Fruit flies!!

[Debs]

Hi All.

Hoping some of you out there have some tips on controlling fruit flies in our compost bin. We are talking thousands of the little blighters, it is horrendous having to empty the kitchen caddy in there! As soon as you take the lid off clouds of them shoot up into the air, battering you in the face, getting into your hair! As if that isn't bad enough we then spend the rest of the day swatting the ones that get into the kitchen, even though the compost bin is about 10 yds away.

The only time we getting any reprieve is the few days after we put a layer of shredded paper or grass cuttings on top. Is there a particular thing that we are putting in our compost bin that they really love ?(I did wonder if we are putting too much citrus skin in there?)

Any help would be really appreciated as these flies are beginning to drive us insane!!!

[xspye]

We have a composting loo and get loads of the little sods. the best way we've found (tip picked up while in Uganda using pit latrines!) is to smoke them out. normally get a peice of wood of the fire that is smoking but not flaming and hold it in the chamber. It works for a month or so sometimes longer if the eggs die. i would suggest that there isn't anything in particular attracting them, they breed really quickly and will just gather in numbers. you need to get rid of the eggs otherwise the problem just reoccurs. Good luck with getting rid of them

[Alice]

I had them too Debs, but not in the quantity you seem to have them. I don't have them now. The only thing I can think of that I did was hose the inside of the Dalek with water a couple of times. Maybe I drowned them.

[Flummery]

A thin layer of soil every now and then seems to help - also helps the compost a bit.

[rustylady]

They are annoying, aren't they - specially when they get in the kitchen! I keep trying to swat them but although they look really slow fliers they're too quick for me 80% of the time. Don't have too much problem with the compost bins, though. Good mix of grass cuttings, shredded paper laced with guinea pig poo and veggie peelings - not too much fruit.

[blue-and-green]

glad im not the only one with the fruit-fly-problem, and my compost bin is a few feet from the kitchen!!, but i fill a bucket with waste then in the daleks, so i dont get to meet with them too often, keeping the lid closed.
i know that peppermint essential oil mixed into water as a spray will get rid of flies, whether they kill them or not i dont know but they dont like it, thats all i can suggest.

[borage]

Since I have stopped putting fruit in the composter we havent had any problems, I also use lots of torn up newspaper don't know if that helps

[Debs]

Thanks for the pointers everyone.

think the best thing for me is to cut down on so much fruit waste being added or simply try to cover it more!