Introduction: Easy Fly Trap... Reuseable!!!

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After looking at a bunch of other who had made fly traps, one thing that was missing from many was what was used for bait. So i decided to make one of my own, with a little more info. I put this together using some extra plastic bottles i was saving for something (like this!) and some 550(para-cord). There is no tape, no glue no leaks, just a few simple cuts and pop it all together. I used a large skippy peanut butter jar, and a power-aid bottle on a different one i had used an aquafina 1 liter bottle, but its a very tight fit and isn't easily cleaned. So here we go.....


1- Large Skippy Peanut Butter Jar
1- Power-aid Bottle
About 2 feet 550 Cord
Knife/Scissors
Screw Driver

Step 1: CUtting

First I cleaned everything, then did my cuts. The peanut butter jar lid has a lip on the outside, cut right up against it and it will give you a nice smooth circle.  As I was cutting this I was heating up my small screw driver on the stove. Use this to punch two holes into the bottom of the PB jar, then string each end of the 550 cord through and knot each.  Cut a few slots into the Power-aid bottle abot 1-2 inch long horizontally, and about 1/4 of an inch in width (this is where the flies check in). 

Step 2: Assemble

Next push the PB jar top onto the Power-aid bottle. Its going to be snug but that's a good thing. I pushed my down to the Third indentation. 

Step 3: Finshing

Now just screw it all together. The concept here is that the flies will enter the bottom slots, looking for the bait. Once they are done with the bait, or get spooked they will fly upwards, getting funneled into the PB jar. from there it is very difficult for them to find the hole they flew through to get out. One more thing that will help it to spray paint the bottom section that is under the Screw top lid flat black. They will be attracted to the light coming from the top and fly up there. I dont have any paint so i just taped some dark paper onto mine. Next the bait.

Step 4: The Bait

You can use a lot of different things. I am not going to go into everything you can use to bait flies. But what i used seems to work really well. Worcestershire sauce (the smell gets em) Maple Syrup and chocolate sauce. I use quite a bit of the Wor sauce, then a couple Tablespoons of the syrup and chocolate, add water so it lasts longer. Go set it in the sun and watch the flies drown and get trapped.  

one more thing to add is about a tablespoon of unscented dish soap. this eliminates the surface tension of the water and helps drown flies that fall in. i used this in one of the traps near my dog run and it filled up completely in 3 days. 

on Another note I am going to experiment on trying to kill the flies that are trapped. you can freeze them but i would prefer not to have dying flies in my freezer, SO my idea is to use the Raid flying insect killer (fogger type of spray) to soak a length of 550 cord in. place the cord in the upper chamber and see if this kills the flies but doesn't keep them from coming in. I will update if this works.

Step 5: Kill Em ALL

The experiment is in progress, and seems to be working well. 

I used one of my daughters old baby bowls to soak the 550 cord. DONT USE ANYTHING YOU WILL EAT OUT OF. 

Then all I did was wrap the cord around the top of the power-aid bottle.

This seems to be working better than letting them live because the bottle opening is larger than most bottles. Which makes it easier for the flies to find thier way back out.  GOOD LUCK!!

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