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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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You ask – why can’t the flies escape? I think the inverted-cone top is the secret. When the flies want to fly away they will encounter the sides of the trap and tend to fly or crawl upward, which leads them to a dead end between the bottle and the inverted cone. A normal bottle with an upright conical top will tend to funnel them toward the top hole, and escape.
Another secret I think is the clear sides of the trap, which make the flies want to fly away toward the light. I’ll bet if the sides were opaque, they would find their way out by going to the only source of light, the hole, even if the top was upsaid down. Hey, that might make a good science-fair experiment!
A successful fig tree grower once told me about cutting a whole in the side if a milk jug and putting 1 cup apple cider vinegar, 1 cup sugar, enough hot water to dissolve the sugar. I think a similar combination would be good for this idea. Just scale down the amount.
S. Koch, do you leave the milk jug intact or cut it like the two-liter bottle?
I have used a coffee cup and mason jars before. But I use Plastic wrap over the top with about an inch of apple cider vinegar in the bottom. I use a small knitting needle to poke a few holes in the plastic wrap and in a few days, you won’t believe how many are trapped or floating on the cider. I have tried different things before, but the plastic wrap and apple cider have been the best combination!!!
Great alternative to pesticides! Thanks for sharing!
This is a great idea, and reminded me of the old joke: “Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a banana.”
Me and the wife do a lot of outdoor party events throughout the year,so can not wait to try.
I am curious as to what stops the flying beasts from flying back up through the opening of the plastic bottle that is upside down.they obviously access the food in the bottom from it ?
They apparently cannot figure out how to escape! Something similar to this traps wasps also, although I allow wasps to exist nearby because they are such beneficial creatures.
Use some corn syrup in it too and it will keep them in there.
I think it has to do with their vision and equilibrium. For some reason they forgot how they got in the trap, because with these types of traps the flies always try to escape from the sides. Flies never fly straight up, which is what they’d have to do in order to get out of the trap. they fly in a horizontal or diagonal line. And for some reason they are too stupid to figure out they can just walk back up the spout
Wasps. They are beneficial. However I’m allergic to them. Wonder if it will work to keep them from my deck an DC porch. So I dont panic like 2 days ago when one landed on me. Crawled around and up my shorts! That was when I got scared. To easy to get stung then. My hubby came to save me?
Thank you so much for the very timely info! My daughter and I spent the day going in and out back kitchen door to bring in veggies ( for fermenting, of course ; v)within 2 days we had thousands of fruit flies! Tried fly paper ribbons, but they were mainly around the sink. Going to try ever tip listed, using banana, because they covered my ripe bananas. Don’t have any 2 liter bottles, but will try w/ some plastic water bottles I have from our last vacation. Hope it works because hubby is wanting to buy a can of Raid! I said no way!
Thanks, as always, love your site!
Sharon, Keller, TX
On a side note, it seems that the Coke Zero bottle above filled with dead flies is an appropriate use for this product, don’t you think?
Ha, you are too funny! In the time it took me to write 2 posts to you, the fruit flies have been literally cut in half!! Used over ripe banana and 3 plastic water bottles. THANK YOU!
Sharon in Keller TX
I have been using a similar method for fruit flies; with a canning jar and a plastic baggie inserted in and folded over around the opening, held down with a rubber band. I cut a very small hole in one corner of the baggie before putting it into the jar. I used beer as the attractant.