Fruit flies are a nuisance no matter where they decide to swarm in your home. But they become particularly annoying when they choose to infest your compost bin. Fruit flies love rotten fruits and veggies, and compost is the place where fruit and veggie scraps go to rot and become new soil.
If you’re unlucky (or not careful), your compost bin can quickly become a fruit fly farm. Infestation!
So, what to do when dealing with compost bin fruit flies?
We have put together this quick guide on the best ways to deal with fruit flies that are infesting your compost bin. If you’re looking for the easiest solutions, then you’ve come to the right place.
- You need a bin with a tight-fitting lid
- Make sure your lid is fully sealed each time
- Empty your bin regularly, and clean it regularly
Unfortunately, we hate to say it: there is no fruit fly-proof compost bin. Sometimes infestations happen, and the best thing to do is get rid of them as quickly as possible.
Read on for an explainer, and some tips.Â
Put a Lid On It!
One of the most effective – and obvious – ways to prevent all insects from making their way into your compost bin is to ensure that your compost bin is sealed completely.
It’s easy to give into the temptation of leaving the bin open as you prepare dinner and throw in food scraps as you go. But play it the safe way and put a lid on the bin each time, and confirm that the lid is seated properly.Â
By ensuring that the lid on your compost bin is secure, you’ll minimize fruit flies from entering and making their home in the scraps. You’ll also save yourself the trouble of dealing with the smell of rotting food filling your kitchen.Â
The OXO Easy-Clean Compost Bin works really well. But the reality is no bin is truly fruit-fly proof, particularly if you’re even remotely careless when you use it.
You’re intentionally leaving rotting food on the counter. The fruit flies will be interested, guaranteed.
You’re intentionally leaving rotting food on the counter. The fruit flies will be interested, guaranteed.
Do Those Charcoal Filters Work?
Some people have good success using bins with charcoal filters. They do a good job keeping the smells from getting too foul. But oftentimes, fruit flies will lay their eggs on the lid with the charcoal filter attached.
Then, every time you open the lid, you get greeted by 10,000 tiny friends.
What Can You Do About Fruit Flies In the Compost Bin?
You should assume there will occasionally be fruit flies in your bin. If it’s getting used regularly, expect it to happen, and have a plan to deal with the flies when you get them.
What can you do about these periodic fruit fly infestations?
1. Use Fruit Fly Traps
There are a few different options for fruit fly traps: the classic homemade vinegar and dish soap trap, and the more modern UV-light traps. We’ll look at both here.
When you build a homemade fruit fly trap, you’ll be able to dispose of all of the flies that become stuck without actually having to do much dirty work.Â
Creating a homemade trap is simple – all you need is a few drops of dish soap in a container mixed with apple cider vinegar. Cover this container with plastic wrap and poke some holes into it, or use a lid with holes in it. The flies will be drawn to the scent of the vinegar, crawl through the holes, and drown in the dish soap.Â
The other option is to use a UV light trap for fruit flies. These traps use UV light to draw fruit fly attention, and sticky traps inside to capture the flies.
The Katchy Fruit Fly Trap is a great example of this. It’s a clean solution, and you don’t have to look at a jar full of dead bugs.
2. Ensure Your Greens Are Well-Buried
Fruit flies only infest your compost if given the right temperatures and an adequate food supply. Fruit flies mostly infest the green fruits and vegetables that populate your bin, so it helps to consider burying these materials with brown ingredients, as well as a layer of soil.
Fruit flies infest your compost if given the right temperatures.
This will not cause any interruption to the composting process since there will still be a healthy balance of carbon-rich and nitrogen-rich materials. If the vegetables are not on top of the soil that you bury the compost under, then fruit flies will have more difficulty establishing themselves, and infestations will be rarer.Â
3. Consider Freezing Your Compost
Strangely, you may be able to avoid having fruit flies in your compost by freezing the compost itself. Rather than leaving your compost in a bin on the kitchen counter, consider purchasing a bin that can be placed in the freezer.
Save space in your freezer for the bin, and keep your compost frozen as much as possible.Â
Doing so will keep the flies away, and when you’re ready, you’ll be able to move the frozen compost outside to your garden at your leisure. If you don’t want to add it to your garden while frozen, you can dip it in boiling water to defrost it.Â
Fruit flies will die quickly in the freezer, but they can last for many hours in the fridge, so a freezer bin is a good solution for many.
4. Make Sure That Your Compost is Properly Aerated
Regularly turning your compost pile can help eliminate those pesky fruit flies. Doing this will also increase the levels of oxygen in the center and lower parts of the heat, which encourages those decomposing organisms to work faster while also heating up the interior in the process.
Regularly turning your compost pile can help eliminate fruit flies.
What’s more, you can promote a warmer center and mitigate cool edges by making sure that your compost pile is level rather than letting it pile up in the middle. A warm center is particularly effective if your compost contains lots of greens, as it will not only keep the fruit flies away but will also encourage expedited composting.
Fruit flies will have a harder time breeding and infesting your compost if the composting process is moving quickly.
5. Wrap Those Scraps
For a simpler solution to getting rid of compost fruit flies, you can wrap your kitchen scraps in newspaper before you toss them into your compost bin. This is a simple yet effective way to keep the flies at bay while also boosting the composting process.
When those organic materials begin to break down and are wrapped, the newspaper will keep them contained, preventing any fruit-fly-attracting scents from escaping. Moreover, since newspaper is considered a brown material in the world of composting, it will naturally contribute to the compost pile, eliminating the need for you to replace it.
It’ll break down, too!
Of course, you have to subscribe to a newspaper to make this work. And who does that anymore?
6. Make a Banana Peel Trap
As their name suggests, fruit flies love fruit. You can take advantage of this by creating a trap from banana peels.
To do this, place a banana peel in a clear plastic container. Use a pin or a toothpick to make a few holes in the container, then place that container next to your compost bin. Within the span of one day, most of the flies will be in the container, stuck and helpless.
7. Consider Hot Compost
Hot compost piles will prevent the fruit flies’ larval stage from ever happening. In hot composts, the organic matter can break down efficiently while also being hot enough to kill fruit flies.
If you keep hot compost, you can expect that compost to be ready in around three weeks. However, the exact time frame will depend on several other environmental conditions. But, you’ll never have to worry about fruit flies infesting your hot compost, as they’ll never be able to survive the heated temperatures.Â
8. Make Sure You Wash Your Bin
Every time you empty your compost bin, give it a thorough scrubbing. It’s really easy to skip this step, because who wants to do that? But if you skip washing and cleansing your bin, you’ll slowly build up a layer of food scrap on the lining of the bin, or on the lid. Eventually, that will lead to fruit flies, even if you are regularly emptying the bin.
Keep it clean!
Conclusion
If you look at pretty much any compost bin on Amazon and read the reviews, you’ll find someone complaining about fruit fly infestation. It just happens.
If you use your bin, eventually fruit flies will get inside.
Plan accordingly, and stop the infestation before it gets out of control. Use fruit fly traps, freeze your bin, regularly clean it, and empty it frequently. These will all help.
Good luck!
