Page 2 of 2 <

Crack the Case at Its Core

Setting a Trap

Discussion Policy

Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

You know the old saying that you catch more flies with sugar than with vinegar? When it comes to fruit flies, the reverse is true.

There are a few fruit-fly catchers on the market, but a simple homemade version using a paper funnel and cider vinegar is one of the most effective. It's a cunning contraption, Raupp says, because it lures the insects to behave exactly as evolution decrees: Their hard-wired instinct to breed in a fermenting substrate becomes their undoing.

You'll need:

A drinking glass. A sheet of paper. Scissors. Tape. Cider vinegar or other sweet fermenting liquid or fruit.

Step 1: Roll the paper into a funnel shape that will rest in the mouth of the glass, leaving a small opening about the size of a pea at the bottom of the cone. Cut off the excess paper.

Step 2: Fill the glass with cider vinegar just up to the level of -- but not touching -- the cone. Use tape to seal cone against glass.

Step 3: Leave the trap wherever you see flies. The liquid lures them down the funnel, but they can't fly back out; they either drown or die trying in a couple of days, most within the first 24 hours.

"They're very good on the locating thing, Raupp says, "but they're not very clever on the escaping thing."

< 2