Fruit Fly Death Trap

All the fruit we had gave us not only delicious fruit conserves, but also a bumper crop of fruit flies. We were humane to the spiders, but we had something else in mind for these fast-reproducing pests…

It’s easy to make your own: just roll a piece of paper into a cone, pour some apple cider vinegar or put a piece of ripe banana in the bottom of a glass or jar, insert the paper cone, and wait.


(Oh yeah, and get rid of the ripe or rotten fruit that’s attracting the fruit flies. You can cut off and compost any softened sections, wash the rest thoroughly, and use it. We made cobbler.)


The first time we saw one of these contraptions, we didn’t know what it was. Was it an oddly misplaced piece of paper? Or a twee, delicious drink? So we made a self-explanatory version, complete with tombstone to commemorate the dear departed. You can download and print the PDF for your own use.