Summer is fly season. If you hate flies, then it’s time to work on fly attractant. Flies are pesky and always seem to be in your way. Not to mention, they are dirty! It seems like every time you turn around there’s another fly buzzing around your head.
Well, don’t worry – we’ve got you covered. In this blog post, we will teach you how to make five easy fly traps that will attract most flies and kill those pesky critters.
Content
What Is A Homemade Fly Attractant?
A fly attractant is any substance that is used to lure fruit flies into an area. There are many commercial fly attractants on the market, but it is also possible to make your own homemade fly traps.
Instead of buying, a store bought fly bait like bug zapper. Use different homemade fly bait and place it in a DIY plastic bag, plastic bottle, or mason jar to prevent flies.
Homemade fly trap works by luring fruit flies into an area with bait. Once the little buggers is in the area, it becomes trapped and is unable to escape. These flies will then die from starvation or dehydration. So what causes fly swatter?
You’re Misled By How Short Their Lives Are
The lifespan of an adult housefly is about 15 to 30 days. House flies only have about a month to live and will die on their own. It may seem like there’s not much point in trying to get rid of them.
That never happens, though. During the time that an adult fly lives, it keeps having babies every day and lays eggs that can hatch in a very short time.
Even though you keep hoping they will die, flies will keep growing, and before you know it, they will be everywhere. Apart from that, the worst thing about house flies is that they never stop from having babies.
It can lay about 150 eggs at a time and can do this 5–6 times over the course of its life. This means that a single fly can make more than 100 copies of itself in your home.
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They Can Live Longer In Warm Places.
Adult flies lay eggs that can only live and grow into larvae if certain things happen. Most of the time, these flies grow best in warm places where the temperature is 75 degrees or higher.
When you see more and more flies in your home, you need to take care of the temperature to stop them from breeding while they are still in the hatching stage.
Once they’ve turned into adult flies, you can’t stop them any other way than by killing them.
Any Amount Of Rotten Stuff Can Be A Good Place For Something To Grow.
The adult house fly lays its eggs in filth, and the larva grows into the fly’s next stage, called a pupa, around things that are going bad.
So, if you have a trash can near the door or if your garbage disposal unit leaks or has other problems that make your home dirty, you should look into it.
Flies’ food sources include rotting fruit, chicken litter, rabbit pellets, animal droppings, and cat food. Most likely, flies are multiplying at an alarming rate in your home because of a smelly piece of rotting organic matter.
This could be anything from food to feces. It is a great place for houseflies to lay their eggs, and they will come from far and wide to take advantage of the filth.
Once flies get into your house, you need to do more to keep them out. To get rid of them for good, you need to use tools to kill the adults.
Make sure they don’t have much time to breed and lay eggs in the house. Take the right steps to stop the eggs that have already been laid from turning into adult flies.
Best Homemade Fly Trap
Empty Soda Bottle Fly Trap
- Serrated knife
- Permanent marker
- Cutting board or paper cone
- Small Hole punch (optional)
- Two-liter soda bottle
- Fly bait, such as ripe fruit
- Vinegar (optional)
- Scotch tape
- Piece of wire to hang your trap (optional)
- String
Instruction:
Just below the bottle’s tapered neck, use a permanent marker to draw a line all the way around the bottle.
Cut along the line with a sharp, serrated knife to cut off the top of the empty soda bottle. Use a cutting board to cut so you don’t damage your counter or table.
To finish the fly trap, take off the top of the soda bottle, turn it upside down, and slide the top into the bottom, like a funnel.
Take the paper cone out of the bottle so that you can put the fly bait in it. Pick a lure for your fly trap.
If you want to use this bottle fly trap outside to attract flies, you should use a smellier bait. Add a splash of vinegar to your indoor or outdoor fly trap to keep bees away.
If you’d rather have a trap that you can hang, use a hole punch to make two holes at the top of the bottle.
Make sure they go through the trap’s top and bottom layers. Then, thread a piece of wire through the holes and crimp the ends. Your fly trap is now ready to hang.
Making a Fly Trap from a Plastic Bottle
Get A Bottle Of Empty Soda.
This can be a used one, or you can just pour out the soda. Make sure all of the soda is gone and that the bottle has been washed out with warm water. Then, take off the top.
Take off the top of the bottle. Cut it with scissors or a sharp knife.
Use one of the scissors’ blades to make a hole in the bottle top. Do this right where the soda bottle’s funnel ends and the big shaft starts (near the middle of the bottle).
Make a hole and cut all the way around the water bottle. After you’ve poked a hole in the bottle, put your scissors in the hole and cut all the way around the bottle.
Cut off the whole top half funnel, so you’re left with just the funnel (top) and the shaft (bottom)
Turn the piece you cut over. Put it into the bottle’s bottom half. If you cut close enough to the edge of the funnel, it should stay inside as you slide it in.
Join the bottle parts’ two cut edges together. Staple the edges together.
The easiest and most effective way to do it. Just staple around the bottle three or four times at the same distance from each other.
Pour The Liquid Into The Bottle’s Funnel-shaped End.
Try dripping it down the sides of the funnel so that when the flies come near, they will stick right away.
Use a different kind of bait. You can cut up some apple into chunks and push them through the funnel’s bottom.
A piece of raw meat or a few tablespoons of old wine will also work. You can also just add water that has been mixed with sugar water or honey.
Add in vinegar. If the bait you want to use is a liquid, add a few teaspoons of vinegar, white vinegar is best. This will keep bees and other bugs from getting into the fly trap.
Put the bottle somewhere sunny. This will help the fruit or meat go bad, making it more likely that flies will find the bait. It will also make liquids evaporate, which makes a pheromone that attracts so many flies to the fly traps.
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Find The Right Can.
