Make an Effective Fruit Fly Trap with No Tools [DIY]

By Jason Fitzpatrick, LifehackerAugust 04, 2010 at 11:30AM

Make an Effective Fruit Fly Trap with No ToolsIf you want to get those annoying fruit flies out of your kitchen without any heavy engineering, this simple trap uses stuff you already have in your kitchen and requires no cutting, taping, or other DIY tinkering.

Home and household blog Apartment Therapy shares instructions for building an ultra-simple fruit fly trap:

Get ready: All it takes is cider vinegar, a jar, dish soap, and plastic wrap. Pour just enough cider vinegar to cover the bottom of the jar. Add a drop of dish soap (it will break the surface tension of the vinegar so the fruit flies can’t just sit atop the liquid). Now, cover the jar with plastic wrap and poke a few holes in the top.

It’s worth mentioning that in the comments of the post readers shared how they skipped using the plastic wrap altogether and it still worked just as well. The flies are attracted to the smell of the cider vinegar and as soon as they land in it they sink. Have a clever way of getting pests out of your kitchen? Let’s hear about it in the comments.

Homemade Fruit Fly Trap [Apartment Therapy]