Got a fruit fly problem? Have no fear – today I am sharing the best natural fruit fly trap using vinegar! It will save you, promise.
Last week when I canned peaches using my no-refined sugar recipe I noticed a fruit fly. Well overnight that one fruit fly turned into 20. And then 40. Seriously…what is up with how fast these little fetchers breed? Before I knew it I was doing the icky dance, batting fruit flies away every time I opened my pantry. I knew that the breeding needed to stop and these fruit flies needed to destroyed.
My parents always used vinegar and dish soap to kill them little buggers. Unfortunately at that moment they were traveling and I couldn’t get a hold of them for their recipe. Luckily on that same day I got an email from a reader named Stephanie who shared her recipe for a fruit fly trap using vinegar and dish soap.
How to make a Natural Fruit Fly Trap Using Vinegar
Take a jar and fill it 1/2 or 1/3 full of apple cider vinegar. Next, gently mix in a few squirts dish soap (maybe a teaspoon amount) so there are no bubbles. Then, leave it on your counter overnight near where you see them. In the morning there will be drowned fruit flies in the bottom of it! If the first night doesn’t catch them all make a fresh batch the next day to catch the stragglers.
How this works is the apple cider vinegar smells like rotten fruit to the fruit flies and attracts them. The liquid dish soap breaks the surface of the vinegar and sucks them in when they try to land, which drowns them.
Now I am a lover of most creatures besides spiders, grasshoppers and flies of all kinds. So it still saddens me a little that I am having to kill these little fruit flies, but if I don’t they will breed and infest quickly. This method is natural and non-toxic so if my kids come by and happen to grab the jar off the counter it shouldn’t hurt them.
So it’s bye bye, fruit flies! Hope this recipe helps you out.
Thanks again Stephanie for your recipe!
Jimmy says
August 27, 2018 at 5:07 pmI’m a little late with my post.
A friend gave me another advice which worked better for me than apple cider vin and dish soap.
Use cold beer with dish soap!
These fruit flies are crazy about beer!
Nikki says
October 15, 2017 at 8:13 pmLive by this!
SMELLS HORRIBLE the moment you put it in the jar, but after you never notice.
<3 Living in an apartment you get fruit flies all the time.
Apple cider Vin, is always on my shopping list.
Gary Schmidt says
August 5, 2017 at 7:34 pmget rid of moths in house using vapona no pest strips. Hang in the house & they are not harmful to babies or anyone so great to use.
Works great & the only thing to kill moths in house
Becky says
February 6, 2015 at 9:13 pmWhen I read this one I thought “yeah right” but my house was overrun with the nasty bugs and I was desperate so I gave it a try. I used a handful of old medicine bottles I had laying around and put 4-5 around the house. It WORKED!! After just a few days the plague was over. Thanks so much!
Tina says
August 17, 2014 at 12:42 amLove this trick! I have used it for a few years. I used to cover the top of the container with plastic wrapped with holes poked in but it seems like the trap collects them faster when it is uncovered. The containers I use vary from baby food jar to shallow dish with a fairly shallow pour of the vinegar. Even used a pie pan for catching a gazillion of them next to the cat’s litter box after I forgot an open bag of garbage for two days. Ewww! But it got ’em all in a couple days!
Cindy says
May 25, 2014 at 6:26 pmI just take an old butter tub and punch holes in the lid with an ice pick. Pu some vinegar in the bottom and leave it on the kitchen counter and throw it out after 2 or 3 days. Does a great job and really don’t have to worry about spills or adding dish soap.
Amber says
April 21, 2014 at 3:48 pmKARRIE!!!!!!! this is just what I needed! I will have try this , your my hero 🙂
but once I get rid of fruitflys , then I have to deal with ants. those ants. they infested in my chicken coop and were bitting my baby chicks this morning (there two months old) what do I do ? have any ideas on how to kill the whole colony and the queen and not kill my chickens with chemicals? and to have any ants come back. even though I don’t like killing nature like that, the baby chicks can’t go back in until they’re gone. those ants were ALL over the chickens’ feet.
Karrie says
April 21, 2014 at 6:50 pmI would try sprinkling whole cloves (found a big tub at Costco) all around the outside of the coop (out of reach of the chickens…) ANTS hate cloves and will move their colonies somewhere else usually.
Amber says
May 23, 2014 at 2:01 pmThank You, I will try have to this sometime 🙂
Evelyn says
November 25, 2016 at 8:04 pmTry dusting with food grade diatomatious earth anywhere you see offending insects. Including ant hills. Nontoxic for birds. Careful with dust, not healthy to breathe. I add it to dry feeds also to deter any invading insects. To deter mice/squirrels add cayenne pepper powder. It’s ok for bird feed only. Mammals are sensitive to it.
jennifer says
September 18, 2013 at 12:28 amred wine vinegar works too. i used that last week when i ran out of apple cider vinegar. In fct, i felt it worked better.
Patrice says
September 17, 2013 at 5:34 pmWe live on a horse ranch with millions of regular flies. Do you have a recipe for them. Tried a liter bottle cut ate the top & inverted, put root beer in it. This caught a few, but not very effective. Someone else said to put a penny in a plastic snack bag with water in it so it would look like a giant . eye to the flies. Another friend said it doesn’t work. Any other suggestions? Thanks.
