This video is genius- I've seen the tip to put vinegar and dish soap in a container for years, but NO ONE ever explained that you have to have a container small enough that you can fill it to the brim with vinegar...no wonder fruit flies kept checking out my traps on the edges of the bowls and flying right back out! Thank you so much!
You're welcome! The shot glasses are the perfect collection vessels. I haven't used a shot glass for liquor in years, but boy do they make great fly traps 😅
@@Rock-N-Roll-Forever Ohhhh, I remember that!! What a pleasant memory. My 2 younger brothers and I would sit @ the dining room table (that's when it was required to do by my parents if we wanted to eat), and we were allowed to watch tv while we ate our Cheerios or Rice Krispies, and that commercial would come on EVERY SINGLE morning-Fill it to the rim with Brim Thank you for bringing back a fond memory of mine!! You have a wonderfully blessed day!!✝️💜😊
@@proudboxermom3104 omg I love this!! And yes, so many fond memories from our "younger" years. it feels like it was a million years ago. I must admit I've been getting very nostalgic lately just watching our (once peaceful & harmonious) society unravel right before our eyes. I long for the days when humans actually practiced 'humanity'. life was so much simpler (just as our parents/elders used to tell us as kids) of course we were too young to understand or heed their warnings. Sending you my warmest regards & blessings friend! 🤗🤗🙏🙏😊😊❣❣
I do it less complicated and works perfect I use a shallow small bowl put the vinegar no need to fill it to the top I add the drop of washing up liquid and a drop of honey Stirring and coat it all I change it every week It can be placed anywhere that suits you the flies find the bowl
This trap as described works well. I have had even better success with a couple variations on it. I use a 32 oz mason jar, put in maybe 4 oz of vinegar (apple cider or red wine), maybe a half-teaspoon of Dawn dish soap, about 4 oz of water, and a tablespoon of sugar or honey or whatever non-artificial sweetener you have handy. Then, to top it off, I add a half teaspoon or so of yeast from a bread yeast packet. Then I set the UNCOVERED jar near wherever the fruit flies are present. Man does it attract and kill the flies! Replenish water, vinegar and sugar every week or so as the liquid evaporates, and the trap can last for months! I tried this both covered, with saran wrap with many holes poked it for flies to get in, and then trap them as they're not smart enough to get out. Then I tried the same mixture in the same jar, and left it uncovered where the flies can fly out at will. To my surprise, the UNCOVERED jar caught and kept more fruit flies, by about a 2-1 margin. Certainly you could also put some chunks of ripe banana or some over-ripe grapes in the liquid too (fully submerged is probably best), but not really necessary. The flies try to access the "soapy nectar" from the inside rim, or try to land directly, and it's all over for them. I think it's easier for them to enter the uncovered chamber of death, as opposed to having to find a hole in the plastic-wrap-with-holes covered version. Sure, they can change their mind and fly back out alive, but eventually they always come back and meet their doom.
I've tried every variation of this trap and never had any luck. I may get a few in the trap but they seem to catch on pretty quick. The apple shaped traps work for a few days, but they seem to catch on to those too. It got so bad at one point that I would have to fight them for my food. So, I started thinking fire is the only thing that will stop them. The only thing I had never tried was fly strips, so I bought a 10 pack of raid fly ribbons and went home and hung 1 over the sink, 1 over the doorway from the kitchen to the den and 1 under the cabinet over the counter where they like to hang out when they weren't flying up my nose. After an hour each ribbon had around 50, after 2 days each ribbon had around 300. I changed them out every couple of days and after 2 weeks the problem was solved. I also found out it's a good idea to keep your drain plugs in when you aren't using your sinks.
Yeah, the hanging fly traps seem best. The problem with all these traps is they only get the adults. The eggs they laid are invisible to the human eye and extremely difficult to eradicate. It’s an endless cycle.
@@lorraineniece8813 yes I had the same problem so now I get a very long and thin nail, one is not going to leave too big of a hole and bang it in a little and hang the strip from that so that it's a good few inches away from the cabinet
Great tip. Fruit flies are very adaptive. They breed in sink drains and will THRIVE in wet mops. So bleach down the drain and bleached and dried mops also limit them in summer.
