“Young people look at me like I’m doing magic. It’s just what our mothers knew.” — Why a forgotten Georgia tradition is back in a hand-glazed clay fruit fly jar, and why the last ones are going at a special price.

Every summer, someone young stands in Hattie Lassiter’s kitchen in Fort Valley, Georgia, and stares at the fruit bowl. Ripe peaches, soft bananas. And not one fruit fly. Then Hattie lifts the lid of the blue clay jar next to the bowl, and they see where all the flies went.

The trick inside is older than Hattie. A splash of apple cider vinegar and one drop of dish soap. The smell pulls the flies in, and the soap makes them sink. Georgia mothers did it for generations, in pickle jars on the windowsill. Today, almost nobody knows it anymore. People buy sprays and plastic traps instead.

No plastic. No refills. No poison. Just what our mothers already had under the sink.

Hattie is 73. She is a potter in Fort Valley, Georgia, right in the middle of peach country. Her mother, Ida, ran a peach stand for 31 summers. Ida’s fruit fly trap was a pickle jar of vinegar with a paper cone on top. It worked. But everyone could see the flies, so she threw a dish towel over it whenever company came.

In 1981, Hattie made her mother a clay one. Then she kept going. A wider neck, a narrower neck, a deeper bowl. It took her years to find the one shape the flies get into but never out of. Ida put the jar on her windowsill and never covered it again.

“My mama knew this. Her mama knew this. I just gave it a jar you don’t have to hide.”

Why every fruit fly trap ends up hidden behind the toaster

Hattie has seen them all in her neighbors’ kitchens. And they all have the same problem.

• The plastic apple: Bright red plastic with a sticker on the side. You buy refills every few weeks, and when it is full, the whole thing goes in the trash.
• The sticky paper: A yellow strip over the sink with every fly stuck to it. It catches your hair, too.
• The glass with plastic wrap: It works. But after three days, it is a glass full of flies on the windowsill. That is Mama Ida’s dish towel all over again.

“People buy a trap, set it out, and then hide it because they can’t stand to look at it. A trap behind the toaster catches nothing.”

One clay jar that is pretty, works with what’s in your pantry and lasts for decades

Hattie’s jar does the same job as the ugly traps. It just does it in a way you never have to hide. Four small things, worked out over 45 summers at the peach stand.

1. “The Sugar Bowl Disguise”

The jar is solid glazed clay. You can’t see through it. From the outside, it looks like a sugar bowl, about 4.5 inches tall. The blue is brushed over the red Georgia clay by hand, so no two jars look the same. It stays out on the counter when the pastor comes for dinner. Guests ask where you got it. Nobody asks what is inside.

“The brown is our red Georgia clay. The blue is the sky over the orchard in August.”

2. “The One-Way Funnel”

The jar is closed all around, so the smell of the vinegar can only get out in one place: the little neck on top of the lid. Every fruit fly that follows it ends up at the same hole, about as wide as a pencil. It walks down the narrow tube easily. Inside the jar, it buzzes along the round walls and under the dome of the lid. The only way out is one tiny hole in the middle of the ceiling. It almost never finds it.

“Fruit flies aren’t smart. They find the hole going in. They never find it going out.”

3. “The Pantry Recipe”

There is nothing to buy. Apple cider vinegar, or a splash of red wine or fruit juice, and one drop of dish soap. The soap breaks the thin skin on top of the vinegar, so the flies can’t stand on it and fly off again. No chemicals, no poison, nothing you would not keep in the kitchen anyway. It is safe next to the fruit bowl, the grandkids and the dog.

“Mama forgot the soap one summer,” Hattie says and laughs. “The flies just took a bath and left.”

4. “The Forever Jar”

Fired clay does not wear out. There is no plastic, no refill and nothing to throw away. Once a week you pour the vinegar down the sink, rinse the jar and fill it again. Mama Ida used the very first one from 1981 until she passed away in 2010. Twenty-nine summers, and the same jar on the same windowsill.

Two minutes at the counter, and the fruit flies stop coming back

Hattie shows us at her kitchen table how it works. It takes her less than two minutes. She doesn’t measure anything.

1

Pour in vinegar. About two fingers deep. Apple cider vinegar works best.

2

Add one drop of dish soap. Just one. That is the trick.

3

Put the lid on. Now nobody can see inside.

4

Set it by the fruit bowl. The flies do the rest.

The first flies are usually inside on the very first day. After two or three days, the cloud over the fruit bowl is gone. Once a week, Hattie pours the old vinegar down the sink, rinses the jar and fills it again. If there is no apple cider vinegar in the house, a splash of red wine or fruit juice works too.

One honest note from Hattie: the jar is made for fruit flies, the tiny ones around bananas, peaches and wine glasses. It is not made for houseflies or the little gnats in potted plants. “I’d rather tell you that now than have you disappointed later.”

The spring her thumbs said no

Every jar takes Hattie about five hours, spread over a week. The hardest part is the funnel: a little clay tube, thinner than a pencil, shaped by hand and set into the lid. She has had arthritis in both thumbs for years. This spring, it got the upper hand.

“I sat down at the wheel in April and the clay just wobbled. I tried for a whole week. Then I turned the wheel off.”

In October, she fired the kiln one last time. Nobody is taking over. 186 jars are left on the shelves. When they are gone, there will be no more.

For 45 years, Hattie sold her jars at the peach stand for twelve dollars. For her last 186, she could ask three times as much. Everyone would understand. She won’t.

“A jar in a cupboard catches nothing. I want my last ones out on kitchen counters, next to the fruit bowl, where they belong.”

What people say about Hattie’s jars

• ★★★★★

  “We had flies all over the bananas for weeks. Two days with this jar and they were gone. And I don’t have to look at them, which was the best part.”

  Brenda C., Warner Robins, GA
• ★★★★★

  “My grandmother had a vinegar jar with a paper funnel on her windowsill. This is the same idea, just beautiful. The blue glaze is even prettier in person.”

  Sandra P., Dothan, AL
• ★★★★★

  “Bought one for me and one for my daughter’s new house. Heavy, well made, wrapped so well it took me a while to get it out of the box.”

  Cheryl W., Greenville, SC

Three questions people ask before ordering

Where can I buy one of Hattie’s jars?

Only through this page. Hattie’s jars are not sold on Amazon, Temu or in any store.

How long will they be available?

Only while supplies last. The kiln has been fired for the last time, and there are 186 jars left. When they are gone, they are gone for good.

What if it’s not right for me?

You have 30 days to try it at home. If you are not happy, just send a short email and you will get your money back. No questions, no hassle.

More from people who keep one by the fruit bowl

• ★★★★★

  “I’ve tried the plastic traps and the sticky paper. This is the first thing that works and that I’m happy to leave out when people come over.”

  Debra H., Savannah, GA
• ★★★★★

  “Mine has more blue on it than the photo and I love it. Apple cider vinegar and a drop of soap, that’s it. My husband keeps checking how many it caught.”

  Teresa M., Knoxville, TN
• ★★★★★

  “Gave it to my mother, who is 84 and keeps a big fruit bowl on the table. She calls it her sugar bowl and won’t tell her friends what’s in it.”

  Pamela R., Columbia, SC