Homemade Fly Catcher

I figured out how to make my own homemade fly catcher by complete accident: I noticed that flies are constantly getting in my coffee and drowning in there, and that they are always floating around in my sink water as well, usually while I’m filling up the sink itself. I noticed something really quickly- flies are attracted to sweet stuff (what I put in my coffee is sweetened condensed milk) and they are attracted to lemon-type scents (our dish soap is scented). Combine these 2 attractions in a pretty bowl of water and you’re good to go!

To make your own homemade fly catcher you will need an old glass bowl (use an ashtray if you want even, but it must be glass or ceramic as it is a better surface for sugar), any kind of thick sugary sweet liquid (such as caramel syrup, regular syrup, corn syrup, or even liquid coffee creamer or yes, sweetened condensed milk), warm water, and dish soap.

Take the glass bowl and pour in the bottom of the bowl about a tablespoon of the sugary liquid of your choice, then use your finger to spread the sugary syrup all over the inside of the bowl, up the sides and to the rim. Don’t worry if the liquid doesn’t stick- it will stick enough to draw in the flies, and if you drip a bit down the outside of the bowl, all the better as this will bring the flies up and in to your fly catcher. Allow to ‘set’ for 15 minutes, so it will dry a bit.

In a cup, mix a teaspoon of dish soap with half a cup of water and blend until you have a soapy goodness. Pour the soapy water into the sticky bowl until it’s about halfway full. You want to catch flies, but you don’t want them to be able to float up to the rim. Plus, if the bowl is only halfway full, it’s easier to dump out the flies than if it’s brimming. I learned this the hard way. The more dish soap you use, the more quickly the flies will die when you catch them, and will kill the wasps as well if one flops in. If wasps are an issue, use the same catcher bait, but double the dish soap.

Voila! You have your own homemade fly catcher! Set on your kitchen counter where flies love to hang out, and it’s a less offensive version of catching flies than a fly paper or even a fly swatter. The dish soap kills the flies almost instantly in the water, and the sugary substance you have in the bowl will bring flies from all over. If you don’t have any type of syrup, then you can use a jelly or jam instead, which leaves your kitchen smelling nice (or wherever you get flies to begin with). You can keep a few of these bowls out- just don’t over-fill them.

You can repel flies as well by spraying vinegar water (equal parts vinegar and water) at buzzing flies when you’re outdoors or in your kitchen. Flies don’t like the smell of vinegar and they go bug someone else. The smell of vinegar fades soon as it dries, and works better than a fly spray for repelling (though it takes a ton to kill them). Or light a candle near where you have flies and they buzz off- I don’t know why this works but it does, at least for me. We live across from a dairy so we have a butt load of flies whether we keep our door closed or not, so I do all I can to keep them out of my freakin’ face all day.

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