This a was the comment I was looking for I just had a fruit fly infestation occur in my kitchen😬 and I too learned u gotta kill the eggs on the drains or they'll come back
Brilliant, I can do this the next time I need to get rid of my pesky lil fruit flies. I've tried this before with not having resolved the outbreaks, and never how you explained. So much appreciated knowledge of your experience with this. I'm ready now. ❤
Excellent video! Very informative and an excellent tip for controlling these little pests. I did a semester of biology and genetics during my undergraduate degree years ago. For one of the practicals we had to study fruit fly genetics (i.e. long winged, short winged etc.) Was fascinating to study them at the time, but my interest in them only lasted about for as long as that semester. After that it returned to annoyance 😂 From memory, they are not only attracted to the sugars in fruit, but also the vinegar smell. When fruit starts going off, sugars start breaking down (by bacteria) into vinegar (oversimplified). Hence, this is why, generally, the more rotten the fruit is the more flies it attracts. There are also exceptions though.
You are now my hero. Thanks for the tip. I would have rather of heard it last week, but I'll take a tip like that anytime. Good luck and keep on growing.
@@TheMillennialGardener it worked great! It has done a better job at killing them then anything I've ever tried before. Thanks again!!!!!! Say hi to Dale.
A always wash the crop I pick very well. Even so they can be an issue. I always use the apple traps with the fly strips hanging right near them to catch the ones milling about. Mint and lavender from the garden in pots here or there helps. Definitely keep the drains plugged and regularly washed.
Omg thank you sooo much for your advice. I just put a small cup of balsamic vinegar in my kitchen and almost immediately I see fruit flies go towards it.
I like this idea for those of us who LOVE the Farmer's Market. The kids are home from school and fruit (especially banana) is on hand. This is very helpful.
This is great information. I've used apple cider vinegar and dish soap before but used a plastic coke bottle cut down with the top inverted into the bottom. Kind of worked but didn't really get rid of all of them. I'm anxious to try your method! Thanks for the onformation!
Ok wow Im impressed. Balsamic vinegar and red whine vinegar and dish soap drops. Brim it. In a shot glass. - keep it topped up. Few days. Cool. Since i typed it out. I will definitely remember. Best tip of the day. 👍 thanks!
Thanks man for this tip... I live in an apartment and have been searching and reading up online about them (fruit flies), to try and gain some familiarity with - how they breed, what attracts them, why they're are so prevalent this time of year (end of summer/beginning of fall). I've tried one type of trap in a small glass jar filled with apple cider vinegar, and mixed with a cut-up rotting banana... seams to kinda work!. But your suggestion (judging by the demonstration) looks like the most effective method for trapping that I've seen so far. Gonna give it a go! 👍
Hi, thank you for that info. I use Apple Cider vinegar. Get a used glass jar, pour a few inches in jar, cover with cling film, pierce a few tiny holes on the top of cling film. I leave my jar on kitchen window sill. Fly's are really drawn to this. Once they get through the holes in the cling film, they can't get out
I tested different fruit vinegars, and the winner by far is white balsamic. Also, I covered the top of the glass with cling wrap, then poke holes with a toothpick. They fly in and can't get out. We don't have to use as much vinegar that way.
I'm so desperate, I'll try both ways. They also hide in bubble ceilings. I'm boiling water the drain and will pour bleach into and place lids on top overnight to stop the bredding in the drains.
Wow... in the space of one day this has become my favorite gardening channel. If I had known about this fruit fly remedy I could have saved myself a _lot_ of misery this summer.
You made some great points. The smell they enter into is greater than the scent needed to exit, therefore they walk in circles. Old beer works extremely well too. Just set it up in a red cup and 3 days later 💨 problem solved
I love the videos. Thank you very much my friend! Gave a sub as your easy to hear, knowledgeable and to the point with some science. Keep up the fantastic work!
