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This effective, simple, and easy to make homemade fly trap can be assembled in minutes with an empty soda bottle and some old produce as bait. Outdoor protection during any season of the year including summertime picnics.
No matter where you live in the world, there is probably at least part of the year when a fly trap is very much needed! If repelling flies alone isn’t getting the job done, this DIY method is sure to take up the slack.
Are you are one of the folks for whom the water and a penny in a heavy duty ziplock bag aren’t working to eliminate your fly issues? If so, try this different fly trap instead. It is easy to make and the three steps shown in the picture above are described below.
The idea is courtesy of my goat milk farmer who uses it with fantastic success. The picture above shows just how many flies it will trap over the period of a few days!Â
As you can see, the fly trap obviously works well as the picture is of one of the traps behind my goat farmer’s house. It is loaded with several inches worth of dead house flies!
The trick to this fly trap is that it actually catches and traps the flies rather than repelling them like the flybag approach.
The flies get lured into the trap by a potential food source and can’t escape. Bones leftover from making bone broth work well as does old produce.
When the fly trap becomes full of flies, you throw it away and make another one, or two, or three!
Note: If larger biting flies are more of a problem in your area, use this homemade deer fly trap instead.
DIY Fly Trap in 3 Simple Steps
The only supplies you need to make your fly trap are a clean, empty 2-liter plastic soda bottle, some heavy duty packing tape, and some bait. Rotting potatoes work really well for my farmer. The pictures included with the steps show how quickly you can make your homemade fly trap.
- Cut an empty 2-liter soda bottle in two. The bottom half should be larger than the top. Making the cut about 1/4 – 1/3 of the way down the bottle works well (see photo below).
- Remove the cap from the top of the bottle and turn it upside down. Place a few pieces of cut up, rotting produce in the bottom half of the bottle and then, place the upside down, open end of the bottle inside the bottom half (see photo).
- Tape the two halves of the bottle together so they stay secure.
Tips for Using Fly Trap Most Effectively
Note that the better the bait, the more effective these fly traps will be. Here in Florida, potatoes that are soft and starting to rot work extremely well. Any type of decomposing fruit or vegetable would work too – you can try different ones and see which attract flies in your locality most effectively.
Here’s what it will look like after the flies start swarming.
Because you are using rotting food to attract and trap the flies, make sure you place the homemade fly trap in a place where the smell won’t bother you or the neighbors. The trick is to put it in a place close enough to attract the flies away from the area you are trying to keep fly free, but far enough away so you don’t smell or see it. In my experience, the trap will attract flies from a radius of about 50-100 feet/ 15-30 meters.
Let me know if you have tried this approach where you live and what you use as bait inside the soda bottle. Did you find it worked well?
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THANK YOU for such practical posts!
Ingenious! Who needs pesticides?
I did this 50 years ago for a Science Experiment in school. Works good. Try bananas or cooked cabbage.
It was the same principle, Mason jar and a funnel made out of paper. They didn’t have two liter plastic bottles back then.
I can’t wait to try this! Flies are such a problem right now, especially under the awning of the camper.
Thanks for sharing!
Dispose of the trap frequently or you will have larger problems.
So it’s rotting protein that works well for flies and fruity stuff for fruit flies?
Yes. And no liquid is necessary. Put a piece of chicken skin in The bottom end set it in the sun. Within a day you’re going to see that container fill up with flies. However, just keep a good eye on it because the flies will lay eggs and they will hatch and the new flies will get out of the trap. I’ve seen it happen so dispose of it often enough that you’re not adding to the fly population
I HATE FLIES!!!!! Hate Hate Hate Them!!!! Gruesome, filthy critters!!! But as much as I HATE flies…..I HATE mosquitos MORE!!!!! They are scary…esp with all the stuff they carry now days. I bet this idea with meat would work, too. I read about those Tiger mosquitoes and they don’t let go once they bite….WOW!!!
I tried the bottle trick using apple cider vinegar, but it didn’t work for me. I tried the apple cider vinegar in a small plastic square container and added a drop or two of dish soap. The dish soap is supposed to stick to their wings and prevent them from flying. It worked well with the fruit/sewer flies, but not with the house flies. Any other ideas??
Try some old red meat in a couple of inches of water for house flies. Smellier the better.
I can’t wait to try this! I have a problem with flies at the back door that seem to wait in anticipation for the door to open so they can enter. Once inside, they don’t last long as I have two feral cats that stalk them till death, but I can’t stand them being in the house for even a few minutes. Of course, getting ahold of a 2 litter plastic bottle will be my first challenge. Maybe I’ll stalk the bottle return at the grocery store and give up a dime for one. Lol.
I use a similar homemade trap to catch fruit flies in my house. I place a little apple cider vinegar (about 1/4 inch) in the bottom of a quart size canning jar, then place a few slices of banana into the vinegar. I make a funnel out of a piece of paper, and place it in the jar like the picture of the soda bottle in your post, and tape the funnel/jar opening together with masking tape. This works great for fruit flies!
I wish I had know about the fly trap with potatoes about 4 years ago, when I got a horrible fly infestation in my house. I found the source, a recently purchased bag of potatoes with a rotten one inside. It was too late though, because the flies were already established somewhere in my basement. I fought them until we finally gutted the basement, threw just about everything away, and remodeled it. Luckily the remodel was already planned, and thankfully it solved the fly infestation as well.
We do the same thing with the apple cider vinegar but you don’t need to use bananas. We use straight vinegar and it works perfectly and is probably less messy without the bananas.
Hi Hi,
We had heard of a few ways with the fruit flys and so my daughter and I wanted to see which way worked best. so we tried the apple cider and dish soap in a shallow cup and caught only a few but we also tried some sugar water and dish soap in a shallow cup and caught a ton !
Fruit flies are easy! I’m in Australia and I just strategically place little shot glasses of Apple cider vinegar around my fruit bowls and I add a tiny drop of dishwashing detergent to each glass. The detergent breaks up the surface tension of the vinegar, so they land and then drown. No cone or top needed! Awesome trap