Frugal & Natural Pest Control: Fruit Flies & Ants Be Gone!

IMG_6140We 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!

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Post Author

This post was written by who has written 936 posts on Passionate Homemaking.

Lindsay Edmonds is first a lover of Jesus, wife, mother of three, homemaker, and writer. She is the editor of Passionate Homemaking since its beginning four years ago. She loves inspiring women around the world toward simple, natural, and intentional living for the glory of God.

151 Responses to “Frugal & Natural Pest Control: Fruit Flies & Ants Be Gone!”

  1. Kellie Feb 01, 2012 at 8:21 am #

    Okay, so should the bottom of the funnel be above the apple cidar, or touching the cidar?

    • Lindsay Feb 02, 2012 at 4:29 pm #

      It should be above the cider.

  2. Cheryl B. Jan 19, 2012 at 5:59 am #

    LOVE the fruit fly trap idea!!!! You are right, they just suddenly appear out of no where – in mass. 8-/ Definitely going to be trying this! THANKS for sharing it!

  3. Sus Sep 30, 2011 at 1:15 am #

    I’m so glad to find this! I’ve been having a heck of a time finding something that would work and yet not be too tempting for my kids to mess with. voila! Just make my jar, can’t wait to watch it work! I didn’t have banana, so I used a slice of over ripe tomato and added some sugar as well.

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