The STEM Flying Insects Fan Trap Is a Great Alternative to Homemade Traps

From time to time, I’ve had to battle with bugs in my apartment — most recently, it was a fruit fly outbreak in my kitchen. I’ve tried many DIY fruit fly traps using apple cider vinegar, dish soap, and water, and while those have worked they can leave my kitchen smelling, well, pretty acidic. That’s why I was excited to test the STEM Flying Insects Fan Trap that involves no ingredients (just a singular device to trap bugs) to see if I could have all the efficacy of apple cider vinegar, without the smell. Here’s how it performed.

The STEM Flying Insects Fan Trap uses blue light to attract bugs to come near the opening at the top and a whirring fan to sucks the bugs inside, where, at the base of the cylinder, they get stuck to a circle-shaped sticky glue trap. A little gross, but it works. You can get a device and five glue traps for $37.99 at full price (but it’s currently on sale for $28.99). 

The device measures 5 inches long, 5 inches wide, and 8.86 inches in height. It’s lightweight (coming in at just over a pound) and to get the fan and light working, you simply plug the trap into an outlet. Additionally, you can set your trap on a schedule to run for 3, 8, or 12 hours at a time, or have it on all the time. The fan does make a whirring noise when the trap is running, but there are no big bug zaps like there are with traditional zap-traps for bugs. 

The STEM Flying Insects Fan Trap has a lot going for it. The fan, light, and glue trap all work together to catch tons of bugs. When I tested it in the midst of a bit of a fruit fly outbreak in my kitchen, I found that it really did work to get rid of bugs over time. The fan function would keep them stuck within the device before they ultimately fell onto the glue trap. 

What I like most about the device is that it can be easily put in the corner of any room; it’s small and discreet. I mostly used it in the kitchen, but it also did double duty in my living room catching a stray fly here or there, without anyone noticing it or being bothered by it. 

I also especially like that the trap, besides having a slight whirring noise of the fan and the light of the trap to attract bugs, really doesn’t make much noise at all. There are no “zapping sounds” when a bug has been killed and, crucially, no smells. Plus, even though it uses the sticky trap function, it’s not disgusting-looking like those fly traps that hang from the ceiling in one long, bug-massacring sticky ribbon, because the sticky trap is hidden by the cylinder casing itself. 

The sticky traps are easy to replace when you need to, and you definitely don’t need to do it often. You simply unscrew the trap’s body and you can toss the sticky trap directly into a trash can without touching it. Then, you can drop an unwrapped trap into the bottom of the cylinder’s basin and you’re ready to go. 

The one thing that I would note about the trap is that there was more than one time when I wanted to check on the trap’s progress in killing bugs and I opened up the cylinder to see how many bugs were in there. Unfortunately, there were bugs that had been trapped by the fan — but not yet succumbed to the sticky trap — that were able to escape the clutches of the STEM. So if you do buy the trap, I would avoid opening it up and checking on it as often as I did, and maybe wait a few days after all of the bugs are gone before you look at it, if you are so inclined. 

All in all, the trap is a good alternative to homemade bug traps — as long as you’re not too curious about what’s going on inside. 

Buy: STEM Flying Insects Fan Trap, $28.99