When you have lots of fruits and vegetables in your kitchen, you're bound to get a few fruit flies now and then. They can be annoying and even downright frustrating when they start to travel around your house and bother you when you're trying to relax at home. Or at least that's what we've been experiencing. Fruit flies are very small and have a short life span, but they can reproduce quickly as well. They may be living in the skin of fruits that you buy at the farmer's market or grocery store before you bring them home. Then within a few days, you see them around your kitchen. It's important to keep your kitchen counters and sink clean to prevent flies from sticking around by offering food. Always wash your dishes right away and keep the garbage disposal emptied after you've washed dishes. We've also found a very simple and eco-friendly way to help rid you kitchen and your home of these pesky little bugs. You can make a fly trap that sits out on your counter top with a few items that you probably already have around your home. When I first found out how to make this trap we had a large infestation of fruit flies and caught about 20 fruit flies with two traps in the first week! Now that I always keep a trap out in the kitchen, we only have a few flies caught each week as maintenance. 

All you need is:

1. Pour apple cider vinegar into the cup. About 1/2 to 1 inch high. The flies love the smell of apple cider vinegar, because it's a fruit and has the scent of fermentation since it perishes when unrefrigerated.

2. Cut a small hole in the center of the plastic lunch bag. This allows the fruit flies a small hole to enter through. Keep the hole very small so that they can't find their way back out.

3. Tape the plastic bag around the rim of the cup. I never put tape directly on the cup, and I like to cut off the excess plastic bag so it looks cleaner.

4. Set the trap out in your kitchen, dining room, or any room that you have fruit fly problems. I find that it sometimes takes a couple days for the flies to find the trap. They are drawn to the smell of the apple cider more when it starts to ferment a bit. Although if you look at the photo above of the trap I made last night, I already have a fly in there crawling in the top left corner. I like to empty the apple cider every week or two and put out a fresh trap. It starts to smell like dirty feet after a while. 

Hope you enjoy this Blog and keep your kitchen bug free! Post any other great ideas you have for keeping your kitchen bug free. We'd love to hear from you!

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