New to vermicomposting...and I've got gnats

14 years ago

I started my first composting bin a couple of weeks ago. It's a 10 gallon bin and while I know they're not the fastest eaters, nightcrawlers were the easiest worms to find and fill my bin. I thought I followed all the necessary steps to composting, but when I opened my bin today tons of gnats flew out. I read other posts that suggested freezing your food before putting it in your bin. I tried that this past week and seem to have ended up with even more gnats. Any ideas how I can fix this? I add about a pound of food a week, I drilled tons of holes in the bin for ventilation, and add shredded newspaper bedding every few days. Am I not adding enough newspaper because the inside of the bin seems very moist? Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Comments (3)

rom.calgary.ab
14 years ago
If they are feeding on food on the surface of the bin then burying it when you feed may make it inaccessible to them and prevent them from laying new eggs on the food. No matter what you do to food you add later, if there are adult flies laying eggs in the food you will get more flies.

Also, if there are larvae in there now, you will likely get adult flies some time in the near future. Best you can do is prevent them from laying more eggs and kill what adults you can.
fisheggs
14 years ago
A pound a week seems like a lot for nightcrawlers - my redworms have a hard time with that much and my bin is about your size and has been established for 3 months now. It also may have to do with where you are keeping it and how warm it is. Mine slowed down a bit once the temperatures in my basement dropped into the high 50s.
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rom.calgary.ab
14 years ago
BTW are you talking about Euorpean Nightcrawlers or Canadian Nightcrawlers? These are totally different worms. The term nightcrawler is a "common" name and can refer to different species. Different species will have different ideal living conditions.