Boy, does it work! And, SO simple. I didn't know it was working until I decided to pour it out in the sink: lots of flyies! Thanks, Bill in Reno, Jan 2023
I wanted to bring a fruit basket to my in-laws after a death in the family. So I called the grocery store to order one but there was no one there to make the basket. I asked the kid if he could gather the fruit & give me everything I'd need to put it together myself, so he hooked me up big time (or so I thought) they charge $40 for the largest size and he gave me over $75 worth of fruit (plus stuff that wasn't normally included) anyhow, aside from the fact that I got a raging stomach virus about a week after that, I started seeing some gnats around the kitchen which usually ONLY happens when I have fresh fruit on the table. about a week later the gnats were flying around the entire house. I've been cleaning nonstop for the last week & they're still here so I'm guessing these buggers multiply really quickly. Ughh, they buzz by my ears when I'm sleeping & they're very aggressive...they seem to like to swarm/attack your head and hair. I'm going to get the stuff tomorrow so I can try this method. Keeping my fingers crossed that this will do the trick. Thanks so much for the great info! p.s. I suspect the stomach virus could be related to the flies' carrying germs. It was the worst stomach flu I ever had. anyone else familiar with this??
I use a piece of tomato (it will slowly rot which attracts them ), some apple juice and the dish soap. I then make a paper funnel, insert in the jar tip down, and tape in place. The tip of the funnel cannot touch the liquid. No gaps in the taping. Lasts a long time.
Such a good boy! Btw, what kind of bowl is that? To prevent gorging? Which (sadly enough) isn't rare with adopted former shelter dogs, bc they've often been victims of severe neglect...
Wonderfully helpful. I'm in Hampstead and have garden tomatoes grown by a neighbor in a bowl on my counter, so yeah, I've got a few flies I need to make go away.
Right now I have covered the bottom of the sink with water and poured some apple cider vinegar and a few drops of dishwashing liquid. Less than an hour ago and got 7 so far. I did a fogger a couple days ago and that was most effective. Am so fed up with them. Think I brought them home on bananas from the grocery store. Heading out for more bombs now.
An empty/unwashed wine bottle or bottle-conditioned beer bottle also works very well. It is easy to cork off the bottle when they are inside. A banana peel and a vacuum hose also does the trick.
I've tried different methods, and the shot glass method is just perfect. They can find their way out of some bottles, but the shot glass+soap trick is instant.
As someone else also noted they can move to breeding in sink drains. I used a drain cleaner to knocked them out of there but they are still coming from somewhere I haven't located yet. A big thank you for this video as I was using red Solo cups with 1/2 inch of vinegar and cellophane wrap on top with holes. I noticed they were getting some but many were flying in, circling for a bit and flying back out. With much smaller containers filled to the rim uncovered I am seeing a higher death count. TY \m/
Another thing to add is a yellow sticky tape made to catch flies. I bought some off Amazon, cut them in half and taped it around a small yogurt cup. Then put Apple cider vinegar in it. Peel the front and back off but leave a small strip of paper over the tape so you can touch the cup without the yellow sticky part sticking to your fingers as you hold the cup The flies are attracted to the vinegar, and land on the tape, front and back. So many flies get caught, More then you even realized you had. You can put cups all over the house. And outside, I even put them on the stairs half wall and it's amazing how many were all over the house. And put them by plants as well. They will go to the plants to get water or moisture out of the soil. Also, plants have a different kind of gnat called fungus gnats that don't like vinegar, but the tape will catch them too. They like water, so put that tape around a cup of water for those kind of gnats. And place next to your plants. They lay eggs in the soil. And water plants with water that has been soaking misquitos pellets in it. The misquito pellets kill gnats too. But it has to be soaked to kill the newly hatched babies. A side note about putting these traps outside, There was a comment on the product review section on Amazon, that the yellow sticky paper caught lizards on it and they couldn't get off. so someone put a sheet inside a wire mesh that was too small for lizards, but caught the gnats.
