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It is the last week of July. You walk into the farmhouse kitchen and the flies are everywhere. On the windowsill. On the countertop. Buzzing around the fruit bowl. Landing on the rim of the coffee cup. Crawling across the screen door every time someone walks in or out. You swat at them. You drape the food. You hang the cardboard strip from the ceiling that costs four dollars and works for about two days before it dries up. You spend twenty-five dollars at the hardware store on bug spray that fills the house with chemical fumes and still does not solve the problem.
Then you walk into Esther's pantry. One clear plastic bottle on the windowsill, the bottom half full of cloudy amber liquid, the top inverted into a funnel — and inside, dozens of dead flies. No fumes. No four-dollar strips. No chemicals at all. Three pantry ingredients, ten minutes of work, and a trap that catches every fly in the kitchen for the rest of the summer.
In this video, I walk you through the $0 DIY fly trap the Amish in Lancaster County have been using in their kitchens for generations — real chemistry, real ingre
https://eliasyoder.com
It is the last week of July. You walk into the farmhouse kitchen and the flies are everywhere. On the windowsill. On the countertop. Buzzing around the fruit bowl. Landing on the rim of the coffee cup. Crawling across the screen door every time someone walks in or out. You swat at them. You drape the food. You hang the cardboard strip from the ceiling that costs four dollars and works for about two days before it dries up. You spend twenty-five dollars at the hardware store on bug spray that fills the house with chemical fumes and still does not solve the problem.
Then you walk into Esther's pantry. One clear plastic bottle on the windowsill, the bottom half full of cloudy amber liquid, the top inverted into a funnel — and inside, dozens of dead flies. No fumes. No four-dollar strips. No chemicals at all. Three pantry ingredients, ten minutes of work, and a trap that catches every fly in the kitchen for the rest of the summer.
In this video, I walk you through the $0 DIY fly trap the Amish in Lancaster County have been using in their kitchens for generations — real chemistry, real ingre
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00It is the middle of August. The kitchen window is open to let the cooling evening breeze move
00:05through the house. Esther has set a bowl of summer peaches on the counter to ripen for the morning's
00:11preserves. And by sunrise, the kitchen is full of them. Fruit flies. Dozens of them. Small, dark,
00:20hovering in slow, lazy circles around the fruit bowl, around the sink drain, around the open jar
00:27of jam on the breakfast table. You wave them away, and they come back. You cover the fruit,
00:33and they find the next thing. And the day after that, there are twice as many of them as there
00:39were yesterday. By the time you walk out to the back porch with your coffee, the larger house flies
00:45are already there, circling the screen door, landing on the porch railing, drawn to whatever scraps are
00:52in the compost bin and whatever crumbs are on the picnic table. The fly strip hanging in the doorway
00:59from last week is full. And the box of fly strips at the hardware store sells for $9, lasts about
01:07two
01:07weeks in fly season, and the sticky yellow ribbon hanging in your doorway is not exactly a site you
01:14want guests to see. Now I want you to sit with this. There are two old kitchen traps, one for
01:22the fruit
01:23flies that breed in your fruit bowl, one for the larger house flies that come in from the barn or
01:29the
01:29compost that have been used in American farmhouse kitchens for at least 150 years, that cost almost
01:37nothing, that work better than the $9 fly strips at the hardware store, and that the pest control
01:44industry has no reason to teach you about because there is no money in a recipe you build from pantry
01:52ingredients you already have. Both traps, pennies each, both work. My name is Elias Yoder. I am Amish, and I
02:02used my farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Esther and I do not buy fly strips, fly sprays, or commercial
02:10fly traps. We have not bought any of those things in 25 years of married life. The methods I am
02:18about to
02:18show you are the methods our mothers used and their mothers before them. Folk traps that work on real
02:26chemistry, that any household can build in five minutes, and that handle the fly problem all
02:32summer long for almost no money at all. The two traps each solve a different fly problem. The first
02:41is for the larger house flies that wander in from outside, the ones around the screen door, the compost
02:48bin, the picnic table. The second is for the small fruit flies that breed inside the kitchen, the ones
02:55around the fruit bowl, the sink drain, and the open jar of jam. Different flies, different chemistry,
03:02two different traps. Both built from ingredients you already have on your shelf. Quick word before we go
03:11further. The old methods my family uses, there is more of it than fits in any one video. I gathered
03:19the whole of
03:19it into a book at EliasYoder.com. The book is the long version. If you want it, it is there.
