Are you as annoyed with fruit flies right now as I am? When I found a fruit fly floating in my coffee one morning, I had to declare war.

You probably know that fruit flies are attracted to ripe (or over-ripe) fruit. But did you know that fruit flies may also breed in a garbage disposal, cat litter box, trash can, recycling bin, or even a damp sponge? Ugh. No wonder they seem impossible to get rid of.

The first step to getting rid of the fruit flies is cleaning and/or removing those breeding grounds. Clean the litter box daily. Don’t dump food scraps in the trash can. Run your garbage disposal regularly. Rinse your recyclables. Etcetera, etcetera…

The second step is creating a trap. This method from Homegrown.org worked surprisingly well in our house, so I wanted to share. You can use either balsamic or apple cider vinegar. Add a couple drops of liquid dish soap to the vinegar and the flies will drown more quickly.

Be patient – you’ll probably see the flies hovering around the top of the funnel for a while before any of them actually venture down the funnel and into the jar. At first I thought I had just created a new place for them to breed. But then later that day I saw at least 20 flies floating in the jar. Sweet success!

I also found that the flies are more attracted to the vinegar trap than they are to our food. So I can serve salad or fresh fruit for dinner without worrying about swallowing a fruit fly along with it. Even a plate of garden tomatoes sitting on our kitchen counter has NO fruit flies in it!