You catch more flies...

[theyellowhobbit]

It turns out you can actually catch flies with vinegar. We have lots of fresh produce in the house, and thus have fruit flies. adlight made some traps. The way you do this is:

Take a plastic bottle and cut off the top
Fill the bottle about halfway with apple cider vinegar
Use hard paper (like card stock) to make a funnel with a very small hole at the bottom
Tape this funnel into the bottle, such that the funnel is the only entrance in, there's a bit of space between the funnel and the vinegar, and the hole is as small as it can possibly be that would still allow the flies in.

Set it near the fruit, or whatever they seem to be flying around. Then watch them drown. Or forget the trap exists and pretend that there are no fruit flies interrupting your peaceful meal.

Yeah. So the old adage "you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar" may not necessarily be true, but really we need to make a trap with honey to test this empirically. Though that would be a waste of good honey.

Comments

[eponis.livejournal.com]

My favorite trap actually uses both. You mix vinegar (a few tablespoons) with water (a cup or so), sugar (maybe a tablespoon), and a few drops of liquid dishwashing soap. Stir gently, so the soap doesn't foam it too much. Then just put it in a soup bowl.

The vinegar and sugar attracts flies (though to be fair, I've never tried it without sugar to see how much it helps), so they go to the surface to try to drink. The soap reduces surface tension so when they think they're going to land on water, they get sucked in. Science!