We have been attacked by an abundance of fruit flies lately in my kitchen. AHH! Don’t you love those little flying insects that seem to find every bit of food in your kitchen and around your trash can? Here is our simple, frugal, and effective solution!
Fruit Fly Trap
1 quart jar
1 piece of paper, rolled up into a funnel
tape
apple cider vinegar
small slice of banana
Fill a quart jar with a 1/2 inch of apple cider vinegar and a small piece of banana. Roll up your paper into a funnel shape (larger at the top) and tape it in place. Place the funnel into your jar and make sure all the edges are secured shut with tape. You may have to adjust the size of your funnel to make sure it fits nicely into your jar. Place the jar where the fruit flies are flying around and let it go to work. You will be amazed at how well this trap works. The fruit flies will smell the fruit and climb inside, but for some odd reason they don’t fly back up the funnel to get out. When you have caught a good supply, place the entire jar in the freezer. After a short time that flies with die and you can remove the jar from the freezer and use it again without even removing the old contents. Use repeatedly until your fruit flies are eliminated.
As you can see in my picture, this easy trap is amazingly effective!
Ant Trap
We are often plagued with ants in the Spring time as well around here. We have various sorts of carpenter and sugar ants. This little concoction does the trick! Last year we had huge carpenter ants all around our kitchen. Many were coming out of our electrical saukets in our kitchen. We were blown away by how quickly they were eradicated with this recipe.
1 tsp. borax (borax is an natural laundry boosting powder available in the laundry section of the store, normally on the top shelf)
2 cups hot water
6 Tbsp sugar
folded paper towel
small shallow cup (like a creme burlee dish)
Disolve borax in hot water. Stir in sugar. Dip the folded paper towel, using tongs, in the solution till completely saturated with solution. Cram the paper towel in the dish. Place in location where you have seen the ants. This solution will be eaten by the ants and taken back to the nest to share with the other ants and thus eradicate the entire nest. Keep away from children by placing on a countertop or cupboard, if possible.
It’s Frugal Fridays!
He estado navegando por la red durante más de 2 horas
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Según entiendo, si todos los escritores compartiesen tan estupendo
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Quisiera felicitarte por esta entrada. Me ha resultado muy útil, saludos y suerte.
You’re a writer and editor??? Really?
Nancy,
I have fruit flies around my Christmas cactus and my sweet potato plant. I tried your remedy with the apple cider funnel but NOT ONE FRUIT FLY has flown to the trap. Tell me again whether the bottom of the funnel has to touch the apple cider with the banana slice as mine doesn’t. Also, how large should be the opening at the top? Mine is about 4 inches. Should the neck of the jar be smaller?
Frustrated as the jar has been sitting there for three days now and not ONE fruit fly.
Anu
My guess is that you don’t have fruit flies; you may have white flies – nasty little critters that attack houseplants. You can look them up on the Internet.
Trying it now. Fruit flies already gathering around the top. Thanks for the solution. They were starting to drive me crazy
I’m late to the party here – just found this via Pinterest. Good tips! I tried the fruit fly trap last summer and found that it worked even better when I left the funnel off altogether. I used a shallow cup and they just hopped right in!
To kill roaches use blown-in insulation in your attic that has boric acid as the fire retardent. My old house has layers of 3 walls, 3 floors and 3 ceilings, plus tons of books and papers. For years I had the exterminator in EVERY 3 months and listened to his comments about getting rid of the books and papers or I would never get rid of the roaches. We blew insulation in our attic and have not had roaches or an exterminator in 17 years. Plus I still have my books and papers!!
Is ther a GREAT home remedy for roaches ?? Had somone to come and stay with us and they brought along their friends. Have sprayed ..but …we are seeing a few again ! Help Please !!
Best thing for Roaches is again Borax, 1 part borax, 1 part castor sugar, sprinkle behind fridge and counters, they also take it back to the nest and after 2 applications (3 weeks apart) I have been roach free for a year at a time.
If you have an instant roach that you need to kill, keep this on hand, just mix up about 2 table spoons of washing up liquid in about a 300ml water (just more than a cup) in a spray bottle (the garden spray kind with a strong jet) and fire, it incapacitates and kills roaches in min. and makes for a very easy clean up (tissue paper and the loo works wonders) no poison, so the rest of the household is safe!