03:27I will not bring it up again.
03:29Now let me show you how it is done. Let me first tell you the difference between the two flies,
03:36because the method depends on knowing which is which. House flies are the larger ones, five to seven
03:44millimeters long, gray bodies, four dark stripes on the back. They land on your screen door, your compost
03:52bin, the kitchen counter when meat is left out, the picnic table outside. They breed in animal waste,
04:00decaying meat, and rotten garbage, outside the house mostly. They come in through open doors and windows.
04:08They are attracted by the smell of meat scraps, protein, and old food waste.
04:14Fruit flies are the small ones, two to four millimeters long, sometimes called
04:20gnats by folks who do not know the difference. They are tan or brown with bright red eyes if you
04:27look
04:27closely. They hover around your fruit bowl, your kitchen sink drain, your wine glass, your beer can
04:35left on the counter. They breed inside your kitchen, in any ripe or fermenting food, in the drain trap,
04:43in the bottom of the trash can, in any moist food residue. Each female lays 500 eggs that hatch into
04:51adults within 10 days. That is why they multiply so fast. The two flies need different traps. House flies are
04:59drawn by protein and rot smells. Fruit flies are drawn by the smell of fermentation, the volatile esters
05:07released by ripening and rotting fruit. Knowing the difference is the start of solving the problem.
05:13The first trap. The vinegar trap for larger house flies. The recipe. One empty plastic bottle,
05:21two liter soda bottle, or quart-sized water bottle, clean. One half cup of apple cider vinegar,
05:28white vinegar works less well, about 30% fewer flies, because apple cider vinegar contains more of the
05:35fruit fermentation esters that flies hunt by. One half cup of water. Two tablespoons of sugar, plain table
05:44sugar, five to ten drops of plain dish soap, any brand. A small pinch of yeast, optional, accelerates the
05:52fermentation and increases the smell. The build. Cut the top off the plastic bottle, about a third of the
05:59way down, where the bottle starts to taper toward the spout. Pour the vinegar, water, and sugar into the
06:06bottom half. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Add the dish soap. Stir gently. Too much foam reduces the
06:14effectiveness. Invert the cut top section into the bottom, spout pointing down into the liquid, creating a
06:21funnel. Tape the edges so the funnel stays in place. Place the trap outside on the back porch, near the
06:29compost bin, or near any spot where the house flies congregate. The chemistry. Plain. The sugar and the
06:36apple cider vinegar produce volatile fermentation esters that smell like ripening or rotting fruit,
06:42the same smell that draws flies to your compost bin and your picnic scraps. The yeast, if added,
06:49speeds the fermentation and produces additional carbon dioxide and ethanol, both of which fly
06:56populations hunt by. The flies enter through the small funnel opening drawn by the smell. Once inside, they
07:03cannot navigate back out. The funnel design that drew them in is now disorienting from the inside and most
07:10flies cannot find the small opening to escape. But the truly important ingredient is the dish soap. Without soap,
07:18flies that land on the surface of the liquid float on the surface tension and eventually escape. With
07:25soap, the surface tension is broken. The fly sinks immediately and drowns within seconds. Multiple
07:32sources of insect behavioral research confirm this. The dish soap is what turns a fly attractant into an
07:38actual fly trap. Without the soap, you have a fly buffet. With the soap, you have a fly grave. Where
07:46to place the
07:47house fly trap? Outside the house, upwind of the area you want to protect, about 10 to 20 feet from
07:53your
07:54screen door, your picnic table, or your compost bin. Never inside the kitchen. The trap draws flies toward
08:01it, so placing it indoors brings more flies into your kitchen, not fewer. Place it on a flat surface where
08:08it
08:08cannot tip. Replace the contents every four to seven days. The bait loses its potency as the vinegar
08:15evaporates and the surface fills with drowned flies. Expected results. Within 24 hours, the trap collects
08:23dozens of flies in active fly weather. Over a full week, the trap will collect hundreds. It will not
08:30eliminate the entire fly population around your property. Fly populations are larger than any one trap can
08:37handle, but it dramatically reduces the number of flies entering your kitchen and gathering around your
08:43outdoor eating areas. One trap, refreshed weekly, handles the fly problem for the porch and the screen
08:50door from June through September. That is the entire fly season covered, for about a dollar a month in
08:56vinegar and sugar. Before I go on to the fruit fly trap, let me pause for a moment. The old
09:03ways only help if you
09:04actually use them. That is why we built our Amish home savings system and community, so you can work
09:10through the methods with us, ask questions, and stay consistent with other households doing the same work.
