Homemade Fly Traps

Homemade Fly Traps

We go through an awful lot of fly traps during the summer months with the animals. Does anyone have a homemade recipe for the liquid you put in a jug?

Kim from WI

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RE: Homemade Fly Traps

The commercial guys won't tell you, but in New Zealand the main ingredient they use is blood and bone meal that you put on the garden. Mix it with water for a couple of days just swirl it as it tends to settle at the bottom.

The other thing is here different flies are attracted to different smells so apparently by adding cabbage leaves that will attract a different fly or a fishy smell with attract other types. I have used the blood and bone recipe and it works well. Give it a try what's left over put in the garden.

Brent (08/09/2006)

By Brent from New Zealand

RE: Homemade Fly Traps

Homemade Fly Traps

You need a clean, empty one gallon milk container. Be sure to keep the cap. Cut four or five small holes all around about two inches down from where it starts to slope towards the cap (about where the center of the handle is.) Mix 1/4-cup syrup and 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar and pour into container. Fill to halfway with water and put on cap. Place a couple of these flytraps where the flies are thick. You will probably have to empty it out every other day or so.
(source)http://www.stretcher.com/stories/02/02oct14b.cfm

Homemade Fly Traps

Cut a plastic 2-litres soda bottle 1/4 down from the top. Invert top portion into bottom portion. Punch 4 holes at top, tie string (twine) to hold both portions together and hang. Add hamburger or fly bait (I filled the trap with 1 inch of sugar water and added a piece of ham.). Most flies are too stupid to find their way out. (source)http://www.lilbeginnings.com/links/info/misc/

Homemade Fly Trap

• 2 cups water
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup vinegar

Mix ingredients to make fly bait. Cut a plastic 2 liter soda bottle 1/4 down from the top. Invert top portion into bottom portion. Punch 4 holes at top, tie string (twine) to hold both portions together and hang. Add fly bait and hang at your barn. Dispose of entire container when full of flies. (as you probably know, the longer this hangs the worse it smells and the more flies that it attracts.)

Homemade Fly Paper

• 2 C. milk
• 2 T. black pepper
• 2 T. white sugar
• 2 T. brown sugar

Brown paper bags, cut into strips. Boil milk, pepper, and sugar together for 5 minutes. Simmer uncovered 5 minutes longer, until thickened, and then let cool.

Wind the brown paper strips into a tight roll and drop them into the milk mixture. Let them become completely saturated. Rewind the strips gently and let them air dry on a cookie sheet. They are ready to hang when they are sticky to the touch. To use, suspend the strips up and out of the way wherever flies are a problem.
CAUTION: Keep the strips away from young children, especially after they are covered with flies.
(source) http://www.showhorsepromotions.com/horseflies.htm (08/09/2006)

By mef1957

RE: Homemade Fly Traps

I grew up in Australia, so I have a lot of experience with fly traps. The best Aussie remedy I know is raw meat and water. Use a homemade fly trap of any kind and just put a few chunks of raw meat or some minced meat in it and cover it with water. After a day or two, the meat will start to decompose and this really gets the attention of the flies. When the flies get caught, they can't get out, fall into the water and drown and this only adds even more "meat" to the concoction and keeps the trap self-sufficient, so to speak.

Rotting meat is a favourite for many fly species as any roadkill or the likes will attest to. Fly traps are closed, except for the access holes for the flies, so this kind of trap really doesn't smell that bad for us humans unless you stick you're nose right down to it, which of course you don't want to do, because, yuck. (08/10/2006)

By feemayl

RE: Homemade Fly Traps

Try the Amish trick, it works, we have used it for several years with great success, it works for flies, wasps, hornets, and other flying pests.

You will need:

• 2 litter cola bottle, empty and rinsed out
• 1 cup vinegar
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 banana peel
• Strong piece of twine or cord

Using a funnel place vinegar and sugar in the bottle, remove funnel and carefully slip pieces of the banana peel into the bottle. Then fill the bottle to 2/3 full with water. Place lid on bottle and shake well to mix. Using a strong piece of twine or cord tie the bottle to a tree limb leaving it about 4 or 5 feet off the ground, then remove lid so that bugs can crawl or fly inside bottle. It takes about a week for it to ferment and start working, but it will work for months, or until the bottle is full of flies, wasps, hornets, and mosquitoes. It is amazing to see all of the pests this trap will contain. (04/11/2007)

By Mary

RE: Homemade Fly Traps

1 cup of granulated yeast, 1/2 teaspoonful of ammonium carbonate. Mix in warm water (1/2 gallon), put a lid on it for 3 days. Remove lid after 3 days and let sit an additional 5 to 7 days to ferment. Best fly attractant I ever used. Traps are filled to capacity. Very cheap to make too. (06/11/2007)

By Mary

RE: Homemade Fly Traps

This is a wasp, fly, and hornet trap for the summer.

