Build your own fruit fly trap without vinegar/juice

Fruit flies (Drosophilidae) are often drawn into houses, especially in summer, where they have inspected freely accessible fruit. You can get rid of them with a homemade fruit fly trap and home remedies. We have instructions for you to make fruit fly traps without vinegar.

Build your own fruit fly trap

The principle of a trap is always to lure them in with an odor and to keep them trapped so they don't swarm around and spread their eggs en masse around the kitchen. Bottles and jars are the most commonly used and can be prepared in two different ways.

funnel trap

In the fruit flytrap it is important that as many insects as possible find their way into the container, but as few as possible find their way out. A funnel is ideal for this because it has a wide radius at the top and only a small hole at the bottom.

hole access

Here, the opening of a container is completely sealed with a material into which small holes are pierced. These should be large enough for the fruit flies to easily get through and inside. It is important that there are not too many holes, but that a significantly larger closed area remains. This is the only way that most of the caught fruit flies can no longer find the holes to escape.

Different materials can be used, but when choosing one, it should be borne in mind that the container should be able to be looked into for catch control. Transparent materials are therefore the better choice for opaque containers. Here are some examples of hole traps:

• screw caps of metal or plastic
• baking paper
• aluminum foil
• cling film

Tip: The holes get an ideal size if you use a can pick and only pierce with the bottom third.

Yeast-sugar trap against fruit flies

Another no-vinegar fruit flytrap you can make with yeast and sugar. These two fabrics in combination are an ideal alternative. The fruit flytrap is self-made as previously described, the container with a Yeast-sugar mixture, add a dash of washing-up liquid and then use a funnel or Hole material covered. There are two types of yeast-sugar mixture to choose from:

alcohol

The easiest way to make the fruit fly trap is with alcohol containing yeast and sugar. The jar is filled about halfway. Yeast and sugar contain sufficient amounts of the following alcohol:

• Beer
• red wine
• Prosecco
• sparkling wine 

Mix yeast and sugar:

If you don't have any alcohol at home, you can also make the yeast-sugar mixture yourself. That's how it's done:

• Dissolve a cube of fresh yeast in 100 milliliters of water
• add a teaspoon of sugar
• Add a splash of dish soap
• stir well and use immediately

milk trap

Instead of yeast and alcohol, the same effective effect can be achieved with a milk trap. How to prepare the fruit flytrap:

• half a small cup of milk
• Stir in two heaped teaspoons of sugar
• Bring the milk to a boil
• Transfer hot liquid into trap
• add a drop of dish soap
• sprinkle ground black pepper on top

Lemon trap against fruit flies

Lemons also attract fruit flies in combination with sugar. This is a trap that can be implemented quickly and requires no further effort.

• One slice of lemon per 100 milliliters of lukewarm water
• Dissolve a heaping teaspoon of sugar in it
• Stir in a splash of dish soap
• fill in container trap

denture cleaner

The denture cleaner trap is a real insider tip against fruit flies. This can achieve a similar successful effect as with vinegar. Two cleaning tablets are simply dissolved in water in a container and placed next to the fruit bowl.

banana peel

The problem with fruit flies arises because they reproduce rapidly. You can start fighting here by laying out rotting banana or other fruit peels that are high in sugar and nutrients. Here the females like to lay their eggs, which can amount to up to 400 per day. These must be "catched" and disposed of. This is how it's done:

• place rotting banana peel in a sealable, translucent bag
• Open the bump as wide as possible
• lay out in a warm, easily accessible place
• if there are fruit flies in the bag, close it quickly and dispose of it
• Lay out new peel bags in the morning and evening until there are no more fruit flies

Expelling with fragrances

Like almost all insects, fruit flies do not like some scents and flee. These are to be set up in the immediate vicinity of fruit bowls so that the pests cannot even get to them. If they can't get to the food and their preferred place to lay their eggs in the fruit, they'll take off again. This is another great-smelling alternative to a non-vinegar fruit flytrap. The following scents keep them at a distance and drive them away:

• Lemon-cloves combination (halve fresh lemons and spread cloves on top)
• essential oils
• basil
• lavender
• fresh or dried bay leaves
• garlic
• Nasturtium
• chives

Tip: Lavender has an intense scent that not only reliably drives away fruit flies, but also spiders as well mosquitoes and very popular as a room fragrance.

Live trap for fruit flies

If you want to get rid of the pests but don't want to kill them, you can use the life trap. The trap is self-made in the same way as the above. However, it can only be filled with an old piece of fruit. Grapes, for example, are ideal attractants. Once the fruit flies have flown into the trap, the container is carried outside and the caught fruit flies are released into the wild away from windows and doors.

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