You know what is AMAZING for fruit fly traps???
Kombucha!!
I've done wine and vinegar traps, and it works, but it takes a week or so to ripen to where they really want it-- and then within another week or two, you get mold on the surface and they stop drowning and start breeding instead.
Then I started brewing my own kombucha, and noticing them crawling eagerly around on the cloth cover on top I thought hey let's try that.
I use a 32oz wide-mouth mason jar.
Pour in about an inch and a half of kombucha with a teeny dab of soap.
Twist a sheet of paper from the junk mail into a cone that points down into the jar, not quite deep enough to touch the liquid. Make sure it sits well so there are no gaps around the rim of the jar where they can escape.
The kombucha is already ripe and immediately irresistible, and defends itself from mold. It will actually form a new little SCOBY in there, which may get thick enough for the flies to walk around on, but if I top it off with a little bit of water (from the faucet, it'll dampen the cone but oh well) the goo layer usually sinks enough to keep things effective.
It rolls like that for weeks!
Violet Madder
npub1mv…fpkp6
2026-05-17 17:00:36 UTC
in reply to nevent1q…h2x5
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wss://relay.momostr.pinkPublished at
2026-05-17 17:00:36 UTCEvent JSON
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