09:17The link is in the description. Now, the second trap. The second trap. The yeast trap for fruit flies. This
09:26one
09:26uses the same chemistry as the bed bug yeast trap from our pest control video. Active dry yeast metabolizing
09:35sugar to produce carbon dioxide and ethanol, both of which fruit flies hunt by. The difference is the scale
09:43and the placement. Where the bed bug trap is built large for an entire bedroom, the fruit fly trap is
09:51small
09:51and built for the kitchen counter. The recipe. One small empty plastic bottle, about half pint to pint
10:00size. Clean. One cup of warm water, about 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Baby bath temperature. Too hot kills the yeast.
10:11Four tablespoons of plain table sugar. One teaspoon of active dry yeast. Three to five drops of plain dish soap.
10:21The build. Cut the top off the small plastic bottle, about a third of the way down, same as the
10:29larger trap.
10:30Combine the warm water and sugar in the bottom half. Stir until the sugar dissolves completely. Add the yeast.
10:39Stir gently. You will see foam start to form within a few minutes. That is the yeast waking up and
10:47beginning to
10:47ferment. Add the dish soap. Stir very gently. You do not want to break up the foam, but you do
10:55want the soap
10:56distributed. Invert the cut top section into the bottom, creating the funnel, same as the larger trap.
11:04Place the trap on the kitchen counter, near the fruit bowl, the sink, the trash can, or anywhere fruit
11:11flies are gathering. The chemistry. Plain. Live yeast eats the sugar and breathes out carbon dioxide and
11:20ethanol. The carbon dioxide attracts the fruit flies. They hunt by CO2 the same way fruit flies hunt overripe
11:29fruit, which also releases CO2 as it ferments. The ethanol is the second attractant. Fruit flies are
11:38specifically evolved to find fermenting fruit, and ethanol is the chemical signature they cannot resist.
11:45The combination is more powerful than vinegar alone for fruit flies. The dish soap, as in the first trap,
11:54breaks the surface tension. The fruit flies that land on the foamy surface sink within seconds and drown.
12:02The trap runs actively for about 24 to 36 hours before the yeast exhausts the sugar and the fermentation
12:10slows. Refresh the contents every other day during heavy fruit fly season, or every three days for milder
12:19problems. Where to place the fruit fly trap? Inside the kitchen, on the counter, near where the fruit flies are
12:27gathering. Common spots. Next to the fruit bowl. Near the kitchen sink drain. Fruit flies often breed in the
12:36drain trap residue. Near the trash can. Near the compost pail if you keep one indoors. Set up two or
12:45three traps
12:46at once for heavy infestations. Multiple small traps in different parts of the kitchen catch more flies than one
12:55large trap in a single location. Each trap costs about five cents to build. Running three of them
13:02simultaneously is still less than a quarter. Expected results. Within hours, you will see fruit flies
13:11entering the trap. Within 12 hours, you will see dozens drowned in the foam. Within two days, the visible fruit
13:20fly population in the kitchen drops by 70 to 90 percent. One important honest scope-setting word.
13:28The trap catches the adult flies, but does not address the eggs that are already laid in your fruit,
13:35your drain, or your trash. To fully eliminate a fruit fly infestation, you also need to identify and remove
13:43the breeding source. Wash the drain trap with hot soapy water. Take out the trash. Throw out any
13:51overripe fruit. The trap catches the existing adults. Cleanup prevents new ones from hatching.
13:59Together, the two-part approach solves the problem within about a week. The honest safety words for both
14:06traps. These are not high-risk traps, but a few honest cautions matter. 1. Keep both traps away from
14:15young children and pets. Apple cider vinegar is mildly acidic, and the dish soap is mildly unpleasant
14:23if ingested in quantity. Neither is dangerous in small contact, but a curious toddler or a dog
14:30drinking the contents of a fly trap will get an upset stomach. Place traps where small hands and noses
14:37cannot reach them. High counters, back porch railings, behind kitchen items. 2. Never mix the dish soap
14:45with bleach. This is the standard household chemistry safety word that applies to every recipe in our
14:52catalog. Bleach and any soap or vinegar product produce toxic gases when mixed. If you have used bleach to
15:00clean the kitchen sink or counter, let it dry and rinse thoroughly before placing a fly trap near that area.
