fruit fly invasion

[zanussi101]

Hello!

we've been putting lots of food waste into our compost bin and have found ourselves (and all our neighbours!) in the midst of a fruit fly invasion.

Everytime we open the bin to put more waste in 1000's of them fly out and make their way into our house. we're even getting lots when we don't open it for a few days.

we've tried burying the food waste under cardboard and rotten stuff from the bottom which helps a bit but it's still a HUGE problem!

has anyone got any other suggestions?

thanks
x

[shirlthegirl43]

I find that chucking a layer of soil over it all every so often keeps the little blighters down. I am not certain but I think they do some of the work towards changing the rubbish to compost so I guess we don't want rid of them totally.

[wormlady]

Hiya
I often get fruit fly explosions in my wormeries and burying food waste under a thick layer of shredded newspaper or card helps, as does wraping your food waste in newspaper parcels before adding it, and finally keeping your kitchen caddy well sealed so the flies cant lay eggs in the waste before its added.

Also could you leave the lid off the bin so they can escape? This might prevent a big swarm flying up your nose when you take the lid off.

Or you could catch some spiders and stick them in the bin in the hopes they will set up home in the bin - Ive done this succesfully with a wormery before.

Best of luck!

[Rubyred]

I've just order my compost bin today, never thought about flies oh no! I had to scrub down my black bin today as yesturday I saw loads of flies trying to get in.

So on that whats best to use on the domestic black bin? I used bleach was that wrong?