You will need:

• 2-3 litre plastic bottle (cola and Pepsi type bottles are the best) no lid needed.
• jam or honey
• scissors
• water
• vinegar (if you like honeybees)

Simply cut a bottle into three parts: cut 2 thirds of the way up and again just blow the neck. Put water into the large section, discard the centre section, turn the top part upside down on top of the large section and put jam or honey on the inside of the nozzle. To make sure honeybees cannot fall for this trap apply 1/4 cupful of vinegar. Place the trap in shade if possible to stop the jam/honey melting. Yours truly.

kiersters (06/29/2007)

By kiersters

RE: Homemade Fly Traps

Without going into too much detail, I once had to urinate in a clear plastic soda bottle in a fly infested area. It works great, and believe it or not human urine does not have an odor to it. The fly crawls into the bottle, and not being able to get out, falls into the urine and drowns. Might not be practical for the women out there. (07/12/2007)

By Navy Veteran

RE: Homemade Fly Traps

In this part of New Mexico, lots of cattle and dairy farms means lots of flies. I can't use poison sprays cause of the rabbits and cats on the property. I discovered this way of killing flies by accident, while I was experimenting with poison dry granules and fly traps, and drinking a fruit juice twister.

Take a plastic sixteen ounce bottle of Tropicana Orange Twister. Drink most of it. Leave about half an ounce. Lay the bottle on it's side. The wide mouth bottle seems to work best. It's all about the faster you get flies in, the faster they start drowning in the juice. There's no worry about them finding their way out. If they fly out, they come right back in for another dive.

I actually think the sugary juice is intoxicating to the flies. And I guess the fructose sugar glues their wings and they can't swim. A bottle will begin to fill up in no time. The more dead flies in the bottle, the more flies that show up to party in the bottle.

Drawback: Yellow jackets and wasps like the juice too. You don't want them swarming around.

Alternative: I'm experimenting with mixing vinegar in the juice to dissuade the stinging varmints. So far, seems to be working. You just got to be careful not to spill the fruit juice on the ground or in your surrounding area.

Also, from Home Depot I looked at one of those hornet spray cans that fire away from ten or more feet. But I'm still worried about the rabbits and cats. So, I'll see how it goes with the vinegar mix. (10/15/2007)

By New Mexico fly catcher

RE: Homemade Fly Traps

Easiest yet: Dissolve sugar and soap in a bowl of water. (08/06/2008)

By redredlobster

RE: Homemade Fly Traps

I used some smooshed cheese bits, soy sauce, water, and 3-4 orange segments, with the skin broken so the juice can come out. Total volume came out to about a 1/4 cup. 90-95% of flies were gone in less than 24 hours. No fermentation time needed (maybe the cheese or soy sauce sped up fermentation).

I used a small glass jar (like baby food size) and Saran wrap with rubber bands to make the lid. I poked 15-20 or so holes with a paperclip, stretching them out just a little, to make sure the bigger flies could crawl in. Left the jar overnight. Sometimes shook/shifted spots elsewhere in the apartment to disturb flies where they were sitting, if it was not near the jar, to get them to find the jar faster. Very, very awesome method for fruit flies in Hawaii. (02/04/2009)

By guest in Hawaii

RE: Homemade Fly Traps

Try a window trap that uses pepper, it's non toxic and has no smells. Obtained from: stirtsystems.com. Lasts a season for little cash. Good luck. (08/12/2009)

By dunno

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Homemade Fly Traps

Does anyone have a for sure, easy, homemade fly trap?

By xoxome from Shafter, CA

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RE: Homemade Fly Traps

Put some syrup or something sweet and sticky on some duck tape. Hang it up where the flies are. Good luck. (11/06/2009)

By kffrmw88

RE: Homemade Fly Traps

Depends on the type of fly. If your talking about fruit flies use a plastic water bottle cut off the top about two inches down. Turn it upside down into the bottle. Before attaching, put about an inch of salsa in the lid. I use tape so it can cleaned and renew the salsa before dismantling I run hot water in it to make sure there are no live flies. (11/07/2009)

By curtnay333

RE: Homemade Fly Traps

I spread honey on some card paper cut into strips this usually works. Good luck. Could you let us know what worked for you?

Helen (11/08/2009)

By irisheyes

RE: Homemade Fly Traps

I don't have a recipe for trapping flies, but I read that filling a plastic bag with water and hanging it by your door will keep the flies out. I tried this and it worked. No flies in my house. (11/08/2009)

By ninya61