Fruit Fly Trap

Jeff and I have differing philosophies on dealing with bugs in the house.  He has a zero tolerance policy and kills all intruders (aside from the time in college when he caught a fly and put it on a leash, but that is another story).  I, on the other hand, believe in catch and release.  I wish I could say that it was out of the goodness of my humane heart, but it’s more that I don’t like to feel a bug squish beneath my fingers, even through a piece of paper.  One thing we do have in common is our shared dislike of fruit flies.  When their population seems to be climbing, Jeff puts together one of these incredibly simple but effective fruit fly traps:



Supplies:

• A clear container such as an old bottle or jar


• A piece of paper


• Tape


• Scissors


• Fruit scraps, such as a banana peel or apple core

Instructions:

1) Place the food scraps inside the jar

2) Form the paper into a funnel with an opening just big enough for a fruit fly to crawl in (roughly 1 mm) and fasten with tape





3) Tape the funnel to the jar



The finished product:



The flies crawl in but cannot find their way out, and the odor stays contained.  I suppose you could wrap the jar in some decorative paper to make it more aesthetically pleasing, but around here we keep it simple and unadorned.  It's more fun to see our growing swarm trapped in the bottle.  And rather than feeling bad about killing bugs, I like to think that they happily live out the remainder of their days in an all-you-can-eat fruit fly buffet.