Fly Trap - DIY for Free

After a hot dry summer comes the rainy season, and along with that comes an explosion in the insect population. Some are desirable like butterflies, others that are not so welcome are hordes of moths, caterpillars, mosquitoes and flies.

This is a simple fly trap that can be easily assembled from basic items found around the home at little or no expense.

All you need is an empty plastic bottle, a length of pipe and some wire to hang your contraption.

Most of the DIY fly traps that I've seen are made by cutting the top off a soft drink bottle and inverting the top back into the bottle. This is fine if the trap is under some form of cover, if not, it would be rendered practically useless after rain.

The following method is weather proof and will work indefinitely as the dead flies keep adding to your brew.

For the trap, any old plastic bottle will do although I prefer the clear ones, for the only reason being able to witness the decimation that you are causing to the local fly population.

For the pipe, you could use a piece of PVC pipe off-cut or even a length of garden hose would do, as long as the internal diameter is large enough to allow a fly to easily crawl through. I used a piece of poly pipe I had lying around.

Firstly, cut your pipe about 4cm longer than the diameter of your bottle.

Drill a hole in the centre of the pipe, again big enough for the flies to crawl through.

Butting the pipe up against the bottle, mark with a felt pen where you need to cut a hole on each side.

Carefully cut out each hole with a box cutter or scissors. It doesn't have to be too precise as we will run a bead of silicone around the join to fix the pipe in place.

Push the pipe through the holes you made in the bottle, with the centre hole in the pipe facing down.

Flies are pretty dumb, and once they have entered your trap, they fly towards the light to escape and don't think about the hole through which they entered.

Although the bottle I used already had a handle, I prefer to have a hook. It's easier to hook your bottle on a tree branch or something, rather than trying to loop it on.

Making the hook is quite simple. Just drill a hole in the lid and push a length of wire through, bending the end inside the bottle so it can't drop out, and forming a hook at the other end.

To seed your trap, you can use anything that flies are attracted to. I used half a dozen prawn heads in mine.

Add some water as well to form a brew and you are done.

Now all you have to do is hang it somewhere and let it fester.

Hanging it in the sun I find is best to really get things moving along faster.

The following shots are each taken a day apart and as you can see, is quite popular with the local fly population.

Here's a clip of my fly trap in action

WARNING!! Not for the squeamish