How to Make a Gnat Trap With a Soda Bottle
Gnats are small insects that can become a big problem if not properly dealt with. Gnats are known to appear during the warm months of late spring and summer and often find their way indoors through open doors and holes in window screens. Getting rid of gnats once they get inside can be a difficult and daunting task. Knowing how to make your own soda bottle gnat trap will free you from the headache that is a a house full of buzzing black gnats. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
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Cut off the top of your plastic soda bottle. Ideally your cut should be 2 to 3 inches below the top of the bottle.
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Pour one 1/2 cup vinegar, 1/2 cup sugar, and water into the soda bottle and stir. Ideally the mixture will fill up half of the bottle. If the mixture fills up more than half of the bottle, or if it comes to the brim, then the trap will not work.
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Place the top of the soda bottle upside-down into the bottle. The bottle top should be placed so that the cap is close to the mixture. Tape the two pieces of bottle together.
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Place the trap in areas of high gnat activity.The gnats will be attracted by the smell of the mixture and will be able to find there way in, but not out.
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Tips & Warnings
Change the mixture every few days. The sweetness of the mixture will eventually dilute making the trap less effective at luring in gnats.
If you do not have vinegar or sugar you can also use a variety of other stuff to attract gnats such as red wine, bananas or beer.
Add a few drops of liquid soap to your mixture. Adding liquid soap helps to drown the gnats faster.
Make sure that no gaps are between the pieces of the trap. Gaps will render the trap ineffective as the gnats will be able to fly out of the bottle.
Make sure that the bugs you are trying to trap are gnats. The soda bottle trap may not work on larger flying insects.
References
- Photo Credit BOTTLE CAPS image by SKYDIVECOP from Fotolia.com
