As soon as the temperatures rise, they are there, the uninvited guests. They besieged fruit baskets and opened juice bottles in droves. The fruit flies, also called fruit flies or fruit flies, appear with annoying regularity and spoil our appetite for juicy fruit and sweet drinks. With an average of 2 mm, the winged insects are tiny; however, they make up for this by appearing in droves. Anyone who has ever taken a piece of fruit out of the bowl full of anticipation and was then wrapped in clouds of fruit flies knows what we’re talking about. Fortunately, nobody has to accept this plague defenselessly, because there are a variety of tried and tested home remedies available to combat it. The fruit fly trap has proven to be extremely effective, as it is built by the user without any prior manual knowledge.
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Build your own fruit fly trap
The little pests are so keen on ripe fruit and vegetables because the larvae feed on the microorganisms in them. Since each female lays up to 400 eggs, the house is understandably invaded by fruit flies within days.
Classic design
In order to get rid of them again, the functioning of the fruit fly trap takes advantage of its greed for rotting fruit and sour smells in a cunning way.
You will need:
- a shallow bowl
- 1 part wine or fruit vinegar
- 3 parts fruit juice, wine or beer
- 2 parts of water
- 1 drop of dishwashing detergent
The ingredients are mixed well with the water being added last. In this interaction, the detergent has the task of breaking up the surface tension. The result is that the fruit flies can no longer hold on to the mixture, sink and drown. Since the fruit fly trap is mainly used in the warm summer months, the liquid will evaporate quickly. Therefore, it is necessary to renew them every few days.
The slightly more durable construction
The following variant of the fruit fly trap offers a slightly longer shelf life:
Required:
- 1 small bowl
- 1 piece of ripe fruit
- a little washing-up liquid
- 1 plastic bag
- 1 pair of scissors or fork
- some elastic band
The piece of fruit is sprinkled with the washing-up liquid and placed in the bowl. Ideally, it is a yellow container because this color is particularly attractive to must flies. Then the plastic bag is put over it and the open end is closed with the rubber band. Now either a small hole is cut in the tip of the bag or it is pierced in several places with a fork. The fruit flies will no doubt find their way to the fruit. Since they come into contact with the detergent at this point, they can no longer find their way out. Since the fruit retains its attractiveness much longer than the fruit-vinegar-water mixture, this form of the fruit fly trap needs to be renewed much less frequently.
Trap construction without foil
Garden friends who have banned plastic bags from their household out of their ecological sense of responsibility, build a modification of the fruit fly trap. The foil bag is replaced by a small glass, which is placed with the open side over the bowl and the fruit. A small piece of wood or a match is pushed under the edge of the glass as a support. The fruit flies crawl in, but do not come out through contact with the detergent. If you don’t have the heart to harm the tiny pests, you can leave out the detergent. If a flock of fruit flies has gathered under the glass, simply pull the stick away and release the insects in the garden.
Drosophila with CD
If you want the simplest possible way to dispose of the caught fruit flies, build the trap like this:
- Half fill a glass with the juice, vinegar, water and washing-up liquid mixture.
- Alternatively, dissolve a tablet of denture cleaner and mix it with 1 drop of detergent.
- Place a CD on top with the shiny side up.
- Do not cover the hole in the center of the CD.
- After 1 to 2 days, remove the CD and pour the contents of the glass into the toilet.
The shimmering surface of the CD increases the attractiveness of this type of fruit fly trap. The fruit flies fall through the hole into the glass and immediately drown.
Safety gear with immediate effect
The annoyed gardener can get rid of the insects very quickly with the following trap:
- Fill a small kitchen bucket with putrid fruit residue.
- Place a flat, fine-meshed sieve or a colander over it.
- Place near the fruit flies.
- After 10 to 20 minutes, cover the sieve with a towel.
- Take the bucket outside and release the trapped insects.
Depending on the number of fruit flies in the house, this method is repeated several times in a row until the invasion has been stopped.
