Composting is an excellent way to flex food refuse and yard waste into useable material for your lawn and garden . However , the compost cumulation is not a pleasant smelling expanse of the chiliad , often drawing rainfly , gnat , fruit flies , and other annoying insect . Find out how to get rid of yield fly front in the compost bin and keep your composting stuff as pest - free as possible .
If you ’re an avid yield eater , your compost pile likely has hatful of banana peel , orchard apple tree cores , orange peel , and other rotten yield scraps . While these green fabric are necessary for the composting process , they are magnets for grownup yield flies and fungus gnats , often lead to a fruit fly infestation .
Nothing ruin an outside experience more than an overpopulation of compost fly . You spend more clock time swat at the gadfly than working in the garden or doing lawn work and may even give up and head back indoors . Fortunately , there are steps to do away with fruit flies and keep them out of the compost pile .
Ways to Keep Fruit Flies Out of Compost
Overripe fruit is a favorite food informant for fruit flies , so it ’s no admiration they spend their clip feasting and breeding in a compost bucketful or great deal . Discover how to reject these pests and prevent a yield fly job .
Why Are There Fruit Flies in the Compost Pile?
The best direction to keep flies out of compost is to empathise why they are there . research what attracts fruit flies to composting material and what causes them to become an infestation .
Compost flies are plebeian since composting materials consist of advanced fruit scraps . grown flies enjoy the alcohol produce from fermenting intellectual nourishment wastefulness . They lay their eggs in moist , organic material near this nutrient reservoir to ensure larvae have plenty to eat .
Are Flies Harmful to Compost?
All insects are a necessary part of nature , but are flies good for compost ? No major issuing arise from fruit tent-fly hanging out in the compost mess . Nevertheless , they quickly become a nuisance . On the other script , dirt ball are good for composting , whether you have a vermicomposter or a standard compost pile or tumbler .
Fruit fly and other insects are beneficial to compost , help to break down the organic matter . You may not desire a fruit pilot infestation since their presence is unbearable as you turn and water the material . However , while there are reward to flies in the compost , each female fly lays up to 500 yield fly eggs when given the opportunity .
Ways to Keep Flies Out of Compost
Though yield flies do not affect the composting process , you do n’t desire them fly around , specially when they start breed . Here are a few simpleways to catch a yield flyand keep themout of the compost .
One of the more obvious andbest ways to keepfruit fly out of the compost is to treat it with a lid or a tarp . It ’s also useful to wrap kitchen scraps in newspaper bags or newspapers before jactitate them into the compost bin . The paper contains the food smell as they better down , making it less detectable to pests .
Consider applying fruit fly revolting oils around the compost bin . teem some lavender , eucalyptus , lemongrass , or peppermint crucial petroleum onto a cotton ball and pass over it on the binful ’s edges to confuse the insects and deter them .
Changing the Compost Material to Get Rid of Fruit Flies
yield flies become a problem if left ungoverned , whether you have flies in compost tumbler , bin , or heap . Luckily , they are soft to control by adding different composting materials .
Fruit flies choose an surroundings with in high spirits humidness , and contribute more browned material , like composition board , to the top of the compost wad get down moisture levels . Additionally , fly enjoy the high nitrate substance of compost and tote up crushed eggshells remedies this problem .
How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies in the Compost Bin
One of the best ways to foreclose yield flies in your compost bin is to hot compost rather than cold compost or dirt ball compost . spicy compost is a method acting that practice heat to break down materials , creating fast compost with fewer pests .
A hot compost pile contains brown and fleeceable materials fracture into small pieces . You turn and irrigate the compost on a regular basis , which heats the compost between 130 and 140 ° F . The heat allows microbes to reproduce and quickly break down the organic matter . The in high spirits temperature prevents fell larvae in compost while killing harmful bacterium and sens source .
Using a Trap to Get Rid of Compost Fruit Flies
The most straightforward way to get flies out of your compost bin is to make a fruit fly gob . This homemade cakehole is dewy-eyed to put together , and lures and traps flies for commodious disposition . It killsfruit flies that become a problem near your composter .
Take a clean-cut plastic container , like a plastic soda feeding bottle , and thrust three or four hole in it with a toothpick . Place a banana Sir Robert Peel or apple cider acetum inside the container , exit the lid , and prepare it on top of the compost pile . The flies enter the holes in lookup of food for thought and can not escape .
If you have an indoor compost machine , teem fruit juice or cider acetum into a container with a spurt of dish detergent , and cover it with a sheet of plastic wrap . Poke holes in the plastic and set the container near a fruit arena to tempt and ambush flies .
Ways to Prevent Fruit Flies in Your Compost Bin
Composting takes sentence and effort ; the last thing you want to manage with while turning and water the compost is fly ball . There are several ways to prevent fruit flies in your compost bin and kibosh an infestation before it begin .
Since the food scraps , vegetables , and fruit are what attract acetum fly sheet , bury these nitrogen - rich materials beneath a layer of browned materials and soil .
Aeration is also a great way to deter these pest . Turn the pile on a regular basis to increase atomic number 8 levels and encourage radioactive decay . Keep the pile level and avoid letting the compost mob up in the eye , which cause a warm centre of attention with nerveless edges .
For preventing fruit flies entirely , head off lay fermenting food into the compost stilt . While this slows the composting process , it eliminate a fruit fly problem . alternatively , add dope clippings , repeated and annual flora passementerie , eggshells , seaweed , and burnt umber grounds .
Composting is one of the best forms of recycling . You cease up with a rich grease conditioner for your veggie garden , lawn , and plants . However , compost is a devoid meal for yield flies and other pest . Fortunately , there are mere path to prevent fruit fly from take over the compost pile and becoming a nuisance .
Now that you get a line how to get rid of fruit flies in the compost bin , why not share our compost yield rainfly eliminate tips with your family and friends on Facebook and Pinterest ?
