DIY Almost Free Fly Catcher

Have you noticed how bad the flies are this year? They are swarming at my house on everything and driving us crazy. We had an eight pack of those sticky fly strips lying around so I went about hanging them all over the yard. Every time I walked by one I was so disappointed not to see a single fly! Eventually after a full day I did catch a huge mosquito and they all had those little gnats, so it was barely doing anything. I remembered in years past I had tried to do some DIY fly traps and thought I'd go ahead and try again. I did some Google searching and read different techniques people used. I took an old sports drink bottle and cut the top off and then inverted it back into the bottle. I used clear tape to seal it shut. I then poured a mixture of sugar, water and molasses in along with a few drops of dish soap, it was now ready to go. The first night something must have wanted the molasses because it got knocked over and all the liquid came out, no flies. A bit later we were working in the yard and a cup of coffee my husband was drinking had a bunch of flies all over it. I figured if they liked the coffee I'd go ahead and use that as my bait in my replacement batch. I added the coffee, which had milk and sugar, molasses and the dish soap. Before I knew it the flies were flying in and then not being able to fly back out. My trap was working. I then came up with an idea to maybe use something sticky like straight molasses or honey so all they had to do was land and be stuck. I poured some molasses in a plastic container I had saved. It was catching some flies but it seemed by the next day they figured out a way to walk down the side and enjoy the molasses without getting stuck. My improvising had me take some plastic wrap and seal tightly with tape. I then cut a little hole so the fly's could come in but not figure out how to get back out. This worked so much better and I was catching so many flies. It's been about five days now and I'm very pleased with how well this has done.

I had everything I needed to make this lying around the house and you probably do too. You can use any type of bottle like a two liter or even a bottle of V8. I've also made some small ones out of little water bottles. Basically anything you put inside will work, it just needs to be sweet. Some examples would be honey, coffee, juice, just experiment a little and see what they like best. Some call for putting vinegar in but I didn't have any and I don't see the need. The dish soap alone seems to work well.

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