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Hi, I've had a Can-O-Worms for a year or so now and recently it seems to have become infested with mosquitoes. What do I do? Every time I take the lid of a swarm of mosi's come out, and its getting worse. The only thing I can think of is to dump all of the contents and start again but I really don't want to do that to my pets :-)

Any ideas anyone?

can you not pick the worms out and give it a good clean out?

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I don't think these flying beasties will do any harm to your worms or the composting action, in fact they are almost certainly fruit flies which are very common this time of year, i suspect your wormery is a bit too wet, try adding ripped up loo rolls and egg boxes and some shredded paper to help it dry a bit.

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You usually get flies etc in the wormery when the contents is too acidic, if you sort the pH out then the problem usually goes away. As Seasprout says, adding more newspaper is good but I would also suggest as many crushed egg shells as you can get your hands on or, if not possible then you can get some lime mix stuff (I got a bag with my wormery when I first got it) and add a couple of handfulls of that. Don't feed for a week or so and (fingers crossed) you're problem will solve itself. Unless your wormery starts smelling "off" then you won't need to abandon the contents.

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All the above are well worth trying, plus I've just bought some stuff called 'diatomaceous earth' (sp? I can't be bothered to get up and go and look at the label!), which is apparently good to puff onto the Can O Worms to keep the flies at bay, so may work for mossies too? Wriggly wrigglers sell it. Good luck with whatever you try.

I have the same problem, mine got flooded when i was on holiday, the lid came off and the tap was shut ;-( . Some of my worms survived. Wigglywigglers is a good place .July at Wiggly Wigglers

Thanks everyone. I've been trying to dry it out a bit as I had decided it was to wet anyway. What about the stuff from the paper shredder?
This could be difficult to describe but what sort of moisture content should I be aiming for?

Come to think of it is that why I always seem to have loads of worms floating in the bottom liquid collector? I seem to remember that worms go down if its to wet.

You can use BT mosquito dunks, which are normally used for ponds. They have the donut shaped ones and also pellets. It's a biological control that will kill the larvae and not harm the worms.

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I agree with the "add lime" prognosis. Regular horticultural / agricultural lime is fine not, repeat not, builders lime / slaked lime

I've had my wormery since April and according to my 'instructions' it should be damp enough that a squeezed fistful would produce a couple of drops of moisture.

I've had the fruit fly problem too - along with a fairly soggy smelly mess. I stopped adding to it, mixed in a load of shredded paper and have let it start to 'dry out'. All the boys seem happier now and it all appears to be working.

I used to use calcified seaweed to sweeten the wormery, but I now use horticultural lime as the use of calcified seaweed is now banned (I think) - if it isn't, it should be. In my ignorance I used to use it a lot.