Vinegar Fruit Fly Trap

This is one I used frequently in the last apartment I lived in.  We had a dishwasher with a garbage disposer.  Yeah, it sounded great when we signed ourselves up for the place but little did I know that the dishwasher and garbage disposer were attached to each other in a righteous cluster fuck of plumbing that was broken when we moved into the place.  For the entire 4 years that I lived there the damn thing never worked right, which lead to massive infestations of fruit flies in my kitchen.  At first I went to the local garden store and bought some fruit fly traps.  They were cute and inconspicuous, but they were about $7 a piece and they didn't last very long.  So, of course I discovered a cheaper and renewable option that is very simple. 

All you need are 3 things:

A container.  (I use a jar, but you can use pretty much whatever you want which makes this recipe easy to hide in plain sight.)

Apple Cider Vinegar

Dish Soap

Take the container, and leave it open.  Some versions of this recipe call for covering the container with plastic wrap and poking little holes in it, with the same idea as the bee trap.  They can get in, but can't get out.  Not only is this step unnecessary, but it makes the trap less effective because the fruit flies are not as likely to get to enter the trap and get to the mixture inside. 

Here's how it works:

The fruit flies will be attracted to the apple cider vinegar and will attempt to land on it's surface expecting to be able to walk across the surface as they usually can.  But the dish soap disrupts this and causes them to fall into the vinegar and drown. 

Of course the best way to eliminate and prevent fruit flies is to keep your kitchen clean.  If they are originating from the drain, some bleach poured down it will help.  And this trap will take care of the remainder of them that are still hanging about.