Is it just me or has this been a particularly crazy year with bugs? We’ve had way more house flies and fruit flies than we’ve had in past years, and I know a couple people have felt the same way!

While fruit flies don’t gross me out as much as house flies do, I still don’t love having a swarm in my house! They multiply quickly and can be so hard to get rid of- sometimes you need a little extra help.

I’ve always used apple cider vinegar in a bowl with a little bit of dish soap, and that seems to work pretty well! Sometimes I have to be patient, but over a couple days I tend to catch several fruit flies with this simple hack. However, now I have a new trick up my sleeve!

One of my husband’s favorite late-night snacks or quick lunches is a cheese quesadilla with Frank’s Red Hot Sauce. We both love Frank’s Red Hot Sauce, and apparently fruit flies do too! The other night my husband sat down with his cheese quesadilla and sauce and I immediately noticed a fruit fly hovering over his plate. I commented on this, and as he was swishing it away he said that he’s noticed that whenever he pulls out this sauce he gets swarmed with fruit flies. At first this surprised me, because Frank’s Red Hot Sauce has a definite little kick to it, but then I realized there is definitely some sweet undertones as well, and this must be what attracts the flies.

Since they seemed to be attracted to it, I thought I’d put it to the test. We’ve had a few fruit flies hovering around our kitchen the past couple weeks and I was curious if this would help the problem. I poured a little in a dish, and put the tiniest bit of dish soap, as well as a little water to help thin the solution a little. I mixed it up, set it on the counter, and waited to see what would happen.

Lo and behold, less than an hour later we had 6 dead fruit flies in our dish! This surprised and delighted me. As I said, I usually use apple cider vinegar, but it can take some time for it to work. This seemed to work immediately!

I didn’t notice any more fruit flies the next morning, so I’m not sure if that’s because the sauce lost its potency, or if there were just no more fruit flies to be caught! Either way, this is definitely something I want to keep trying. I’m not throwing out the vinegar, but this is definitely an alternate solution when I want a quick fix, or if I’m running low on apple cider vinegar.

I’m curious- have you noticed any strange flavors that fruit flies seem to be attracted to? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below! And if you try this trick with Frank’s Red Hot Sauce, I’m super curious to hear how it turns out!