Mary Ann Brandys says
September 13, 2013 at 3:18 pmI used this vinegar mixture and I just used a small container on my computer, they were everywhere. After a while I thought the vinegar mix was drawing them in. So got some fly traps and some that go flat on the window.They are covered and the fruit flies are getting less and less. Also I sprayed in the lower crack of my window sill with Totally Awesome and some Dawn soap in case they were coming in there. We opened the refrigerator and found a bunch of dead fruit flies, My husband had been eating out of a bag of grapes and put it back in refrig. He will now put in an enclosed container.
OBXQUEEN says
September 13, 2013 at 10:08 amThank You for this recipe! I could not remember what was in it when I needed it! Now, if only you had a GOOD way of getting rid of pantry moths! My birds food was infected, and I have them everywhere EXCEPT my pantry!!
Kristine says
May 10, 2014 at 3:47 pmI want to know too!! I’ve had them for years!!! I’ve had some success with Gardens Alive Indian moth traps, but I still seem to be left with some…. *sigh*
Amy says
May 28, 2014 at 11:12 amKristine and OBX Queen, I had pantry pests a couple of years ago. I got rid of them with some degree of labor, and no chemicals. First, I emptied my pantry, just stacked everything up on my kitchen table. I carefully inspected each container for any sign of larvae or moth. If there was one little hint, I threw it out in a sealed plastic garbage bag. Then, I removed the shelves (mine are wood that balance on supports). I washed them in warm soapy water, and dried them well. Then I vacuumed the ceiling, walls, and every nook and cranny in my pantry. Then I washed the ceiling, walls, floor, every corner. Check especially in corners, like the interior door jambs. Then I wiped down all my jars. Paper packages such as flour were placed in zip top bags. I stored the less frequently used dry goods in the freezer for a few weeks just to remove bait in case I might have missed a pest. I put the shelves back, replaced my pantry food, and I haven’t had a problem since. It was well worth the one late night of work!
Kelly says
June 16, 2014 at 8:44 amAmy – I had to do the same thing with pantry moths! As well as put all open items in a ziplock bag or sealed container. After some research I found that the moths and ants don’t like peppermint. So I place peppermint tea bags on my pantry shelves to deter the little critters. It’s great having a clean pantry cupboard!
H says
September 12, 2013 at 9:57 amThanks. Perfect timing for this post since I have been making pear jam.
Pam says
September 8, 2013 at 2:17 pmI found I could catch the stragglers who don’t land in the glass with the hose on my vacuum because they fly so slow.
DEBRA POLENZ says
July 29, 2018 at 9:31 pmI like to do this when there are many lol, works
Melissa says
September 7, 2013 at 10:28 amI just had fruit flies, a nice cousin brought a giant bag of apricots to us as a gift and they melted rotted just turned nasty in my laundry room bc I forgot about them. OOPS. For fruit flies its just a nice excuse to have a glass of wine, then I leave the wine glass out with maybe 4 ounces of wine in it. Almost instantly the fruit flies start landing in it and swim around a bit and drown. If I had to pick a way to go… swimming in wine might be up there on the list 🙂
Jenna says
September 28, 2018 at 5:13 pmThanks for that! I am out of apple cider vinegar, but I could spare some cooking wine.
Margaret says
September 6, 2013 at 3:40 pmThank you! A friend gave a bunch of pears recently that I’ve been keeping on the counter in a paper bag to ripen. I checked them this morning and found a swarm of fruit flies. Luckily, I have some Bragg’s apple cider vinegar in the cupboard so I tried this method. It works! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Savanna says
September 4, 2013 at 7:10 amJust a side note. I found that real apple cider vinegar is the key. So double check and make sure its not apple cider flavored vinegar.
Mary says
September 3, 2013 at 8:41 amOh, and now you know why scientists use them for genetic studies. They only live 24 hours so their life cycle and breeding habits make them an excellent choice. Just not in my house 😉
Mary says
September 3, 2013 at 8:12 amHow big a jar are you using? Can it be a little one so as not to waste so much vinegar?
Karrie says
September 3, 2013 at 9:54 amIt’s a smaller pint sized one. 🙂 No need to use a big jar, the little one does a great job attracting them.
Cindy Smith says
September 3, 2013 at 8:03 amIf you use a 2 liter soda bottle and cut the top off insert it upside down and tape it on then it creates a funnel that the fly’s can get in but cant get out so you will actually capture more then you would with just an open jar!!
Karrie says
September 3, 2013 at 9:54 amI have heard of that one too, but never tried it. Sounds really cool.
JD says
August 23, 2014 at 10:13 amTry this. It really works. Well have a bad problem with Fruit Flies evey summer. We have tried numerous pricey traps that work marginally. My wife found this online. We tried it, we put about 6 traps around the house. By god it works. The little corpses just litter the bottom of the cups we use. They die and sink. So there are none floating on top to warn others, HaHa. When the bottom is full, just dump it down the sink. Refill and reuse the cups.
Manon says
November 1, 2018 at 9:14 pmI loved the fact that you really don’t enjoy killing them, as I’m having the same problem. They can’t help being fruit flies and wanting to eat and….. it’s not their fault that they are procreating the way they do..
But… I agree that they become so overwhelming, we have to get rid of them if they’re in the kitchen.
I heard you can kill them with smoke, so tried the incense method, but they did not seem to mind that.
Then I tried the vinegar/bleach and H2O, but I felt bad for them dying in horrible way (that’s how soldiers were killed in ww1, terrible deaths), so I’m trying your apple cider vinegar method, adding a bit of red wine, so at least they die feeling good..
Thanks so much for recipe!!
Steffany says
September 3, 2013 at 6:07 amYay! I’m glad it worked for you 🙂