Good luck!
To kill roaches without any worry about kids or pets, put out a dish of baking soda. It will give them gas, and since they can’t burp, they will explode.
Those pesky bugs in the bulk packages actually float, so you can pour anything like grits into a bowl of water and skim the buggies off until the water runs clear…
We probably will never know how many buggies we’ve accidentally eaten already in our lifetimes, and the fact that we’re still alive let’s me know that, hey, life happens!
I just think about shows like “Survivor” where they’re voluntarily eating all sorts of creatures for protein and survival, and remember that a few missed buggies won’t kill me. Long as I don’t see ‘em!
And, just so you’ll know, I’d never serve anyone anything suspect — this one involves only me!
We do not have any bananas, but im hoping something like sugar will work. The gnats are everywhere
Borax is also highly poisonous. Use with utmost caution.
Borax is no more poisonous than salt. Boric acid however is poisonous. They are two different things.
Fleas… what worked best was bombing my house once a week for a month and when I used the bombs I put one under the house too. Just remember to read the instructions.
For fleas I use Dawn Dish soap. in the house put in a pie tin with water (1/2cup warm water and about 10 drops of dish soap – blue original) and put a DESK LAMP over it turn all other lights off and let sit for about an hour th efleas go to the light and drown, I also wash all animlas with dawn and it helps and use a solution of 32 drops to 1 gallon of water to spray my yard every few months and it works have not had fleas and we had them bad all over our house where we had flea bites and hubby had some that got infected. so it wa svery bad, and my poor animlas had raw spots from scratching until we did this and we ahve been great since then
I have not tried this before, but I have had wonderful success with a mason jar. You poke small holes in the top of a mason jar lid and put about 1 cup of wine in the jar, then put the lid on. The knats fly in, but don’t come out. The sweeter the wine the better, I think!
Any tips on killing those pesty pantry moths? They are everywhere in my house…Someone told me they come in your boxed foods from the grocery store, but now they are all over the place… HELP
I’m sorry I don’t have a fix, but what I wanted to say for your future reference is that if you buy anything in bulk, especially bird seed or that type of thing, they can definitely come from there. Don’t buy any bulk foods that could potentially breed that sort of thing. If you think about it, there is no kind of protection, no box, wrap etc., it’s all out in the open.
I would get those because we would buy bulk birdseed. we would have to ‘prep’ the bags first before storing into airtight containers by running small batches in the microwave for 30 seconds and then storing it.
Also get sealed containers for opened boxes of food. It won’t get rid of the moths but cut off the food source and they will all die eventually. Good Luck!
So you’re on top of controlling any further problems. Good. Just didn’t know if you’d thought of bulk foods as a source. Good luck on your mission!
Or freeze them for a few days.
my mom used to have that problem, she opened a jar of dried bay leaves and that killed them
Yes – buy these. Super effective, and there’s not toxic chemicals. You can get them on Amazon or direct from the manufacturer. Good luck! http://www.contech-inc.com/products/pantrymothtrap/
It works thanks because these fruit flies have been driving me crazy. Again thanks
I’m trying this I’ll let you know if it works for me, because everything else I have tried is not working. And I don’t want to spray poison around my dogs.
So I tried this twice hoping it worked but I must some really smart flies because I clearly see them in there and a couple minutes later they are out. Lol. I have Houdini fruit flies!
I have used kinda the same thing but different. Jar with apple cider vinegar, 3 drops of dawn dish liquid, saran wrap over the jar mouth, with small slit in top and rubber band around top to hold in place. It doesn’t help with ants but fruit flies are attractive to apple cider and dawn will not let them fly out!
Holy crow! I didn’t think it would work, but it absolutely does! Thanks for the great tip!
WOW!!! this trick really works! Before I could wrap the paper in a funnel, the fruit flies had started gathering! Could not believe how well this worked! Thanks!!!
i’ve used a version of this idea for dealing with fruit flies. i take a plastic water bottle, cut the upper portion off. i put the vinegar, banana slice and a few drops of dish soap in the lower part of the bottle, i put the top piece top down into the lower portion i place a strip of masking tape around the join. i find the soap in the water prevents the flies from flying.
