Homemade fly paper works just as well as the store-bought version, and you can make it with three ingredients you probably already have: corn syrup, sugar, and water. The whole process takes about 15 minutes, and a single batch can coat several strips that stay sticky for weeks.
The Basic Recipe
Combine 1/4 cup of corn syrup, 1/4 cup of sugar, and 2 tablespoons of water in a small saucepan. Heat the mixture over medium-low heat, stirring until the sugar fully dissolves. You’re not trying to caramelize anything here. You just want a smooth, uniformly sticky syrup. Once the sugar is dissolved, remove the pan from heat and let it cool for a few minutes until it’s warm but not hot.
If you don’t have corn syrup, honey works as a substitute at the same ratio. Honey has a stronger scent, which can actually help attract flies. Molasses is another option, though it’s messier to work with and leaves a darker residue on surfaces if a strip falls.
Choosing and Preparing the Strips
Brown paper bags are the go-to material. They’re sturdy enough to hold the sticky coating without tearing when wet, and they don’t stretch when you hang them vertically. Cut the bag into strips roughly 2 inches wide and 12 to 18 inches long. Poke a small hole at the top of each strip and thread a piece of string or a twist tie through it for hanging.
Cardstock and kraft paper also work well. Avoid anything glossy or coated, like magazine pages, because the syrup will bead up and slide off instead of soaking into the fibers. You want the paper to absorb a thin layer of the mixture so it stays tacky rather than dripping.
Coat each strip by brushing the warm syrup on with a pastry brush or simply dipping the strip into the saucepan and letting the excess drip off. Lay the strips on a sheet of parchment paper or a wire rack for a minute or two before hanging them. They should feel very sticky to the touch but not actively dripping.
Why This Works (and How Commercial Strips Differ)
Flies are drawn to sugar-based scents, and the sticky surface traps them on contact. Commercial fly paper uses a different approach. Most brands coat their strips with a blend of natural gum resins, vegetable oil, and wax that stays tacky indefinitely without drying out. Some formulations contain white mineral oil as a primary ingredient, making up roughly 60% of the adhesive. These commercial coatings are designed for a longer shelf life, but the active trapping principle is the same: a surface sticky enough that a fly can’t pull free once it lands.
The DIY version trades longevity for simplicity and transparency. You know exactly what’s on the strip, everything is food-grade, and there’s nothing that would concern you if a child or pet accidentally touched it. The tradeoff is that sugar-based strips dry out faster, especially in low humidity, so you’ll need to replace them more often.
How Long They Last
In a typical indoor environment, expect your strips to stay effectively sticky for about one to two weeks. Humidity helps. In a damp kitchen or bathroom, you might get closer to three weeks. In dry climates or air-conditioned rooms, the sugar coating can harden in under a week. Once the surface feels dry or crusty to the touch, take it down and hang a fresh one.
You can extend the life of your strips by adding a small amount of vegetable oil (about a teaspoon per batch) to the syrup mixture. The oil slows evaporation and keeps the surface from forming a hard shell. This is actually closer to how commercial products maintain their stickiness.
Placement Tips
Hang strips near windows, doorways, and trash cans, wherever flies tend to congregate. Flies navigate largely by light, so placing a strip near a bright window or a light fixture increases the chance they’ll land on it. Keep strips at least a few inches away from walls and furniture to avoid accidentally brushing against them yourself. Ceiling hooks, cabinet knobs, and curtain rods all make good anchor points.
In kitchens, hang one near the fruit bowl or compost bin. In garages or barns, place strips near entry points where flies come in from outside. If you’re using them outdoors on a porch, keep them out of direct sunlight, which accelerates drying, and out of wind, which can blow the strip into contact with chairs or railings.
Targeting Fruit Flies Specifically
Standard fly paper catches houseflies reliably, but fruit flies are smaller, lighter, and attracted to different scents. For fruit flies, a liquid trap often works better than a sticky strip. Fill a small jar with about 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar and add a few drops of liquid dish soap. The vinegar mimics the smell of fermenting fruit, which fruit flies can’t resist. The dish soap breaks the surface tension of the liquid so the flies sink and drown instead of landing safely on top.
If you’d rather stick with the paper strip approach, add a splash of apple cider vinegar to your sugar syrup before coating the strips. This gives the surface a fermented scent that appeals to fruit flies. Leftover wine works for the same reason. Some people simply leave the dregs of a wine bottle out with a few drops of dish soap and skip the paper entirely.
Using Color to Your Advantage
If you want to boost your catch rate, color matters. Many flying insects, including fungus gnats, whiteflies, and aphids, are strongly attracted to bright yellow. Commercial yellow sticky traps exploit this, and you can do the same by painting your paper strips yellow before applying the adhesive, or by using yellow construction paper as your base material. This is especially useful for houseplants plagued by gnats. Place yellow sticky strips about 3 feet apart within or just above plant foliage for the best coverage.
Houseflies are less color-specific than smaller pests, so for a general kitchen fly problem, the color of the strip matters less than the scent and placement.