grow anything she wanted in her modest suburban backyard under the Australian sun.
I loved strolling in our garden to check out what was growing. Watching fruit and vegetables grow fascinated me and they still do! It’s too bad I didn’t inherit my mum’s green thumb, I struggle to keep my herbs alive.
My parents still live in the same house because mum refuses to leave her garden and who can blame her? We sometimes joke that if there was a zombie apocalypse we would seek refuge at my parent’s place. This way we would stay alive eating mum’s garden!
Mum would always gift us with a massive bag of veggies or fruit from her garden when we visited. For some unknown reason, her recent batch of bananas and guavas gave us the worst case of fruit flies.
When I transferred her fruit into our basket I noticed a few fruit flies buzzing around. I ignored them thinking that they’ll go away on there own but instead they multiplied daily, and before we knew it our kitchen was infested with them!
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We need a safe and easy resolution
We have a household of two cats and a toddler, there was no way we would use dangerous chemicals and sprays to get rid of the fruit flies.
So, I did a bit of research online to find non-toxic ways to get rid of fruit flies and kept running into the apple cider vinegar fruit fly trap. I am a huge sceptic when it comes to hacks and I am usually disinterested in the next big thing that becomes viral. My sister Nara is my complete opposite, she loves it all and tries them out.
I gave this apple cider vinegar fruit fly trap a try as I already had all the items that were needed to make the trap in my pantry so I had nothing to lose.
Making the trap was so simple that I thought this could not possibly work. I went to check the trap the next morning and was shocked to see the trap captured and killed lots of fruit flies. As each day went by I found more fruit flies in the trap. I am so impressed it worked that I felt the need to post about it and share it!
What you’ll need to get rid of fruit flies
To build an effective trap for fruit flies all you’ll need is apple cider vinegar, liquid dish soap, water, a cup and cling wrap (cling film) and a toothpick/skewer.
Apple cider vinegar – Fruit flies are immensely attracted to the smell of apple cider vinegar. Others online suggested any vinegar will work but I used organic apple cider vinegar that had the ‘mother’ in it.
Liquid dish soap – The soap will make it difficult for the fruit flies to fly out of the vinegar.
Cling wrap – Is to stop the fruit flies from flying back out of the trap.
Skewer/toothpick – is needed to poke holes into the cling wrap so the fruit flies can enter but will have a hard time getting back out.
How to get rid of fruit flies
Firstly, discard any fruits that are overly ripe and clean up the surface area where the fruits were kept.
Using a short glass or cup pour in 3 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon of water and two drops of liquid dish soap and stir well.
Cover the top of the glass firmly with cling wrap. Using a skewer/toothpick carefully poke multiple holes in the cling wrap. Make sure the holes are not too big but big enough for the fruit flies to get in but not out.
Place the fruit fly trap near the remaining fruits you still have or where you have seen fruit flies swarming around.
The results are in!
The following images are not very nice but it shows how effective this apple cider vinegar trap is!
DAY 1
ON DAY 2
DAY 3
If you have made this fruit fly trap, I would love to hear how it went. Please provide your comment or feedback by scrolling down below or via the quick comment button (green circle) found on the left side of this page. To prevent spambots you’ll need to provide an email but it won’t be published.
Cheers (I’ll drink to that) – Cat Tre
