Surely this can't be right.....composter issue.

aliasojo

I have one of those black 'Dalek' shaped compost bins. It's only got maybe a foot or two of stuff at the bottom of it, we've not had it that long.

Problem is, the thing is FULL of flies. Seriously large numbers of the things. When we take the lid off to put something else in, we get covered in a swarm of tiny black flies. It's like a moving dense black cloud, that's how bad it is. No-one wants to keep using the composter now as it's so unpleasant just taking the lid off.

Surely that's not normal?

wssla00

It's might be fruit flies feeding on the fruit peelings? They wont hurt and will help decompose the stuff faster. You can try and get rid of them but I would say live and let live

rrf494g

you want pleasant composting? (It's really "rotting")

emiff6

Fruit flies are really fast breeders, too, egg to egg-laying adult in just two weeks when the weather is warm, which is why it seems like you never get rid of them. The clouds of flies you release when you take the lid off the composter have already laid eggs on the fruit in there.

The immature larvae or grubs (so tiny you'd hardly notice them), are busy chomping through your fruit and veg and turning it to compost, albeit in a smaller way than worms do.

When I need to get in my composter, I take the lid off and go away for 5 minutes until the flies have dispersed, happy in the knowledge that the adult flies are now providing extra food for the garden spiders and the frog who lives under the rock rose.

aliasojo

Thank you. You learn something new everyday round these parts.

I wasn't prepared for this when I sited the composter, it's too close to the kitchen window and the flies are coming in.

Think I'll need to resite it now.

morg_monster

Poo, that's a pain. Ours is also full of flies at the moment, I think it is because there's an awful lot of "green" stuff in there at the moment - mostly old salad containers that are past it now, so huge lettuce and rocket plants! I need to shred some newspaper to add I think.
But certainly its the season for it; our kitchen is full of fruit flies at the mo and I can't understand why!

cjb02

to cut down the number of flies i put on the top periodically a covering of garden soil (an inch or two) or shredded paper (three or four inches) the flies then cannot get to the rotten material as easily so the numbers are cut considerably.

dell12

Yeah flies are totally normal around food waste. Personally though I tend not to put meat waste in the compose bin just to ensure that I don't get maggots. A few fruit flies is nothing to worry about though.

MMMIaRMW

Also - wrap your fruit and vegetable peelings up in newspaper before adding to the compost bin to help stop fruit flies hatching out - but if you've got a bit of an infestation, leaving the lid off means that preditors can easily enter - its all part of the food/decomposition cycle though! Just don't open your mouth when you take off the lid!

diluvsdiscounts

We spent a happy couple of hours the other night collecting garden worms to add to our composter. Whether they will happily live in there or work there way down and go back to wherever they were who knows.

Sambucus_Nigra

a - the composter should not be near the kitchen window!
b - if you have too many flies; it is too wet so add a fair amount of dry paper/cardboard etc

and c - earth worms are not the same as the brandling worms that munch through compost. If you have a composter, the correct worms will find it even if it is not in contact with the ground; so just let them find it themselves.

When you site the composter; remember that the only way to get all the compost out of the dalek is to remove it; shovel the unrotted stuff back in and then use the rotted stuff at the bottom. So make sure you have space to have the dalek plus a space next to it to move it to so that you don't end up in a right mess when you empty it.