I had a fruit fly problem and first, I carried the bin outside to open it, and then I brought it right back in. I tried leaving it outside and it seemed to attract all the fruit flies in the area. I just used a piece of window screen on top for awhile to contain the flies. It's very important to freeze all food for an inside bin for 3 days to kill fruit fly eggs that get laid under the skins of food. I have a system where 2 containers are in the freezer and one that I'm filling up, and I rotate them. Hope this helps.
Kath

Hi Tammy,
The answer that I gave you to your mite post holds true here too. I'm going to cut and paste it in here and add a couple of things.:
Hi Tammy,
One more thing that you could try is to put double-sided sticky tape on the top of the rim. That will trap a lot of the mites without causing additional problems. I agree that you can trap the mites with food on the top, but I would only use it as a last resort. The reason is because then you will draw fruit flies if you have food exposed.
You will always have mites, you just need to work to control them and as others have said, lots of mites are an indication that it is too wet. It is also an indication that there is too much food.

Here is what you need to do:
-dry out your bin
-use less food
-bury any food that you add in the future
-cover the top with a layer of dry shredded newspaper

If your bin starts to stink, it means that you have an anaerobic condition normally caused by too much food. Follow the above "to do's" and sprinkle some calcium carbonate on the top to make the bin less acidic.

Our bins do not have covers (to provide airflow). We live in a dry climate so we also cover our bins with a layer of moist burlap.

I hope that this helps and wasn't too much info.!
Beth

Is the cardboard that you added shredded? If it isn't, I think that it is just adding to your problem. STOP feeding for about a week or so. The worms can survive indefinitely on the newspaper and cardboard. Mix in some dry newspaper to get the moisture level correct. And last but not least....BURY any future food that you add. Do not just put it under some newspaper, Bury it. If you don't....you will attract fruit flies. We do not freeze any of our food. We have a LOT of worms to feed. We do not have a bug problem and I don't know when the last time was that I saw a fruit fly.

Hope this helps. Beth

The straw that broke the camels back to say was when hubby saw what looked like termites in the bin. I put it outside with the lid off all day yesterday and brought it back in last night. didn't see any bugs when I brought it back it, I had went shopping yesterday and when I came home one of my cats decided it was a good bed.. Couldn't believe they got in it...Didn't see any bugs and I have been freezing all food stuff and I haven't added anything to the bin in about a week or longer. Just can't believe all the trouble I am having with this new bin. My old one I have had since Oct last year and no problems other than it was entirely too wet and I have since got that taken care of.. I was just wondering how long I should leave the bin outside to get things to fly off/leave.

Thanks
Tammy

I feel your pain - I'm wrestling with a fruit fly invasion too, for about a week. I've been chasing them from the turtle tank to the slug tank, to the worm bin, to the cat box, to the trash can, and round and round we go. Just when I think I've "got em", i find them again. My experience so far has been a lot of persistence and cleaning, apple cider vinegar and vacuums, along with being exceedingly careful about leaving any food out anywhere that it can be reached (which is the real source of my problem - the turtle's food dish!) I've recently purchased some carnivorous plants to help with the problem (and cuz they're just cooool), but they're still recovering from shipping shock and aren't very helpful just yet...

I like the sticky tape idea, I may employ that in my bin and tanks. I've learned there is no one right way, just the right combination of a bunch of ways :) Hang in there!

Hello everyone. I started my worm bin about a year ago and have struggled with the fruit fly problem immensely. Now I have NO FLIES.

In the beginning, not having studied the online sources (like this forum) enough, I threw about 20 lbs. of kitchen scraps into the bin with a small amount of shredded newspaper and left it alone. Needless to say, my worms practically drowned and my garage was filled with fruit flies. My wife threatened to move out.

The most important things for me were: 1) Bury all new scraps well under the older compost (if your bin is new and you don't have any older compost, sprinkle 1/2" layer of redwood compost or soil over the top). This prevents access by the flies to the fresh scraps.; 2) Use a lot more bedding material, like at least as much volume of shredded paper as the amount of kitchen scraps you're adding. Each time you add scraps, bury them well, then cover the surface of the bin with a 1-2" layer of shredded paper. You get no flies, less odor, much happier worms, and you send less waste paper out with your recycling.

Until you've got your fly problem under control, use a vingar/water trap to reduce the population (google it).

Ok, I'm going to chime in here:
You guys need to know what you are dealing with here - Fruit Flies, or Fungus Gnats. Two different things, two different treatments.
For Fruit Flies - Try the cider vinegar with a cone trap. (search GW for more in-depth info) Will NOT work with Fungus Gnats!
For Fungus Gnats - I have found that the Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis works very well. Will NOT work with Fruit Flies!