Easy Home Recipe to Get Rid of Fruit Flies

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Lure and Trap Fruit Flies Using Chemistry

Fruit flies can detect chemicals from ripe and rotting fruit over long distances. (André Karwath)
Fruit flies can detect chemicals from ripe and rotting fruit over long distances. (André Karwath)

If you’ve got fruit flies, you know how hard it can seem to get rid of them. Here’s a quick, easy, and effective method for clearing out the flies using simple, non-toxic household chemicals.

What You Need

Only natural, non-toxic ingredients are used, so this is a safe method of pest control around children and pets.

  • empty soda bottle
  • honey
  • vinegar (cider vinegar works especially well)
  • liquid dishwashing detergent

Make a Fruit Fly Trap

  1. First, try to locate and remove the source of fruit flies. This could be produce on the counter or in a cabinet, but also check damp kitchen sponges and the drain of the sink,
  2. Fill the bottle halfway full of vinegar.
  3. Add a spoonful of honey. If you don’t have honey, a bit of sugar works too.
  4. Swirl around the bottle to mix the honey with the vinegar.
  5. Add a squirt of dishwashing detergent. You can gently swirl the bottle, but don’t shake it, since you don’t want it to foam.
  6. This is your fruit fly trap. Leave the bottle uncapped where you see flies. Over the course of a few hours, the flies will find the bottle. They will fly in, but won’t fly out. It may take a few days to completely clear the area of fruit flies.

How It Works

Fruit flies are lured by the sweetness of honey and the scent of vinegar, which is given off naturally by ripe and rotting fruit. The flies enter the bottle looking for a snack, but the detergent lowers the surface tension of water so they are trapped by the liquid.