Get Rid Of Gnats With A Mixture Of 3 Kitchen Essentials

While fly strips and roach traps may be effective at getting rid of some of your larger kitchen pests, gnats are a particularly tenacious one that seem immune to many commercial options. Fortunately, you can make a surprisingly effective gnat trap with nothing but a few kitchen essentials mixed in any bowl, cup, or jar. 

Mix together one part vinegar and one part dish soap in your chosen vessel. You don't need anything huge; a standard cereal bowl or even a small ramekin should work just fine. Next, mix in a few tablespoons of sugar. 

Vinegar is an acidic pantry staple that repels insects on its own, but when combined with sugar, it creates a potent lure by mimicking the smell of fermenting vegetable matter. The soap changes the surface tension of the mixture, making it easier for gnats to submerge so the vinegar can break down their exoskeletons. 

Thanks to the soap, your trap shouldn't produce a strong enough smell to affect pets or people. Place the trap in areas where gnats congregate, such as around fruit bowls, in the pantry, or around your garbage can, and leave it overnight. You should notice dead gnats in your trap over the next few days, but feel free to change it every other day or so. 

While effective, this trap is only good for eliminating gnats. It's still best to prevent them entirely with other kitchen staples.

Even if you have a sparkling clean kitchen, gnats are tenacious enough to find that little bit of residue on your counter or that old lime at the bottom of your fruit bowl. While a clean kitchen is the best way to prevent insect infestations, you can use a handful of household odds and ends to try and keep them out.

Fruit scraps don't keep bugs away, even acidic fruit peels like lemon, so be sure to throw out or compost any you may have lying around. However, gnats absolutely hate other powerful smells that most people enjoy. Mint, eucalyptus, and lavender oils are powerful, all-natural pest repellents that work great in diffusers or when rubbed along window frames. You can also clean your counters with white vinegar. Just keep in mind you shouldn't clean some kitchen surfaces, like porous stone, with vinegar, or you risk eroding it away.

If your kitchen is clean enough to eat off of, but you're still experiencing gnat infestations, it might be thanks to your household plants. Gnats love laying their eggs in moist soil, so just sprinkle a handful of sand over the surface to absorb that excess moisture and remove their preferred nursery environment. If gnats fly out of your kitchen drain, try pouring in a pot of boiling water to loosen up any stuck-on food waste, then run some ice cubes through your disposal.