8 Clever and Creative DIY Outdoor Fly Traps (With Pictures)
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Flies are a nuisance. Whether you’re indoors and hounded by fruit flies or gnats or outdoors and being pestered by blue bottles, they can ruin your day. And, although rare, some species of fly can transmit diseases and illnesses to humans. Fortunately, fly traps don’t have to be complicated to be effective, and it is usually possible to put one together using items you already have around the house. If you do have to go and buy some supplies, you shouldn’t have to spend more than a few dollars to create a trap that will attract and then kill the flies.
Below are plans to build eight DIY fly traps. Most use a similar premise and similar items but they can differ especially in the bait that is used to attract the flies, and depending on what type of flying pest you are trying to get rid of, you may find that certain ingredients work better for you.
The 8 Clever and Creative DIY Outdoor Fly Traps
1. Quick and Easy Homemade Fly Trap
| Materials: | Soda Bottle, Packing Tape, Bait |
| Difficulty: | Easy |
This quick and easy homemade fly trap uses an empty soda bottle filled with appropriate bait. This particular example uses soft potatoes to attract the flies. The smell of the rotting vegetable, or fruit, draws the flies in and they get stuck in the upturned section of the bottle. It is an effective trap, but you will want to ensure you place it far enough away that you don’t get the rotting vegetable smell yourself.
2. Homemade Fly Trap for Outdoors
| Materials: | Mason Jar, Paper, Shrimp |
| Difficulty: | Easy |
Blowflies enjoy a variety of foods but are especially keen on meat and animal products. This homemade fly trap for outdoors takes advantage of this fact and uses a mason jar containing raw shrimp to act as bait. The shrimp will start to smell after a couple of days, so make sure the trap is kept away from open windows, so you don’t have to endure the aroma.
3. Homemade Fruit Fly Trap
| Materials: | Glass, Plastic Wrap, Apple Cider Vinegar, Dish Soap, Rubber Band |
| Difficulty: | Easy |
Fruit flies really are a menace. They are typically brought into the house on fresh produce. Washing your fruit vegetables can help kill any eggs before they have a chance to hatch, but even the most fastidious buyer can suffer the occasional fruit fly swarm. This homemade fruit fly trap uses apple cider vinegar as bait. It naturally attracts flies, but it can have a pungent aroma. Adding the plastic wrap before poking some holes in the wrap does help control the smell somewhat.
4. DIY Fly Trap
| Materials: | Soda Bottle, Scissors, Old Eggs |
| Difficulty: | Easy |
Unfortunately, most of the bait that flies are attracted to does smell bad, and perhaps none more so than in this DIY fly trap. It uses an empty plastic bottle as the vessel. This has holes cut into it to allow flies in, and it uses old, off eggs as the bait to draw flies in. Again, keep the trap away from doors and windows to prevent the smell from getting inside.
5. DIY Outdoor Sticky Fly Trap
| Materials: | Baseball Cap, Painter’s Tape, Insect Trap Paint |
| Difficulty: | Easy |
While most fly traps use empty bottles, this DIY outdoor sticky fly trap uses an old baseball cap, to which blue painter’s tape is applied before being painted with insect trap paint. You should use blue painter’s tape and not yellow because flies are three times more attracted to the color blue than the color yellow. This particular trap is one of several that are attached to an ATV and driven around a fly-infested area to catch as many flies as possible in the area, but you could also use it stationary.
6. Do It Yourself Homemade Fly Trap
| Materials: | Apple Cider Vinegar, Sugar, Water, Dish Soap, Mason Jar |
| Difficulty: | Easy |
This do-it-yourself homemade fly trap uses slightly more traditional materials, rather than a baseball cap, and is similar to one earlier in the list in that it uses apple cider vinegar. However, this trap combines that with some added sugar and uses a Mason jar rather than an empty soda bottle, but the basic premise is the same.
7. Easy Fly Trap
| Materials: | Mason Jar, Sugar, White Vinegar, Water |
| Difficulty: | Easy |
There are many different DIY fly trap plans online, but the vast majority follow the same basic principle. Use a bottle or other container, fill it with some bait, and leave the trap where the flies congregate. They fly in, fall into the watery bath at the bottom of the container, and can’t fly out again. This easy fly trap can be made using white vinegar, rather than apple cider vinegar, and has holes punched in the top of the mason jar lid, further ensuring that the trap contains more of the flies and prevents them from escaping.
8. Industrial Fly Trap
| Materials: | Saw, Snips, Grips, Silicone, Drill, Wax, Screws, Mesh, Wood |
| Difficulty: | Medium |
Most of the fly traps on this list do a good job of getting rid of reasonable swarms of flies, but if you have industrial fly swarms, you are going to need an industrial fly trap. This is a dry trap, which prevents maggots from forming and flies from escaping, and it can catch a considerable number of flies in a relatively short space of time. It also looks better than a soda bottle filled with rotting potatoes.
Conclusion
Flies are a nuisance and can potentially spread diseases. While there are a lot of commercial fly traps available, it is really easy to make your own homemade DIY fly trap using everyday items. As long as you have an empty soda bottle and some apple cider vinegar, rotting vegetables, old eggs, or aging shrimp, you can fashion some type of basic fly trap to help control the population of flying pests in your garden or inside your home.
Featured Image Credit: PxHere
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