Community Pick
Fruit Fly/Gnat Trap
"This will help take care of those fruit flies that gather around the stuff you have to take out to the compost pile or those bananas you haven't gotten around to baking with yet. The photo I posted (the one with the cherry & grape tomatoes) shows several fruit flies on the paper already (and a couple are in the vinegar, though you can't see them)--not even three minutes after making the trap! Some kinds of cider vinegar work better than others--typically, I find the darker the vinegar, the better it works.
I know some people have said they prefer to use plastic wrap over the top, but I find that the paper cone (though it takes some fiddling to get it to fit just right) works best."
photo by Pam-I-Am
- Ready In:
- 1min
- Ingredients:
- 3
- Yields:
-
1 trap
ingredients
- 3 -4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 piece of white paper
- 1 -2 drop liquid dish soap
directions
- Pour apple cider vinegar and drop of dish soap into glass or jar.
- With the paper, make a cone with a 3/4-1" hole on the bottom. The cone should sit on the glass rim without the tip touching the vinegar. You may have to squeeze-shape the cone a bit to prevent gaps between the paper and rim.
- Every day or two, switch out the vinegar. (You'll see when it stops being as potent. The flies/gnats will stop going in.).
Questions & Replies
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Reviews
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Folks, I purchased some fresh fruit the other day. About two days later, I started seeing gnat looking things all over the place. Mostly near the fruit, kitchen sink, and pantry trash container which are all within a 6' radius. I read this "Fruit Fly / Gnat Trap post, went to the store and purchase the Apple cider vinegar, came home, built the trap and within 10 minutes, these gnat things were dying to get in and dying once inside. It's been about 1.5 hours since placing the trap and I'm guessing there are 50 dead gnats in the mixture and many more hanging out on the paper funnel. Works Perfectly!!! -
This worked great! We had a MAJOR problem with fruit flies and this took care of it very quickly. Thanks! -
WOW!!!! Within one minute of placing the funnel in the jar and walking away, I had captured and killed TWO gnats! Within five minutes I was up to SIX!!! This stuff is amazing!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!!! I was dreading getting that nasty fly tape and hanging it around the kitchen. Ugh!!!
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I started using this last year, and forgot to review it. I just set out the soap and vinegar in a small bowl no paper, and it fills up fast with those pesky little buggers. This is great, thanks for posting. -
A
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Tweaks
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I didn't have any apple cider vinegar on hand and I didn't want to wait to try this so I used red wine vinegar instead. As I was putting it all together about 5 gnats were already trying to get in. I also struggled with the paper a bit so I taped it in place with a few pieces of tape. The next morning I think every gnat in the house was in that jar! I will continue to use red wine vinegar from now on I think it has a stronger fruit smell than the apple cider vinegar.
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
anonymous23
United States
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I grew up in Ohio. I've been a student, a teacher, and a student again. And now I've moved (or, rather, am currently in the process of moving) to British Columbia because I fell in love with a writer, who I met online because he was looking for an editor--or at least an honest opinion.
My husband and I have the most intense differences of opinion regarding his writing and how we do things in the kitchen. He's a "chop it up small and throw it in a dish" kind of a guy, and I prefer to follow recipes that others have had success with. Our adventure with making blackberry jam and jelly a few years ago brought out some claws, mostly because he didn't want to follow directions. None of it jelled, so now we have jars of (very yummy) blackberry syrups, because we're not really interested in redoing the whole process.