I really hate those traps. They’re invasive, ugly and pretty gross. This will take up a lot less room with no nasty clean up. Any time I see those sticky traps I want to 🤢 😂
@@TheMillennialGardener 🤣 so true. I hate looking at them. But it doesn't take long to catch every gnat and then dispose. I've tried just the apple vinegar in a cup and while it caught some, a lot still flew around. Annoying! But this method worked. I guess if you're not catching enough and quickly enough, give the take a try. Wish they still made clear ones. Years ago I bought what was called window tape for gnats or flies. But I can't find it now. 😮💨
Been looking through the comments in regards to the flies coming from indoor plants. If they don’t take to this vinegar I’m going to try what you said. I’m in the UK in spring, it’s not hot and my house plants are causing the fruit flies/fungus gnats. I’m spraying water with dish soap on the soil which kills the eggs but somehow they seem to be multiplying in this “warmer weather”
@@Shyne4meI found the perfect solution for fungus gnats. I saw a video on RU-vid where this lady who has a lot of plants discovered using mosquito pellets in the plants. She put the pellets on the soil and every time she watered, they released the stuff that kills the mosquitos. It killed the gnat eggs as well. I tried it and it works. She also put the mosquito pellets in a jug of water, let them dissolve and watered the plants with it. There are different gnats. Fruit flies will go to the vinegar, but drain gnats and soil gnats usually don't. The misquito pellet solution works great. What I mean by misquito pellets are the things you buy to put in the water around your house or on the soil where it connects water when it rains. It kills the larve. The proper name is mosquito bits made by a company called Summit. Amazon sells them. In the US, Walmart and the garden stores, home Depot, etc sells them. Use the vinegar and sticky tape method for the fruit flies, and the misquito bits for soil gnats, and have a spray bottle of water with dish soap in it to spray on gnats that are flying around annoying you. God bless you.
If you found this video helpful, please "Like" and share to help increase its reach! Thanks for watching 🙂TIMESTAMPS for convenience: 0:00 What Causes A Fruit Fly Infestation? 2:05 Removing Susceptible Fruits From Fruit Flies 3:00 The Best Fruit Fly Trap 5:48 Fruit Fly Trap Results 7:22 Adventures With Dale
NEVER order vinegar and oil for your salad at a restaurant. I was a waitress once and picked up a bottle from a table and I thought someone had place "peppercorns" in the bottle. Nope!
I use Apple cider vinegar in a small container wrapped in plastic wrap and secured with a rubber band. Poke tiny holes in the plastic. Fruit flys go in but they can’t get out. I have one doing it’s job on my counter right now. 🙃🇺🇸
I've had good luck with those CO2 vacuum traps. They have a UV light in them that attracts flies at night. Then, the vacuum force sucks them in. I've never caught a bee in them. Simply run them at night when bees aren't out. They won't work in the daytime, because it needs to be dark so the UV light attracts them.
So glad I found your website. I cannot even leave bananas out because I start to get hundreds of fruit flies . I was using white vinegar and dawn and it wasn’t catching many of them. I will try the balsamic. Even when I peel a banana I put the peels on a paper plate in the refrigerator. Due to the fact the flies would hover all around the garbage pail. They drive me CRAZY. 🙏
our problem isnt exactly connected to fruit!! we recently moved in a beautiful new appartment, but because we have this pretty tropical garden next to our place, we get a steady stream of these tiny fruit flies flying everywhere!!! some even flew into our fridge!! i will try your fruit vinegar and soap and see how that goes. I heard also to try spraying cinammon everywhere!!
Excellent! Also boil water and pour down your kitchen sink when you notice an outbreak. Any veggies I buy now go into the refrigerator bins. They can also be a sign of dead mice. Bleach can do the trick but boiling water melts their slime Habitat.
I do the same thing except i put the shot glass about 3/4 full of the wine vinegar leaving some headspace and then a piece of cling film tightly over the top and poke a small hole just big enough for them to get in but for some reason they can't figure out how to get out !!
You could also add a single drop of rinse aid for your dishwasher and that will make the vinegar super slippery and the fruit flies will sink right down.
i set up 5 shot glasses like you instructed, don't judge me for having numerous shot glasses :o) Before i finished the last glass, one fly was already caught. I used Apple Cider Vinegar. *Thank You!*
