Flies are invading your home or ruining your outdoor time? A homemade fly trap allows you to capture them effectively, without resorting to chemicals. How to make it? What bait should I use to make it really effective? Here’s everything you need to know.
With the good weather, flies also return, capable of transforming a meal or an afternoon in the garden into a real headache. No need to constantly draw out the swatter or spray chemical insecticides: a homemade fly trap can attract and capture them effectively. Easy to make with a few everyday ingredients, it can be used both indoors and outdoors.
You don’t have a DIY soul? Rest assured, this fly trap will require very little expertise and will be extremely effective.
- Cut a water bottle in half.
- Pour a sweet mixture in the bottom of the bottle
- Place the other half of the bottle on top, with the neck facing down, to seal the whole thing. The chosen mixture will attract flies which will then enter the bottle but will not be able to come out.
- Place this trap particularly near the fruit basket where flies, especially fruit flies, always seem to be found.
- Renew the trap as soon as the number of trapped flies becomes too numerous, approximately every week.
This ultra-simple and quick-to-make fly trap can also be used during picnics continually bothered by wasps, provided you concoct a sweet mixture which alone will attract the wasps.
You can also make a fly trap using a glass container, such as a jar for example.
- Pour one of the mixtures recommended above into the bottom of the jar.
- Stretch a little cling film over the top to completely close the jar.
- Hold the cling film in place using an elastic band.
- Perform a few holes with the tip of a knife so that flies can enter the jar but cannot get out.
If you don’t want to kill flies, you can simply drop a very ripe fruit at the bottom of the jar which will attract them, then release them into nature by lifting the cling film.
You can carry out the same operation by making a paper funnel at the entrance to the jar. You can also use a coffee filter with the tip cut off.
The best fly traps, natural and effective
Are you wondering what is the best ingredient to put in a fly trap to make it effective? You have the choice depending on what you have at home. We generally mix a little water and add a sweet ingredient. Here’s what works:
- liquid sugar
- syrup
- fruit juice
- honey
- jam
- beer
- a very ripe fruit
- a baker’s yeast/sugar mixture
- cider vinegar which, contrary to popular belief, will attract flies, and a little dishwashing liquid, which will stick to their legs.
It may not be the most aesthetic solution, but the fly paper is particularly effective, and it is very easy to manufacture at a low cost, which will allow you to change it very regularly. You can either opt for paper or coat a bottle or jar depending on what you have.
- Mix two tablespoons of Honey slightly heated with a tablespoon of water.
- Cut a sheet of paper in half or use a small piece of yellow tulle, a color that will remind flies of light and attract them.
- Coat the sheet or tulle with the mixture sweet and sticky.
- Leave to dry for a few minutes.
- Hang high using a hook or a piece of string.
- Renew this fly paper as soon as it becomes less sticky.