15:073. The plastic bottle should be food grade. Standard soda bottles and water bottles are food grade.
15:14Avoid using bottles that previously held cleaning products, motor oil, or other chemicals. Residue can
15:21contaminate the trap and create unintended chemistry. 4. The yeast trap produces small amounts of carbon
15:29dioxide. This is not a real safety risk in normal household use. The amount produced is similar to
15:36a few slices of bread rising on the counter. But if you build several large yeast traps and place them
15:43all
15:43in a small closed pantry or basement, ventilate the space when entering. In an open kitchen, this is not a
15:51concern.
15:525. Use the apple cider vinegar trap outside, not inside. The vinegar trap is for outdoor
15:59placement. Placing it inside the kitchen draws flies into your house rather than away from it. Use the yeast
16:07trap inside. Use the vinegar trap outside. That is the correct placement for each. Now I want to take a
16:15moment because here is where it all comes together. Look at what we have walked through. Two traps. One for
16:22the
16:22large house flies that come in from outside. One for the small fruit flies that breed inside the kitchen.
16:28Each built in five minutes from ingredients you already have. Each catches hundreds of flies over the course
16:35of a season. The total cost of running both traps all summer, about three dollars a month in vinegar,
16:42sugar and yeast. The total time to maintain them, about 10 minutes a week to refresh the contents. The
16:49result? A fly-free kitchen and a fly-reduced porch from June through September, every year, forever.
16:57Compare that to what most American households spend on fly control. A box of fly strips runs nine dollars
17:04for two strips that last about two weeks. That is eighteen dollars a month, ninety dollars across a fly season.
17:12A bottle of commercial fly spray runs twelve to twenty dollars and offers temporary indoor relief that fades
17:19within hours. The plug-in indoor fly traps the hardware store sells run thirty to fifty dollars plus
17:26replacement cartridges. The professional pest control visit for a fly problem runs ninety to two hundred
17:33dollars per visit. The honest math. Most American households spend somewhere between one hundred and
17:40three hundred dollars per year on fly control products. The Amish farmhouse spends twelve dollars a year on
17:47the same problem and gets better results. There is no money in the pest control industry in teaching folks
17:54that a cut plastic bottle, a half cup of vinegar, two tablespoons of sugar, and five drops of dish soap
18:00will handle the fly problem better than nine dollar fly strips. There is a great deal of money in selling
18:07those fly strips, those sprays, those plug-in traps, and those professional visits to every household every
18:13summer, forever. So the simple old methods sit quiet in the kitchens of careful folks who never forgot,
18:20and most American families pay every year for what a five-minute trap would handle for almost nothing.
18:26You can be one of the careful ones. So here is what I want you to do. This week, walk
18:32into your kitchen and your
18:33back porch. Look honestly at your fly problem. House flies on the porch? Fruit flies on the counter? Both? Build
18:42the trap
18:43that matches your problem. Save an empty plastic bottle from the recycling. Cut it down. Mix the recipe. Place
18:50it where it belongs. Outside for the vinegar trap. Inside for the yeast trap. Five minutes of work.
18:57Tomorrow morning, check the trap. You will see flies caught in it. Some folks count them out of
19:03satisfaction. Esther just tips the trap into the compost and refreshes it. Either way, the fly problem you
19:10have been swatting at for weeks starts shrinking immediately. Within a week, your kitchen will be cleaner,
19:17your porch will be more comfortable, and you will have spent about 30 cents to solve a problem you used
19:24to spend $20 a month trying to handle. Tell me in the comments below, which trap are you going to
19:31try
19:31first, and what part of the country are you in? And if your grandmother or great-grandmother had her own
19:38one fly-catching trick we did not cover, the sticky paper roll, the basil plant on the windowsill,
19:45the cloves stuck into half an onion, share it. The little family methods are exactly the kind of
19:51inherited knowledge that gets lost when nobody writes them down. I read every single one.
19:58Next time, since we have been speaking of the small kitchen pests, I am going to walk you through the
20:04old way our family kept the mice out of the pantry. No traps, no poison, no commercial bait stations,
20:13just three small habits and one inherited method that means a careful pantry never has a mouse problem
20:20at all. Subscribe so you do not miss it. Until then, cut the bottle, mix the bait, set the trap,
20:29and remember that the cheapest fly control in the world is the one your grandmother already kept
20:35on her kitchen counter. That is how the old folks did it. That is how it is still done
20:41in any farmhouse kitchen that remembers.
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