Build your own fruit fly trap from a PET bottle
A hygienic and inexpensive solution is to transform an old PET bottle into a trap for fruit flies. These materials are required:
- empty PET beverage bottle
- Mix of fruit juice, vinegar, water and washing-up liquid
- Alternatively, use beer or wine instead of fruit juice.
- When mixing with the washing up liquid, do not let it foam.
- Carpet or cutter knives
- Masking tape
- adhesive
The top third of the PET bottle is cut off with the aid of the carpet knife. Before doing this, the interface is wrapped with masking tape so that the cut is carried out neatly. Then the tape is removed again and the entrance for the fruit fly trap is ready. Now just twist off the cap and coat the thread with the mix or jam. The lower part of the bottle is filled 1/3 with the mixture. To complete the self-made fruit fly trap, the funnel is put upside down in the lower half of the bottle and fixed with the adhesive. The fruit flies will try to get hold of the sour-sweet temptation on the bottle thread. You fall into the liquid from which there is no escape.
Build your own fruit fly trap without a vessel
If the bowls, glasses or PET bottles for the fruit fly traps are around in the house during the warm season, this is not for everyone. If you still want to get rid of the winged nagging troubles, proceed as follows:
- Stick double-sided adhesive tape on the wall near the fruit flies.
- Apply the water-vinegar-juice mixture with a finger or a brush.
- In this case, there is no need for dishwashing detergent.
The fruit flies are attracted by the scent of the mixture, stick to the adhesive tape and can be disposed of without any problems.
Preventive measures against fruit flies
If the following instructions regarding prophylaxis are observed in advance, it is not even necessary to build a fruit fly trap yourself:
- Store damaged fruit in the refrigerator.
- Check the fruit basket daily for overripe fruit.
- Do not store fruit next to tomatoes.
- Empty the bin twice a day in summer.
- Do not leave open drinks around.
- Clean used drinking glasses immediately.
- Immediately wipe away any splashes of fruit and vegetable juice.
- Rinse beverage cans before disposal.
- Dispose of fruit and vegetable waste in a compost heap.
- Do not put compost heaps near the house.
- Pour boiling water down the sink drain every day.
- Ventilate several times a day.
Since the fruit flies are often brought into the house with the food they have bought, experts advise transporting the purchases in closed containers, ideally in cool bags.
These fragrances keep fruit flies away
Just as ripe fruit, vegetables, juice, wine, beer and vinegar attract the fruit flies, Mother Nature offers a range of fragrances that the insects run away when perceived:
- Hang dried olive herbs in a cloth bag in the kitchen.
- Place the chestnuts between the fruit in the bowl.
- Fresh onions perform the same function as chestnuts.
- Grow peppermint and lavender on the windowsill and balcony.
- Grow basil in pots and distribute around the house.
- The smell of tomato plants drives away the must flies.
- Put the cloves in a lemon wedge and lay out.
- Secure the windows with close-meshed fly screens.
Many gardening enthusiasts shy away from cultivating carnivorous plants such as the Venus trap or the sundew, because although they act as natural insect traps, they are quite time-consuming to care for. This is different with Fettkraut. This carnivorous plant is not only easy to care for, but also presents decorative pink-purple flowers from May to August.
The counterpart in the potting soil – the fungus gnat
If a swarm of small insects suddenly emerges from the flower pot, the fruit flies are the first to be suspected; however, it is usually the similar-looking fungus gnats. In contrast to the fruit flies, fungus gnats prefer to lay their eggs in moist potting soil. After just one week, the larvae hatch and attack the roots of the plant. Among the home remedies, the use of matches has primarily proven its worth. These are inserted upside down into the substrate, where the sulfur-containing components of the ignition head are released to the earth. The larvae do not survive this, which brings further reproduction to a standstill.
Although they are completely harmless to humans, they thoroughly spoil our appetite for fresh fruit with their annual invasion. How good that you can build effective fruit fly traps yourself with simple home remedies. Fortunately, all materials and ingredients are readily available in conventional households. Above all, absolute consistency in handling fruit and vegetables has proven to be effective as a preventive measure. Because even the smallest splash of fruit juice and the tiniest scrap of organic material know how to use the winged pests for their brood.