A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Flies!

Ok so I sorta neglected my compost over the winter. We had so much rain here I just couldn't get myself to go out to it. Obviously my daughter could. She was still dumping the Bunny bedding and pooh in there. Now I have a ton of flies everywhere in my back yard. How do I do damage control? How do I get rid of the flies? Right now the only green that we have to put into the bin are kitchen scraps so most of the compost at the moment is brown. GRR I just want a fly free environment in my tiny backyard. Someone HELP!!!

Lot's of questions for you..

What are you going to do with your compost?

Is it in a wet spot or shadey or both?

How high is the compost inside your bin???

Kitchen scrap's are considered GREEN!!!

What is all in there besides the bunny poop????

I intend to use the compost in my garden to enrich the soil.

The composter is in a shady spot in my backyard. It is under a tree and has a pretty good lid so I'm not sure how wet the inside got during the rains.

The compost is not very high in my bin at all I'd say it's not yet a quarter of the way full.

I know kitchen scraps are considered green. But not alot of scraps are coming from my kitchen at the moment. It mostly browns made up of bunny poop, hay/alfalfa, soiled wood shavings and recycled paper bedding as well as newspaper, leaves, and dried out weeds.

I would just keep turning it..
Then what ever is drawing the flies, gets into the other stuff inside and does a couple of things, it incorporates it into the compost inside, hiding it away abit from the flies by covering it.. and then starts the composting process for it, as it gets next to other compost that's been started/innoculated and get's it going..


Remember you really do need more browns..

Picture your compost pile like a camp fire..
You get alot of wood, and just sprinkle on a wee~bit of the started fluid or gas..
And it goes..

but not mixing and incorporating the old wood into the cherry red wood, won't get the new wood started...
Does that make sorta sense or a picture for you..

The compost needs to be turned into it, say every week....


When it's shadey, and say the ground is wet from rain, *which soaks in at somewher'es/somepoint if it's alot of rain~which in turn keeps the bottom of your pile wet...
Doesn't really hurt it, but does make it go "stagnet" as a word I will use.. it slows down because no air can get to the bottom... if you turn a number of times, it keeps it moving and a wee~bit of aeration into it...

*I know how that goes, for my bins and on wet season's composting can be challenging..*

What does your compost look like right now??

Dark, rich, crumbly..
Or big hunky pieces you can still tell what it is?
*When did you say you actually started the pile?*

And are you able to leave this one alone and start another one to let this one rest and finish composting??????

It sounds like your rabbit litter is a lot like mine, and it's pretty much all brown material. I'm with Weezie, mixing your pile will probably help.

How big are your flies? I've found that if kitchen scraps can attract "vinegar" and/or fruit flies. You can see the egg cases all along the sides and lid of your composter. That's an indication that it's too moist, or the acidity is too high. I used to get them in my worm bin all the time. I added wood ashes to reduce the acidity which helped, and I added some shredded paper to absorb some of the moisture.

What does your compost look like right now??

Dark, rich, crumbly..
Or big hunky pieces you can still tell what it is?
*When did you say you actually started the pile?*

And are you able to leave this one alone and start another one to let this one rest and finish composting??????


Well for the most part I can't tell what much is in the composter except for some hay here and there. It does look dark and crumbly.

I will start turning it once a week and have my daughter stop putting more bunny stuff on it so that it can finish.

The flies are small to medium. Regular flies if you ask me. They definately aren't fruit flies or gnats.

My neighbors have been complaining about flies. It seems they are all over the place. Could this all be because of my composter? They have told me they can see maggots in the cracks of the cement and stepping stones in their backyards. I know this is a bug question rather than plant so who know if anyone will know. Do flies normally thrive in numbers like this after a very rainy season? or like I ask is it all my fault with the compost? The neighbors aren't looking at me very nicely because I have a rabbit and a composter in my backyard.

I'll have to go out and see if I can see any cases or maggots in the bin and around our backyard. We have alot of flower pots and other things so just looking without moving things I don't see anything.

Hope I can take care of this quickly..we have about 5 flies get in our house a day. Rather annoying.

I have a few flies, like when I first pour in watermelon or something like that, but for the most part, not much or many...
Pill or sow bugs, spiders, etc, yes....

Keep stirring..


How close is it from your compost pile to thier stepping stones and cement???????