TreeHugger Tip: Eco-Friendly Way to Kill Fruit Flies

How do you get rid of fruit flies?
Recently, I've been suffering from a fruit fly invasion of impressive magnitude. And despite a few attempts at ridding myself of these flies, I haven't been able to get things under control. I'll swat and kill as many flies as I can see, but still the next time I turn around there are even more flies gently fluttering about my kitchen, in what I can only assume is some sort of fruit fly taunting ritual. How are there more? I've even begun to fear that these are possibly zombie fruit flies, returned from the dead to haunt my dreams and attack my organic bananas. I'm scared. Okay, I'm not really scared, but it is driving me a little crazy.

That's why I was so pleased to see this new TreeHugger Video Tip sent in from Jonathan over at Chelsea Green. If you don't have them or you already know how to kill fruit flies, this tip may not be new to you, but I wanted to share it for those that may be unaware. In the video, he shares a simple method he uses to rid himself of pesky fruit flies. More on his method and our other TreeHugger TIps after the jump.

To kill fruit flies, Johnathan uses a simple mixture of some common household ingredients.

TreeHugger Tip: How-To Kill Fruit Flies
1. Combine the following in a small cup or dish.

1 part water

1 part Apple Cider Vinegar

2 or 3 drops of dish soap

2. Place cup and mixture near your fruit.
3. Head outside for a nice bike ride or walk
4. Return later to find your flies resting peacefully dead at the bottom of the cup.
5. Show the cup to the younger fruit flies as a lesson to think twice before messing with you.

Joking aside, what's good about this is that it isn't requiring any toxic chemicals or some plastic mass-produced contraption designed to catch the flies. It's a good solution with a limited impact compared to other options.

Jonathan says the water is just used so you don't need as much cider vinegar and the way it works is that the scent of the cider attracts them and the small amount of soap helps soften surface tension of the water so the flies sink.

I think I'll give this method a try!

Do you have any tips like this? If so, participate in our TreeHugger Tips series by sending in your own video explaining what it is you do that is good for the environment. And if you're new to this series, be sure to view all of our previous TreeHugger Video Tips.