Do you have any handy tricks for getting rid of fleas in the house? Our precious lil Abbey(beagle/jack terrier)carried some in from outside. We have treated her, and our unwilling cat Cosmo, but the little things have found their way into our carpet and couches. Please help, if you can.
P.S. Going to the store on they way home to get our ‘fly trap’.
The best stuff for fleas, Flys, ants, roaches, even spiders is to get a spray bottle and fill with water then add about 2 TBSP of Dawn dish soap. Spray what ever bug you need to kill and within seconds they are dead. I’ve spent so much money on flea sprays but this has helped the most.
Cedar Shavings outside, do this before mowing so it will shred it up more. Fleas hate cedar! You can also use it inside, just put it in a bowl, or vase. (Regular dawn soap) baths for the animals.
Hi, I don’t know if you’re only willing to use natural products, but there are none that will get rid of flea infestation, and the longer it’s let go the more difficult it is to solve. You have to get a good flea shampoo for any animals in the house and use flea bombs. First, you will need to wash all linens, etc, and put them in plastic bags until bombing is completed. Then lift up any dustruffles on beds, lift up cushions on couches and chairs, etc. Open cupboards and clear any crowded areas (like a closet floor full of blankets/clothes, and wash those things as well). Have a plan about where you can take your pets for a couple hours and see if you can borrow an extra crate if needed, then when the house is ready for bombing, bathe each pet in the house with flea shampoo, crate them, and take them out of the house immediately. It’s very important you don’t let them “touch” anything. Cover any plants (easiest way is to group them on a table; just cover with plastic). Then bomb the house using the appropriate amount of bombs for your home’s square footage. Follow thee dirctions on the bombs, but basically, you will need to be out of the house about an hour, open all windows for about an hour, and you should be good to go. This is the most important thing of all though. If you don’t take them to the vet and get flea control (for all of them, even the ones taht don’t go out), you’ll have to go through all of this again. It would be best to do it the next day or same day if possible. Sorry, I know it’s a lot to digest, but I guarantee you it’s the only way…
Actually, you can get food grade diatomaceous earth from feed/farm stores, possibly garden stores and even some other places (check Home Depot, Walmart etc). Spread this throughout your home, let sit, then vacuum. We do this about every 2 years, and we do not have fleas in our home even though we have 4 dogs. Our dogs are never treated for fleas, and still do not have them.
your going to have to bomb the house probably Steven…it will take about 3-4 days before you notice them less to completely gone.
For fleas~It will take time to do this trick but it works very, very well…..First to understand the flea….It takes 10 days for a flea from laying the egg to dying and secondly fleas are made up of almost entirely water, which is how this trick works…..Take regular table salt and sprinkle all over your floors, carpets, dog beds, furniture etc……Leave over night and vaccum up the next morning…..Make sure you empty your vaccum and put the reminants outside……Repeat this process again in 9 days……….You will have to repeat this process 3 times in order to get entirely rid of the flea problem….This not only works with fleas it also works with sand fleas……..
This works wonders! We acquired sand fleas while on vacation at the beach. After returning home we realized we were completely infested. I done the process for 14 days and we were rid of the pesty things. I noticed a HUGE difference within 3 days but continued on with the treatment.
i have used this method and it worked really well. and i made a rosemary “tea” to bathe my cat in because he was allergic to flea meds of all kinds. it helps if you vacuum first before you salt and then again. fleas will come to the surface of the carpet when there is activity. so the vacuuming helps bring them up so that they can get killed by the salt. this method actually helped more than the bombs without all the nasty chemicals.
