Tip Easy and cheap DIY Fruit Fly trap

Mark

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Here's a video about how to easily make your own fruit fly trap out of two soft drink bottles.

My father in-law showed me this method and it's what he used on his commercial citrus orchard in WA. Essentially, the trap is hung in a fruit tree or placed in a garden bed and contains a home-made bait (fruit) to attract the fly. A drop of fruit fly insecticide is also mixed with the bait to ensure the fly dies.

Commercial fruit fly attractants can also be used in this trap meaning only the refills are required to be purchased with the traps made cheaply at home out of recycled materials and this could save considerable costs for larger food gardens where many traps are required to control fruit fly in the area.

A commercial variety of fruit fly trap is being discussed over in this thread started by Stevo.
 

stevo

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Well done,... I liked the fruit fly impersonations.

I'm going to make some of these......what was the name of the insecticide stuff you used?

I guess this might also collect normal flies? I've made a mozzie trap with the bottle top end cut off and turned upsidedown, and then used yeast in hot water in the bottle, it's supposed to attract mozzies, but all I got was flies.

edit, I wonder, if it's only the female that lays the egg in the fruit, does that mean that your trap only attracts females? (as my trap only attracts males)

The female has the spike on the tail, the male doesn't.... can you check a couple? :pic:

bio.mq.edu.au_research_groups_behavbiol___Graphics_Research_Q_fly_sexes.jpg
 
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Mark

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I'm going to make some of these......what was the name of the insecticide stuff you used?

Rogor is what I used because I got it cheap from Kmart - it's an older style pesticide very effective againt fruit fly. Lebaycid fruit fly killer from Yates is the more common type of pesticide and then there's Eco Naturalure that's a more low toxic type.

I'll check to see what my trap catches (Male/female) and we can detail the home-made results here with different baits etc.

I'm also interested to see how the long term results go with your commercial trap and comparing results.
 
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Mark

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Since I made this trap I haven't caught one fruit fly in it but that's probably because my bait was a little "light on" being just squashed tomatoes. I have caught several fermentation flies and some beetles though... Also, fruit fly aren't prevalent around my area anyway - they are there but not in big numbers.

Anyway, I went on the lookout for the replacement wicks mentioned in @stevo commercial fruit fly thread so I could put them in my DIY trap hopefully as a better attractant but I couldn't find any wick product in my local area. However, I did find this fruit fly attractant juice called Cera Trap (organic fruit fly attractant) which I will trial in my traps. The Cera Trap liquid is sold as a refill for their own commercial traps; unfortunately, the traps were sold out and only two bottles of liquid refills remained so I'm taking this as a good sign :)

The directions for use is pretty basic. Squirt some fruit fly attractant juice into the trap and the claim is the protein in the Cera liquid mix attracts both male and female fruit flies into the trap where they subsequently die. I'll do a few traps and see how it goes...

cera trap fruit fly attractant.jpg
 

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I'll do a few traps and see how it goes..

How about conducting some tests for our own entertainment, some with the "Cera Trap" and some with your own mashed fruit and vegies? :scienceexperimentsmiley:

If the traps were sold out I wonder if it's a general wide spread issue for some areas at the moment. The fella at the nursery suggested it is a problem at the moment because old the temperatures.
 
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Mark

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How about conducting some tests for our own entertainment, some with the "Cera Trap" and some with your own mashed fruit and vegies? :scienceexperimentsmiley:

If the traps were sold out I wonder if it's a general wide spread issue for some areas at the moment. The fella at the nursery suggested it is a problem at the moment because old the temperatures.
It might be the early warmer weather which has started the fruit fly off in August instead of Sept. I definitely will experiment with other natural mixes to use in the traps that's a good idea and cheaper if an alternative to the commercial stuff can be found.
 

Mark

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Any follow up Mark? Does it attract all fruit flies?
I've been so slack over the last few weeks with my garden work due to building my dog proof fence (200m) so no I haven't tried it yet but I'm going to set up a few traps soon. I just picked a heap of capsicums this morning and found fruit fly in some, therefore, I'm going to set up several traps because I have to really... It's an incredible shame when you do everything right in the garden to grow a great crop only to have it turned to mush on the inside by these incessant insects :mad:
 

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Question with fruit fly traps. If the traps attract the fruit fly won't you get fruit fly coming from the neighbours so end up with more fruit fly?

How high to fruit fly, fly? We have 2 big big mango trees that we haven't seen fruit fly in mangoes we get off the trees which are high off the ground but once the mangoes hit the ground they get fruit fly?

Can you spray/treat the ground for fruit fly? I don't know much about fruit fly.
 

Mark

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How high to fruit fly, fly? We have 2 big big mango trees that we haven't seen fruit fly in mangoes we get off the trees which are high off the ground but once the mangoes hit the ground they get fruit fly?
It's more to do with the ripening, if you pick the mangoes early enough just as they are changing colour and leave them ripen on the kitchen bench you will usually escape fruit fly strike but if you leave the mango ripen on the tree it will become more fragrant and attract fruit fly.

Mangoes usually drop from the tree if they are stung so the ones on the ground are probably already buggered.

Fruit fly traps help to reduce numbers and the risk of fruit getting stung but it won't totally protect crops netting is the only sure way unless you use horrible pesticides of course but that defeats the purpose of growing your own.

I pick our mangoes early and that usually works.
 

Letsgokate

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Mangoes usually drop from the tree if they are stung so the ones on the ground are probably already buggered
that all makes sense. Now if you can tell how to pick mangoes from the top of a 12m or taller mango tree before the fruit bats gets them we will be on a winner :D

Fruit fly traps help to reduce numbers and the risk of fruit getting stung
but do the traps attract the fruit fly from the neighbours yard too? Or is the traps range only over a short distance?
 

Kasalia

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Mark

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@letsgo Yes I think fruit fly can travel several hundred metres but even if you are attracting them from the neighborhood doesn't matter because you are still reducing the numbers overall and they would have potentially migrated to your property as soon as your fruit started ripening regardless.

Would you consider cutting your mango right back? Like remove the top 6 metres? This would make the tree more manageable and fruit easy to pick but also give it more airflow reducing blackspot or anthracnose thus producing more fruit.
 

Letsgokate

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Would you consider cutting your mango right back? Like remove the top 6 metres? This would make the tree more manageable and fruit easy to pick but also give it more airflow reducing blackspot or anthracnose thus producing more fruit.
yep planning on doing that next winter. Plan is for us to cut them back somehow, will be fun unless we can find a tree lopper cheap.

Did this atract and kill the Fruit fly Mark? Or do you think the Cera stuff in there is a better option? I just bought one Cera trap that but you need a lot of them. Also the male attracting one Steve mentioned.
 
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