A Really Good Fruit Fly Trap

You may know fruit flies from such locations as your fruit bowl or your goodie bucket or compost. Most sane people dislike fruit flies. The only thing I think fruit flies are good for is experimenting on because they have such a short life cycle. Any kind of fruit attracts fruit flies. Now I won't pretend to be a fruit fly expert, so let's get down to businuess and kill the buggers.

Ingredients

• Water
• Vinegar (preferably balsamic or apple cider vinegar)
• Dish soap
• A glass or cup

Instructions

1. Take the glass in your hand and fill it with water.
2. Gently pour a small amount of vinegar into the water. For 250ml of water you might consider using 15ml of vinegar. This is not a precise recipe, so use whatever you feel might be right.
3. Squirt a tiny amount of dish soap into the water and vinegar solution. Maybe 2-5ml per 250ml solution of water.

Figure 1: Ingredients minus the water


Figure 2: Water placed in the cup


Figure 3: Balsamic vinegar mixed with the water in the cup


Figure 4: Dish soap being poured into the water and vinegar mixture

Speculations

In this section I will speculate why the fruit flies enjoy this solution and enjoy it so much that they drown in it.

The fruit flies like the smell of rotten fruit. Vinegar sort of smells like rotten fruit and depending what kind of vinegar it is, it might just be rotten fruit. So as you leave your solution out, you will see the flies gathering on the edge of the glass. Often times, I like to blow them into the water by giving a quick huff in their general direction. Please note, if you want them to die naturally then this might not be for you. But I do not like them, so I like to play evil from time to time. Once the fruit flies try to eat some of the solution, the thickness of the soap traps them and there they drown. Mind you, this is all my speculations and I am not a certified biologist or whatever kind of scientist would know about these things.

Notes

I've noticed that over time the concoction is rendered ineffective. It might be good for 24 hours or so, then needs to be replaced.

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