15 hours ago
I tried 3 ways of getting rid of fruit flies on Amazon — and there's a clear winner
Fruit flies were once the bane of my existence. No matter how many traps I left out, more flies would always spring into action as soon as I thoguht I'd quelled the plague.
In the end, it was this 5-step routine that banished the pests for good from my kitchen, but while I fine-tuned my new house rules, I went through a lot of Amazon's top-selling traps. So, I decided to put three different methods head-to-head in order to see if it really matters which fruit fly trap you buy.
Spoiler alert: it does.
Here's how Amazon's 3 top-selling fruit fly traps performed when I compared them in my own home. The winner really surprised me.
1. Super Ninja Fruit Fly Trap
The Super Ninja Fruit Fly Trap retails for $6.99, with the price per unit decreasing the more you buy.
It's the cheapest and most simple option I tested, using small containers pre-filled with an unspecified liquid (my money's on some kind of vinegar) and capping the lid with a trap that allows the flies in, but won't let them out. Leaving them to drown in a delicious vinegary soup. You get the picture.
2. Zevo Flying Insect Trap & Cartridge
Retailing for nearly $20 at Amazon, the Zevo Flying Insect Trap & Cartridge is a more expensive option, but you'll be able to top up on the refill cartridges for less once you've bought the base unit.
This option uses blue light to attract bugs, and a sticky adhesive pad to trap them once they've been drawn in. Unlike the Super Ninja, it draws in a range of bugs including mosquitoes and gnats.
I also killed an unsuspecting moth when testing this option, which I'm not mad about after discovering the carnage they've wreaked on my cashmere sweater.
3. Katchy Indoor Insect Trap
The Katchy Indoor Insect Trap caught my eye for a while, but at an RRP of $40 (it's currently down to $32), I wasn't sure I could justify it. But in the name of science (and out of sheer desperation) I decided it was worth a try.
This option also uses blue light to draw in flies, but it works a little like an air purifier, drawing in bugs using a suction fan and trapping them on a sticky pad, like the Zevo. In fact, it's basically what would happen if you stuck the Zevo pad to a tiny hair dryer.
Like the Zevo, the sticky pads are relatively cheap to stock up on once you've purchased the base unit.
My methodology was simple: I left all three traps in my kitchen for a number of days, and waited to see which lured the most fruit flies into its trap, and out of my kitchen for good.
It's worth noting off the bat that both blue light options were a little irritating because they require access to a power socket. I test kitchen appliances, which means my counter space is permanently cluttered with gadgets, and power sockets are at an absolute premium in my home.
The light from these gadgets is also non-stop. I'd walk bleary-eyed into the kitchen to make my morning coffee and be met by two ultraviolet pools of light in different corners.
To add to that, the Katchy makes a constant, low-level whirring noise. It's similar to the sound a hand fan makes on a gentle setting, and it's not enough to deter me from using it if it were to come out on top, but it should be a consideration factor if that would annoy you. After all, you'll need to leave the device running constantly if you want to eliminate the pests for good.
As for the Super Ninja? The obvious downside is that it's unsightly. You'll watch it fill with fruit flies over the course of a week or so, and if you knock it, you'll spill the aforementioned unspecified liquid all over your countertops. I opted to put it on a windowsill to avoid this, and its appearance didn't bother me too much.
The Super Ninja Fruit Fly Trap is the clear winner in my head-to-head testing. It's affordable, discrete, unobtrusive, and captured many more fruit flies than its more expensive alternatives.
I was more than a little surprised to find that the cheapest and smallest option I tested did by far the best job of catching fruit flies in my kitchen. Sure, fruit flies are partial to a little blue light, but whatever liquid Super Ninja puts in this trap is their clear preference.
I'm not going to post the photo results of my fruit fly massacre here, but I'd guess that the Super Ninja captured about three times the number of flies caught by the Katchy and Zevo combined. By the end of the week, the liquid was thick with dead flies and I rushed to order a replacement on Amazon Prime.
If it's not just fruit flies you're concerned with, both blue light options did a respectable job of stopping both fruit flies and other pests such as gnats and moths in their tracks. I've left the Zevo in my bedroom to hopefully trap some of my detested wardrobe moths. But if you're battling a fruit fly infestation, you should look no further than the Super Ninja.
A fruit fly trap is essential if you want to keep these pests at bay, but because they lay eggs before they enter traps, it won't be enough to completely stop the problem.
The thing that made the biggest difference in my routine was to pour boiling water down my drains every evening. Fruit flies often lay eggs in drains, where remnants of food can accumulate, so this effectively flushes any future infestations out before they can emerge.
