Fruit flies in my worm farm

by Roonie
(South Africa)

Question:

I started my worm farm at home and it seems like there is a lot of fruit flies in it. When I open the lid a lot of them are coming out of the worm farm.
I have layered the top with egg cartons and newspapers.

Is there something I'm doing incorrectly please help?

kind regards

Roonie



Answer:
Hello Roonie, I am sure you are doing a great job maintaining your bin and keeping your worms happy.

Fruit flies are attracted to fruit and as such can often be found in worm farms, compost heaps and worm bins.

Although they are essentially not harmful to the worms they can become a nuisance if they are allowed to multiply.


They can be identified by plump bodies that are usually pale brown or orange and a slow flight. They are between 1 to 2 mm / 64th to 32nd of an inch big.

Mature flies lay their eggs on the peels of fruit, especially bananas. Those eggs are to small to be recognized by the human eye. When the conditions are right (warm and humid) the flies hatch and can quickly multiply if the environment is to their liking.

Reducing fruit flies

There are a few ways to reduce or even eliminate the fruit fly population in your worm bin.

-----------

1.) Place all your fruit peels and rotting fruit that you want to add to the worm bin over night in a freezer before you put them into your worm bin. This will kill all eggs that are on the fruit and peels.

2.) Place the kitchen scraps for about 1 minute into a microwave oven to kill eggs that might be on the fruit and peels...

For more information about fruit fly control you should have a look at the article I wrote about the subject. Follow the link below and learn how to get rid of fruit flies and how to build low cost fruit fly traps.

https://www.worm-composting-help.com/fruit-flies.html

Kind regards

Stephan
www.worm.composing-help.com

Click here to post comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Questions about worm composting.

Search / Suchen

How to make

$ -MONEY - $

with earthworms! 

On SPECIAL

The Book 

"How to start a profitable worm business on a shoestring budget 

Order a printed copy from "Amazon" for only

$11.95

or a digital version from the "Kindle" store for only

$4.95

Prices valid till 30.11.2024



How worms recycle human manure