Method For Getting Rid of Fruit Flies

We combined several methods we read about on this site and added some of our own. Modifying a suggestion by an anonymous contributor, we prepared three traps, which were cereal bowls containing:

• 1 cup of apple cider vinegar

• 1/3 cup of liquid dish washing soap

We placed the traps under the brightest lights in the kitchen. We have CFL light bulbs with a color temperature of 5000 degree K, which look like daylight to the fruit flies. After 24 hours, we found many fruit flies floating in the traps, and many more cautious flies just stood around on the rims of the bowls waiting for what I don't know. We wish now that we had taken a photo of this to share with you.

Following Sewingal's suggestion, we sprayed oil on the sitting fruit flies generally because it makes them stick to whatever surface they're on. We purchased a small spray bottle in the hair care isle of our Walgreens, filled it with salad oil and sprayed it on any surfaces where fruit flies congregated, including:

• The rims of the cereal bowl traps

• Dishes and empty containers sitting in the sink

• Discarded items in the kitchen trash container

The final weapon in our arsenal was an original idea of my wife's. We used a box of Ziploc bags. Any item of interest to the fruit flies was placed in its own Ziploc bag when it was discarded. In this way, we literally starved the poor bugs to death. Some of the items so treated were empty yogurt containers and bottle caps. We found that they loved beer, so we rinsed out our empty beer bottles thoroughly and put the discarded caps into Ziploc bags. I tried using beer in place of vinegar in our traps. This experiment of mine was a failure.

Following Mary's suggestion, we ordered a hand held vacuum cleaner from Amazon to suck up the flies, but the flies were gone before we took it out of the box. I really miss them!

By George Purdy from Cincinnati, OH