Flies in compost

Discussion in 'Soils, Fertilizers and Composting' started by soccerdad, Aug 21, 2007.

  1. soccerdad

    soccerdad Active Member 10 Years

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    We have composted for 20 years, but never properly. Our compost is full of flies, the small black kind. Open the lid and the cloud of flies is so thick that you cannot see. I have tried everything: covering the surface with newspapers, covering it with soil, covering it with lime, sealing the entire composter in plastic wrap and leaving it that way for three weeks, leaving the cover off ... and nothing reduces the flies for any significant period. The plastic-wrap method produced a fly-free compost when I took off the plastic after three weeks but a week later the flies were back in full force. Every other technique had no effect at all. We really hate this. Any suggestions?

    I know that our composting system is not ideal, for we do not have the space to add soil as much as we should - we only have room for two composters and they are full with all of the green stuff that we generate (in fact they cannot hold any of the leaves in fall) - and, perhaps for that reason, our compost works slowly (although it does work) and generates little heat. Maybe that is the problem?
     
  2. Debby

    Debby Active Member 10 Years

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    A better balance of green materials and brown materials, and more mixing should help. Shredded/torn newspaper is "brown" so mix in newpaper rather than cover with newspaper. Do try to add leaves.
     
  3. soccerdad

    soccerdad Active Member 10 Years

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    I just don't have the room in my composters to add many leaves, and because we have elms on the boulevard we get a lot of leaves - between 50 and 100 cu ft a year, I'd say, although of course their volume reduces greatly as they decompose. My neighbours bag theirs for the City to pick up, but I hate to let that nutrition go to waste so I just pile them in the garden over the winter. Not that they decompose ... but in the Spring I try to dig them in.

    Maybe if my composting was more efficient I'd be able to empty the composters often and would in fact have room for the leaves.
     
  4. Debby

    Debby Active Member 10 Years

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    If the city workers' strike ever ends, you could check out some books from Rodale Press. Rodale is big on organic gardening and composting. Good on ya for using the leaves as you do over the winter. The flies in the compost may be a nuisance, but I think they are harmless/not too harmful.
     
  5. Debby

    Debby Active Member 10 Years

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  6. soccerdad

    soccerdad Active Member 10 Years

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    I will try the newspaper approach, if only I can convince my kids and wife to do the same.

    My mom used to read Rodale's books decades ago, but I thought they were "men from mars operated on me in their space ship" type of thing. Either they changed, or I did, because when I next saw them years later they were pretty good.
     
  7. Debby

    Debby Active Member 10 Years

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    Those organic gardening folks had the right idea all along, huh.

    We collect kitchen waste (coffee grounds and filters, banana peels, vegetable parings, etc.) in a closed plastic container just outside our back door. When it's full, my husband clears a depression in the centre of the composter, puts the kitchen waste in, chops at it a bit with a spade, and pulls over material from the sides. Ours is an open composter, a plastic cylinder bought from Lee Valley years ago. There are some flies, but my husband's method seems to keep the composter working well and minimizes the flies. I've been trying to persuade him to put machine-shredded paper into the composter, but he's not convinced the inks are harmless.
     
  8. KarinL

    KarinL Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    I line my kitchen compost container with a brown paper bag, so the container I collect in doesn't get so disgusting, it's a snap to empty, and voila, brown stuff mixed in. In your position, it might be a good idea to just throw in a handfull of elm leaves every time you put kitchen scraps in the compost.
     

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