A standard-sized can of dog food or a can of soup will do. Take off the paper label and the top of the can, and then wash it with warm water. Before moving on to the next step, let it dry.
Cut pieces of duct tape. They should be long enough to go all the way around the can.
Don’t touch the sticky parts of the fly trap won’t work.
Cover the can with the lengths. Use your hands to press the duck tape firmly against the can. Give the duck tape a light rub to get the stickiness to move.
Take the tape off of the can. Now the can’s surface will be sticky.
Touch the can gently to find out how sticky it is. If it doesn’t stick well, try again with new pieces of duct tape.
Put A Small Flashlight On The Bottom Of A Can Lid With Tape.
Cover the flashlight’s base with the lid. This will give the flytrap a place to stand. Find a UV flashlight if you can, because flies are mostly drawn to UV light.
At night, put the can outside. Put the can on its side so that all of the glue can catch flies. Put the flashlight in the can and turn it on. Make sure the flashlight is on its right side and that it has fresh batteries.
Wait until the bugs come. They’ll be drawn to the light, but they’ll get stuck on the can’s sticky sides.
Switch out the can. If the can has worked to catch flies, you can try to empty it and use it again.
Wear gloves when you touch the can so you don’t have to touch the flies. If it stops working as well after a while, you may need to get a new one. Put it in a bag and then throw it away.
Fly Trap In A Glass Jar Or Mason Jar
Prepare The Soda Bottle Or Mason Jar
Get a small soda bottle or mason jar. This can be a mason jar (like a jam jar) or a plastic container, like one for nuts or peanut butter. If the jar or box has a lid, take it off.
Pour an apple cider vinegar into the jar. Buy a jar of apple cider vinegar and pour about an inch or so into the container. The flies will come to the container because of this.
Combine the vinegar and a few drops of dish soap. Dish soap breaks the surface tension, add a few drops of dish detergent or dish soap to the vinegar. If you don’t, the flies can stand on top of the vinegar and drink it.
Add Raw Meat Or Fruit.
You could also put fruit or meat in your container instead of the vinegar and dish soap mix.
Just cut up the things you want to add and put them at the bottom of the container. House flies will come to the container because the food smells bad.
Use plastic wrap to cover the jar. Cut off a piece that is at least three inches by three inches.
With your hands, pull the wrap tight around the edge of the container. If the plastic wrap won’t stay in place, put some tape on it or wrap a rubber band around it.
Puncture the plastic wrap. Use a toothpick, scissors, knife, or something similar to poke at least four small holes in the plastic wrap. This will make it possible for the flies to get into the trap.
Put the trap out in the open. The holes will let house flies into the trap.
They won’t be able to find the holes, so it will be almost impossible for them to get out. They may also want to eat whatever is in the container.
Put Down Dead Beneficial Insects.
Over time, more flies will have likely died in the trap. But it’s likely that some other flies drown in the container. Bring the trap inside and put it next to the sink.
Turn on your sink’s hot water. Make sure the plug is down so that the sink can fill up.
When it is full, put the container in the sink for ten minutes. The flies will drown.
Put the dead flies in the trash. Take off and throw away the plastic wrap.
Put the container in your trash can and bang it against the inside of the can. Do this until you get rid of all the flies and whatever you put in there in the first place.
Clean the empty plastic bottle from dead insects. To do this, just use liquid dish soap and warm water.
You can also use safe chemicals to make sure the container is clean and ready to use again. After cleaning the container, you can use it to make another trap.
Make Your Own Fly Strip Paper
Make long fruit flies sticky strips. To do this, get a paper bag from the grocery store. You will need to make long strips of sticky fly strip paper, so the bag should be tall.
Do not use plastic bags, because the sticky mixture won’t stick to the plastic.
Cut the fly strips about one inch wide and six inches long with a pair of scissors. About four or five of these fly trap strips will be needed.
Lay them flat on the table after you’ve cut them out.
Hole-punch The Strips And Make A Homemade Water Mixture.
Use scissors or a knife to poke a hole in the fly trap strip. Do this to each strip, do this. If you have a hole-punch, you can use that instead.
String should be tied through the hole. Cut a piece of string or wire that is at least six inches long.
Each strip of paper will need a string. Put the string or wire through the hole and knot it. How to Knot Something
Make a sugar water mixture. In a saucepan, put one part sugar water, one part honey.
Put the pot on the stove and heat it on medium-high until all of the ingredients are well mixed.
Let the sweet bait cool to room temperature after you’ve mixed the ingredients.
Wipe a large amount of the sweet mixture onto the strips and let it dry.
Place a string on the uppermost part of the strip and let it hang on walls, branches of trees outside your house.
Wait for flies to get lure from the smell of the sweet mixture on the paper.
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The type of homemade fly trap you have will tell you what kind of bait you need. The homemade fly trap will work better than the store bought fly bait.
You could try out a few different kinds to see which one works best for you.
Houseflies:
Most likely, the best way to cover all your bases is to use both sweet and meat flavors. The older the meat, the better it is to mix with something sweet like honey, maple syrup and sugar.
Bluebottles, and Blowflies:
A lot of people swear by using rotten fish or shrimp, which probably work best because they smell so bad.
Bait for Fruit Flies:
Use fruit (the riper, the better), apple cider vinegar, fruit juice, syrup, wine, beer, or any combination of these.
Conclusion
So there you have it, five easy traps to make at home that will help reduce the fly population in your area. The goal of these traps is to catch flies, so make sure that whatever flavor of the bait you use, it floats in enough liquid to drown the flies. You can use
- water with sugar
- maple syrup
- juice
- vinegar
- wine
- shrimp extract
- honey
Add a little dish soap to break the surface tension and help make sure the flies drown.
These traps are simple and effective, and they won’t break the bank either. Give them a try today!
