Flies in my compost bin

[Mel]

I have lots of horrid little flies in my compost bin (I assume they are fruit flies). I tried putting a layer of garden cuttings over the veggies, but they are still there. Does anyone know what I can use to get rid of the little sods please? It's most unpleasant opening the bin and getting a faceful of flies .

Thanks,

Mel

[Geordie]

Hi Mel,

Cover the heap with a 1-2" layer of soil and leave for a few days...that normally gets rid of them

[maurice]

my compost is made in a compost bin but I still get a problem with flys and ants any advise?

[Peter]

Ants are good.

They will feed off the vegetable matter or the attendant bugs, according to ant species, and they will do a certain amount of turning over as they forage, build and feed.

Anyway, anything you do to kill them will kill other good stuff or poison your compost.

Flies.

Encourage birds.
Wack a wodge of lawn mowings on the top, that should seal them in.

[eskymo]

Everytime I add kitchen or garden waste to my bin I then put a layer of soil on top to cover what I've just added...this is either soil from the garden or discarded/spent compost from old plant pots/repotted plants/seed trays etc...I keep a compost bag of this stuff aside especially for the compost bin. It works for me.

[Mel]

Thanks for the advice on using soil - I'll definitely try this as it's getting to be a nuisance as I have a small garden so the compost bin is near an eating area.

Unfortunately, I don't have a lawn and we don't get many birds in the garden so I can't try those two methods. I'm sure the soil will do it for me though.

Thanks guys.

[lyndap]

Are you supposed to add spent compost to your bin? I was doing, then someone told me I shouldn't. Now totally confused!

[poultrychat]

I always work on if you have ants in the compost bin then the bin is too dry

[Gryfon]

So add more water if you have ants? I don't mind them in there except that when I come to use it I don't really want to be traipsing ants all over the garden!

[eskymo]

I poured a whole watering can of water into my compost bin the other day as I saw a lot of ants in there. I had a nother look today and there were more of them - I think my compost bin has turned into an ant hill. So I added another bucket of water. Any advice on how to reduce the number of ants would be great!

[Geordie]

Apparantly skunks eat ants.....just an idea!

[poultrychat]

Everything I have ever read says that you should water your compost bin if you have ants in it, they don't like damp places so if your compost bin has ants then it isn't damp enough - works for me