More and more people are focused on the environment. One of the easiest things you can do to be more “green” is to compost your food waste, provided you have access to a yard. Composting helps to reduce your contribution to the waste stream, and as an added side benefit, you wind up with a highly nutritious soil amendment, compost. But collecting your kitchen scraps can result in an unwanted side effect: breeding fruit flies. There are a few easy steps you can take to prevent these flies from breeding on your kitchen scraps.
The following three tips should help you keep your fruit fly problem under control. If you are still having problems, you may want to buy an inexpensive fruit fly trap.
Use a compost pail with a lid. There are many different types of things you can use to collect your vegetable peels and fruit skins. Some people use an old bowl. But fruit flies breed on the skins and peels of fruits and vegetables. While fruit flies may still breed in the pail, they won’t be flying around your kitchen.
Empty your kitchen compost pail frequently. As fruit flies breed on the skins and peels of your fruits and vegetables, it is important to remove the rotting waste from your home in a timely manner. This means getting in the habit of bringing your compost outside on a regular basis. Try not to let it go more than three days.
Keep scraps in the refrigerator. If you are not going to take your compost out on a regular basis, you may want to consider keeping your compost scraps in the refrigerator. The cold will retard the development of the fruit flies. Just make sure to mark the scraps!