Posted by Home Composter on October 31st, 2009 under Composting 101, Worm Bins

There were more fruit flies in my Worm Factory 360 yesterday afternoon than there had been before. Previously, there had only been a couple and I wondered if the increase was because I had added a bunch of food the day before, so I went to the Internet to do a little research. After reading this article on eHow.com, I am guessing that these new tenants in the Worm Factory are probably the offspring of the “couple” I had noticed before. Fruit flies reproduce rapidly and in large quantities if there is enough food to sustain them, so it seems likely that my worm bin could become a thriving metropolis for fruit flies. Hmmm. I’m not so sure that I want that.

It’s not like they are swarming all over the house. I really didn’t notice them until I took the lid off to add more paper. But when I did, I was a little uncomfortable with the small swarm. So what can I do to reduce the number of fruit flies (or maybe they’re vinegar flies)…

• The first thing I’ve learned is that the more decomposing food that is in there, the more eggs the fruit flies will lay. Therefore, I don’t want food sitting around for days before the worms get to it. This seems to conflict with what I was thinking about adding food waste only once or twice a week. Although I will pay more attention to how much food is left in the bin before adding more, I don’t think I will be feeding them on a daily basis and I don’t think that is even recommended.
• I remember reading somewhere that several inches of shredded paper on top of the bin will discourage fruit flies and I had done that, but as I have added food and the worms have eaten paper, there were places in the tray that didn’t have 2-3 inches of shredded paper and a couple of the corners were without any shredded paper covering. So I added a more shredded paper and made sure to cover everything.
  
• I haven’t tried this yet, but may consider this suggestion that is in the Worm Factory Instruction Manual. Fill an empty working tray with dry shredded paper or dry leaves and put it on top of the working tray.  It’s supposed to at least keep the fruit flies inside the Worm Factory.
• The instruction manual also suggests that nematodes (roundworms)
  which are available at many garden centers are excellent for controlling fruit flies.
• Fruit Fly traps – if the shredded paper doesn’t work and I am unhappy with the fruit flies, I might try a live trap and then release them in my community’s garbage dumpster. There a bunch of traps on this Wikihow.com page if you are interested.

I have total confidence that this will not be a big problem, if a problem at all. I just wanted to get a jump on it and make sure that my family never notices the fruit flies around my home composter!

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