How To Kill Flies With Dish Soap

Flies love a good trap. They can't resist a well-scented and well-designed trap either indoors or outdoors. There are a few ways to create traps for flies depending on what kind of flies you hope to remove from your indoor and outdoor spaces.

It seems rather basic and slightly archaic, but using dish soap to kill flies has been a go-to for irritated homeowners since the viscous detergent hit the grocery store shelves. When diluted with water or vinegar, the properties of the dish soap stick to the fly's legs and cover the insect's wings with a soapy film.

If the dish soap trick didn't work — don't worry. There are still plenty of fly elimination methods to try.

Dish Soap and Vinegar Fly Trap

A glass jar that is at least half full of vinegar and sugar at about a one-to-one ratio thoroughly mixed with a good squeeze of dish soap will draw a large swath of flying insect species. You can roll a piece of white paper into a cone and put that into the jar with the narrow part of the cone facing down or cover the jar in plastic wrap with holes. Make sure the holes are big enough for the flies to find and crawl into but not large enough for them to fly out.

Apple cider vinegar has a slightly sweet aroma that naturally attracts flying pests. Placed in a shallow bowl, it will draw tiny gnats and fruit flies that skitter around your fruits and vegetables left out on the counter.

For larger gnat and fruit fly issues, you can create a homemade trap using apple cider vinegar as bait with an inverted soda bottle. To create an apple cider vinegar fly trap:

1. Clean a plastic liter bottle of soda.
2. Make a cut around the soda bottle about an inch below
   where the neck tapers. This will create a funnel when the cut top of the soda bottle
   is inverted.
3. Pour in vinegar to a depth of 1 to 2 inches.
4. Turn the top of the bottle into a funnel by inverting into
   the bottom of the soda bottle.

A spray bottle filled with vinegar can be a good first layer of attack on flies on a porch or patio. If you are a good shot, the vinegar will not only take out the fly but cover it with a fine mist of liquid that its wings and legs can't easily remove. The fly that gets a good dousing of straight vinegar will suffocate and be otherwise maimed from its encounter with the household cleaner.

Another bonus of shooting at flies with a stream of vinegar is that it will leave tiny attractive puddles that will lure flies to land. Once their feet touch the vinegar, it can spread to their wings and cause them to falter in their flying abilities.

To kill fruit flies, you need a smaller trap. You can also use apple cider vinegar for fruit flies. Fruit flies are often called vinegar flies because of their attraction to the acidic liquid.

Fruit flies will fall into a baby food jar or a small, narrow glass container half filled with apple cider vinegar and a dollop of dish soap. If they are difficult to catch, drill holes in the top of the small jar you are using so they can't land and flit away. The dish soap should float on the surface so it comes in immediate contact with the fruit flies' legs, rendering its flying abilities useless.