How I started my compost bin

The fruit fly situation seems to have peaked and is now more or less under control. So I brought the compost bin in from the balcony. I believe the worms are quite happy inside now.

But now there are about a dozen house flies in my apartment. They could only have come out of the bin. Now I have to consider the possibility that there is also a colony of maggots in the bin. Great. If it's not one thing (fruit fly infestation) it's another (MAGGOTS!).

I'm going to wait it out for a couple of days and see if the flies just dissipate. There is no meat in the bin, just brocolli scraps and carrot peelings etc. And it's burried under the bedding. I hope that house flies do not thrive on that stuff. 

Update: I spoke much too soon with respect to the fruit flies. They are tenacious, relentless, unyielding in their singleminded desire to live in my apartment. Over the past couple of weeks I have been keeping the worm-bin outside on the balcony during the day and bringing it inside overnight in case the temperature drops low enough for frost or freezing to take place.I checked this morning and there are definitely living worms in the bin. I hope that the current routine is OK for them and that they find the time to both eat my scraps and breed breed breed.There are still fruit flies in the apartment but I would not call it a full-blown infestation. A few here and there lazily dodging around the kitchen or bathroom.

Don't know if this is much help (it deals with outdoor composting), but I found these tips for you:

Fruit flies can be an occasional nuisance. Discourage them by always burying the food waste and not overloading. Keep a plastic sheet or piece of old carpet or sacking on the surface of the compost in the bin. If materials are held in a container too long, fruit flies may lay their eggs in them. To control fruit flies:

• Add food scraps when they're fresh.
• Bury food scraps under bedding.
• Keep a lid on your bin (but be sure there are air holes for the worms)
• Sprinkle calcium carbonate (lime from stone, not "quick lime") in the bin.
• Place a petri dish filled with vinegar in the bin or place the bin outside in subfreezing temperatures for a few hours (but don't let the worms freeze).

I also found a PDF brochure about vermicomposting here; they had this advice (among other info – it's worth downloading):

Fruit flies can be an occasional nuisance. Discourage them by always burying the food waste and not overloading. Keep a plastic sheet or piece of old carpet or sacking on the surface of the compost in the bin. If materials are held in a container too long, fruit flies may lay their eggs in them. To control fruit flies:

• Add food scraps when they're fresh.
• Bury food scraps under bedding.
• Keep a lid on your bin (but be sure there are air holes for the worms)
• Sprinkle calcium carbonate (lime from stone, not "quick lime") in the bin.
• Place a petri dish filled with vinegar in the bin or place the bin outside in subfreezing temperatures for a few hours (but don't let the worms freeze).

 I hope this is helpful – I'm composting vicariously through you!

I just wanted to put this out there to whoever might think about building their own wormbin at home from scratch.  Why not create your own... make it into a chair where you can sit in your balcony or into a place where you can lie down in the summer.

 I think encouraging composting for our homes goes a great length towards teaching others to be responsible for their own actions... and problems always arise from this.. so if you have flies just be a little patient.  

 Good Luck..

 By the Way I already have two wormbins and am working on building my third one.. its very easy.

blackgold, would you be willing to write some instructions for how to make a wormbin such as the one you just mentioned? I could publish it in our learn section, it would be a wonderful resource for people.

I have not updated this in a long time (about a year!) but here is an update for anyone who is still watching.

 The fruit fly problem forced me to keep the worm bin outside on the balcony full-time last winter. That's right, it was outside night and day, through all of that frosty and sometimes below-freezing weather we had. I put an old blanket on top of the bin to try to insulate it a bit.

This turned out pretty well. I'm not sure how many worms died from the cold, but many of them survived, and they kept eating all winter long.  The fruit flies survived, too. But strangely they turned white (albino?). Maybe it was a different species of fly.

The normal dark fruit flies came back in the spring and hung around for most of the summer, in relatively small numbers. They stayed in the worm bin and only came out to play when I removed the lid to feed the worms.

 I had some moisture problems late in the summer and in the fall. Lots of moisture building up in the bottom of the worm bin, which I soaked up with some shredded newspaper, and also poured off into some soil after harvesting a bunch of solid compost. Lots of worms drowned in the water, and several more made a run for it and didn't survive -- they made it one foot from the bin and then dried out. And I'll tell you, they're like glue and hard to scrape up from the floor of the balcony.  I'm not sure what the cause of this excessive moisture was. It may have been the several corn cobs that I put in the bin.

To conclude this update: The worm bin has been in continuous operation since I started it last fall. I plan to keep the worm bin out on the balcony again this winter; it has been there since I put it out last fall. The worms are still going strong.

Thanks for posting your homemade composting bin. I have the rubbermaid but need the worms now.