Life Hack: A simple but effective way to rid your home of flies

Summer can mean being plagued by house flies and fruit flies but here's an easy solution

You probably already have all the ingredients for this trap in your kitchen

As the temperatures start to increase over the summer, you might notice something else increasing too: the number of flies buzzing around your home.

Every summer, we end up swatting them away while barbecuing, cursing the persistent ‘buzz’ we hear when there’s one in a room with us, and worrying about them landing on our food.

If you’re anything like me, then you’re sick of the struggle.

That’s why I was intrigued when I found a video online from a woman in the US who experimented with a formula for a DIY fly trap — just by using ingredients that you probably already have at home.

You only need four things to add to your bowl or cup: three tablespoons of sugar, a squirt of dish soap, half a cup of warm water, and a quarter cup of apple cider vinegar.

Fill the bowl with the apple cider vinegar and add sugar and warm water. Add a dash of scented dish soap — the fruitier the better — to catch the flies’ attention.

The sugar, apple cider vinegar, and dish soap all attract flies as they smell so good to them, but once inside, they fall into the liquid and drown. It’s a simple concept, but does it work?

TikToker @southernescape tested out two plastic cups, as the instructions she followed suggested, covering the top of the cup with cling film and poking some holes for the flies to fall through. Her instincts thought this wouldn’t allow as many flies to fall into the liquid, so she put an equal amount of the mixture into an uncovered cup as well to test which one worked best.

Within half an hour, the covered mixture had a fly walking along the top, while the open mixture had at least a dozen dead flies in the liquid.

After trying out the mixture myself, I can confirm that, yes indeed, it does work.

In a video update, @southernescape showed the two cups 24 hours later.

The covered cup had a few dozen dead flies floating in it, while the uncovered cup
easily had a hundred or more flies trapped.

As both cups were transparent, it was easy to see the second cup had at least an inch of dead flies lying at the top of it.

One inventive commenter even suggested that next time she makes the trap that she sprays the sides of the bowl with a non-stick cooking spray as well, to make it more difficult for flies to escape.

She tried it and debunked it: she said it didn’t work as the flies actually seemed to be enjoying the tasty addition.

Another viewer asked if the hack also attracted smaller gnats, and she confirmed it did, showing them in the liquid.