Vaccumm as much as possible with a bagless vaccumm. Dump the dirties into the dumpster outside. The flea eggs will hatch in the vac bag otherwise. Be sure you are using a HIGH QUALITY flea prevention EVERY 30 DAYS from the VET! This step is very important. If all pets are protected every 30 days eventually the life cycle will die out. Keep in mind about flea baths and such can strip off the prevention. Talk with your veterinarian about this. Also some houses very infested may require the yard to be sprayed or house to be sprayed! Hope that helps
Thought I’d offer my recommendation, when ever we get a flea outbreak in the house we sprinkle around DE – deciduous earth, food grade not pool grade. It’s completely safe for your family and your pets. You can even sprinkle it on the pets themselves to help kill the fleas. And in your yard to help kill the fleas out there too. Though it goes away when it rains so you have to reapply. Anyway when used in the house coat your furniture, pet beds, carpet everything with DE, it’s basically a white powder, Now you have to leave it on for a few days for it to work. Then you can vacuum it all up and dead fleas.
More info if you like – http://www.richsoil.com/diatomaceous-earth.jsp
For fleas in the house, place a nightlight in a low outlet near the floor during the night. Place a shallow bowl with a mixture of dawn dish liquid and water below the lite nightlight. Not sure why this works but it does. The next morning, you will see lots of fleas. Not a totally cure but it helps.
Lmao wasn’t even done my funnel they we’re flying right in! Love it !
A couple other tips which I have found the hard way.
When you bring home fruits or veggies from the grocery store, make sure when you put the filled bag, you tie it (I’ll tell you why in a minute).
Then when you get home put the whole bag in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
My son-in-law works in the produce department of a well known store. He said the back where the
produce is stored, has trillions of those fruit flies….it’s just the way it is.
If you tie off the bag, you keep the fruit flies from flying into your food while shopping….putting the bag in the fridge kills whatever you may have brought home with you.
Just remember, anything with a skin, can have fruit flies.
Pour bleach and boiling water down your drains. They also like to hang out there, where there is just enough moisture, like a bathroom where the sinks are used that much as say the kitchen.
I have just made a habit of doing it about every 2 weeks, and have seen a tremendous difference with that alone.
Don’t be afraid of putting traps in all rooms. I have three in my kitchen, one in my livingroom and one in my bedroom.
This year, studies found, that the fruit fly populations exploded in some states, one of which is mine-WI.
The good news, is that after a first frost, dead, gone in the gardens, but still be wary in the grocery.
I also discovered by accident, when i left a small amount of white wine in a class..the next morning, it looked like black wine as the remaining liquid was covered up by tons of the little vermons (fruit flies) i’ve not had an issue since.
does it have to be apple cider vinegar? or can it be the reg white?
I tried the regular (white) vinegar with dawn soap because I didn’t have any cider vinegar on hand. A few gnats later and I went to buy some cider vinegar. When I mixed that with a few drops of dawn dishwashing soap, it worked 200% better! It attracted the gnats/fruit flies so much better!
I think it’s the apple in the apple cider vinegar that attracts the flies.
Another way to get rid of ants and also caterpillars is whole cloves (not clove powder, has to be the whole thing). They dont like the cloves so go away, but you need to use a lot. Think of them as a fence or boundary, so you use enough.
Is the tip of the paper in the vinegar?
No. It is just above the vinegar.
will it work if the tip is in the vinegar? or do I need to redo my funnel??
You need to keep a space between the tip and the vinegar otherwise the fruit flies will not go into the jar.
I have ants coming through my recessed ceiling light. How do I apply the solution to the light so it will repel the ants?
A way to attract fruit flies and kill them at the same time is to put apple cider vinegar in a bowl with a few drops of dish soap.
Thank you so so much! I’ve tried using alcohol as bait before and that worked for a bit, but then they came back shortly after! It’s very hard to keep healthy food when my space is limited and infested with fruit flies; it’s been awful. But within a few minutes of trying this, they had swarmed to it and became trapped! Many are even drowning because the banana pieces are somewhat submerged. I will recommend this in the future!
will def try the trap for fruit flies…. BUT for ants a great fast and easy way to get rid of them is with BABY POWDER they die/leave and never come back… since i learned this i always use it as soon as i see them trying to come in during the summer time.,.. works great!!
Yep me too! been using baby powder for years now when I accidentally spilled some on an ants nest and they left the nest soon after
how much baby powder whould you use to get rid of ants inside becuse i got ants in side my house tryed raid wich is not good useing that around my dog white vingar because my mother in law said that whould help did not so not sure what to try now