How To Catch Fruit Flies Without Apple Cider Vinegar: Fruit Fly Trap Guide

Learning how to catch fruit flies without apple cider vinegar is necessary when you have an infestation but can’t abide the smell of the vinegar.

Sometimes all it takes is bringing home one piece of fruit and your spotless and beautiful kitchen instantly becomes infested with fruit flies.

Luckily you have multiple options for traps that will catch and kill fruit flies quickly and easily.

This guide explains how to catch fruit flies without apple cider vinegar, by offering fruit fly trap alternatives that are based on stopping the infestation by using their lifecycle and habits to exterminate them.

How To Catch Fruit Flies Without Apple Cider Vinegar

Making a similar solution using a sugary liquid alternative is how to trap fruit flies without apple cider vinegar.

A fruit fly trap without apple cider vinegar is just as effective at luring and killing fruit flies.

Using an alternative like beer, wine, or fruit juice in combination with a drop or two of dish soap is how to get rid of fruit flies in your house without vinegar.

How To Make a Fruit Fly Trap Without Apple Cider Vinegar With Household Items

Here is how to make a fruit fly trap without apple cider vinegar with household items. You will only need a few items from your house and you will easily be able to make an effective trap.

These are the three easy traps to make and how to catch fruit flies without apple cider vinegar:

1. Open Top Fruit Fly Trap

One option for a fruit fly trap no apple cider vinegar added, is an open-top fruit fly trap. This can be a small bowl, or cup with a liquid such as beer, wine, or fruit juice.

Simply pour in one of those liquids up to ¼ of the cup or bowl. Then add a drop or two of dish soap.

What will happen is when the fruit flies are drawn to the sugary liquid they will land and the dish soap will cause the surface tension to break, drowning the fruit flies.

2. Saran Wrap Top Fruit Fly Trap

For this DIY fruit fly trap without apple cider vinegar, you will fill a cup or mason jar ¼ with your liquid and then place a layer of saran wrap over the top. Take a toothpick and pick holes into the saran wrap.

This allows the fruit flies to enter the trap but makes it difficult for them to exit, which is how to kill fruit flies without apple cider vinegar. The flies will drown in the liquid and you can take off the saran wrap to empty and refill the trap, which is how to catch fruit flies without apple cider vinegar and effectively kill them.

3. Cone Top Fruit Fly Trap

The cone-top homemade fruit fly trap without vinegar is similar to the open top, but instead of an open top, you take a piece of paper and form it into a cone. You then place the small opening of the cone down into the fruit fly trap without vinegar.

Once again use the alternative to vinegar like beer, wine, or fruit juice. You can also use a piece of fruit but remember that they will use fruit as an opportunity to lay eggs.

Adding liquid at the bottom will cause them to drown while the cone will prevent them from escaping, which is what makes this homemade fly trap without apple cider vinegar effective.

How To Prevent and How To Catch Fruit Flies Without Apple Cider Vinegar

Although a fruit fly trap, diy, without apple cider vinegar is an effective solution to a fruit fly breakout, there is also prevention.

Fruit flies seem to appear out of nowhere, and it can be tough to curb their spread.

(Image: Katherine Bowman⁴)

They can come in on fruit that you buy at the store since they are drawn to fruit for its sugar content. Sugar provides them with their primary diet, but fruit also serves as the perfect place to put their eggs.

A female fruit fly, in her lifetime, can lay up to 500 eggs.¹ This is a lot especially considering fruit flies only live 40 to 50 days.

Fruit flies are also drawn to warmer conditions so when it gets cold outside you may see them begin to spawn in your kitchen, which is when you can make a DIY fruit fly trap, no apple cider vinegar or with apple cider vinegar.

This is how you prevent fruit flies from spawning and becoming a greater problem in your house.

Keep Your Kitchen Clean

Fruit makes the perfect home for their eggs since once the fruit fly larvae hatch they have a steady food supply source right there. One mode of prevention is to thoroughly clean any fruit when getting home from the grocery store.

This will wash off any eggs that may be present. Also, keep your kitchen counter clean and free of any organic material.

Fruit flies seek out organic material in the garbage or even in the sink. Keeping your garbage can firmly sealed is recommended as well as getting rid of the garbage regularly.

If fruit flies do break out, place your homemade fruit fly trap, diy without vinegar near their main focal point whether it is a fruit bowl or the garbage can. Always get rid of overripe fruit, and be sure to clean out bowls that have had produce in them as well as your garbage can.

Fruit flies can be drawn to the liquids that are left behind, and can lay their eggs on the surface. Using that overripe fruit in a trap is how to catch fruit flies without apple cider vinegar.

Clean Your Drain To Prevent a Fruit Fly Problem

Learning how to get rid of fruit flies in drain systems is also beneficial since they are attracted to organic material and food that may settle in the drains.

You can pour vinegar down the drain, but if you don’t have any you can pour boiling water down your drain, thoroughly brush your drain, or pour a drain cleaner.

Avoid pouring any kind of food scraps or organic material down the drain so they don’t have anywhere to lay their eggs.

Gnats Vs. Fruit Flies: How Do You Spot the Difference?

The main difference between gnats and fruit flies is what they are attracted to. Fruit flies are attracted to sugars and yeast, which is why they are drawn to sugary liquids or alcohol.

This is why you will find them primarily in the kitchen and around fruits and food and why juices and alcohol are how to catch fruit flies without apple cider vinegar. Gnats, on the other hand, are drawn to plant life and vegetation, which is why you will find them in gardens or around house plants.

Visually a gnat is black and slender with longer legs, and they look similar to a small mosquito. Fruit flies are a rounded shape with an orange or reddish color, and look like smaller houseflies.²

How Do You Get Rid of Gnats?

Gnats inhabit plant areas and can ruin a backyard garden or your kitchen herb garden. You can treat gnats such as fungus gnats the same way as fruit flies with an apple cider vinegar trap or any of the alternatives mentioned.

You just place your DIY fruit fly trap near your indoor or outdoor plants, and they will be drawn to it. An effective method for getting rid of gnats in plants is also using diatomaceous earth, which is a powder substance that can dehydrate and kill various pests.

Mixing some diatomaceous earth in a spray bottle with water and then spraying your plants can be an effective method of warding off and killing gnats.

Best Trap for How To Catch Fruit Flies Without Apple Cider Vinegar

Regular vinegar is not an effective lure for fruit flies, and they generally avoid it since it doesn’t have the fruit and sugar content that apple cider vinegar has.

The apple cider vinegar trap is the most common whether you use an open top, saran wrap top, or cone top trap.

(Image: Smabs Sputzer⁵)

The best option is using a DIY fruit fly trap with a saran wrap top since it prevents fruit flies from exiting the trap.

Using wine, beer, or fruit juice as an alternative is how to catch fruit flies without apple cider vinegar.

Frequently Asked Questions About How To Catch Fruit Flies Without Apple Cider Vinegar