Fruit Fly Trap

Reading around on the net of late, I see a number of bloggers complain about fruit fly attacks on tomatoes and other fruit and vegies, in both their gardens and in their kitchens.

So here is an easy to make at home Fruit Fly Trap

What you will Need

Small plastic Drink Bottle

Sections of plastic straw 2-3 inch (50-75mm) long

Something to punch/melt the holes through the bottles.

Bottle of Vinegar

Instructions

Punch 3 or 4 small holes half way up, around the sides of bottle, insert a small cut off section (2-3 inch, 50-75mm) of a drinking straw through the hole, so that it is about half through.

The reason why you use the sections of straw is to move the entrance/ exits away from the walls of the bottles, to make it harder for the flies to escape.

Another thing to consider is that certain colours are more attractive to insects than others. A lot of insect traps are bright yellow for instance. Though in this case you might to experiment around. My suggestion would be to try straws that were a similar colour to the fruit being protected.

Pour about an inch (25 mm) or so of vinegar into the bottle and put the cap back on. Put this near the fruit which is attracting the fruit flies. Or make several and hang in a fruit tree which the flies are prone to attract.

Out in the open garden it will not completely destroy the pests. But it will decrease the numbers of fruit which is attacked. And each year that you do it will help keep the numbers minimized.

Another thing to remember is that after the harvest season is over is to pick up and discard or bury in heating compost all of the fallen unpicked fruit. As any left there till net year will probably be a source of eggs that will hatch next year.

Though there is not much that you can do about fallen fruit in neighbouring properties......

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