# Gnats and composting



## Angi (Jun 16, 2008)

I'm very new at this whole compost thing, so have a question. I seem to have a cloud of gnats over my compost bin.

I stir it up every once in awhile, at least once a week when I throw the kitchen scraps in there. The pile is mostly grass clippings, but there is also some garden waste (plants that have been pulled) a little bit of left over compost that I bought for the raised bed. And there are nothing but vegetation that has been tossed in there, including the kitchen scraps which are coffee grounds and bits and pieces of veggies.

I know there is supposed to be bugs, but should there be a cloud of gnats both above and in the compost bin? It's been really humid here lately, would that have anything to do with it?


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## phoebemommy (Mar 30, 2006)

Hi, I'm just dealing with the same thing only in my worm composter, which is kind of worse because it's in the house! I think what happened was that we had a few of these "fungus gnats" in the potting soil of a few plants, not enough to worry about, and then they went in the worm bin and started breeding. Gah! I just bought beneficial nematodes, which are a microorganism that eats the gnat eggs. Haven't used it yet, but for my situation this seems like the thing.

Anyway, I've been reading a lot about compost bug problems and each one is different. With your situation, a few thoughts come to mind. Are you covering the food scraps good with grass or leaves? If not, this could be the problem, even if it's just veggie scraps. Second, do you tend to have gnats around anyway in the summer? If so, it could be that they'll die off in the winter and it's just a cyclical thing. Finally, are you sure they're gnats? They could be fruit flies, vinegar flies, soldier flies or a number of other things. Here's a website that helped me id my pests: http://www.happydranch.com/invertebrates.html. It makes a difference because they're there for different reasons and cause different problems (or not, some of them are neutral or even beneficial). Also, there are different ways of getting rid of them, if you should need to.

HTH!


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## Angi (Jun 16, 2008)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *phoebemommy* 
Hi, I'm just dealing with the same thing only in my worm composter, which is kind of worse because it's in the house! I think what happened was that we had a few of these "fungus gnats" in the potting soil of a few plants, not enough to worry about, and then they went in the worm bin and started breeding. Gah! I just bought beneficial nematodes, which are a microorganism that eats the gnat eggs. Haven't used it yet, but for my situation this seems like the thing.

Anyway, I've been reading a lot about compost bug problems and each one is different. With your situation, a few thoughts come to mind. Are you covering the food scraps good with grass or leaves? If not, this could be the problem, even if it's just veggie scraps. Second, do you tend to have gnats around anyway in the summer? If so, it could be that they'll die off in the winter and it's just a cyclical thing. Finally, are you sure they're gnats? They could be fruit flies, vinegar flies, soldier flies or a number of other things. Here's a website that helped me id my pests: http://www.happydranch.com/invertebrates.html. It makes a difference because they're there for different reasons and cause different problems (or not, some of them are neutral or even beneficial). Also, there are different ways of getting rid of them, if you should need to.

HTH!

Thanks! Not exactly the same thing, but it actually that lead me to another source which gave me my answer. The bin might be too wet. We've had some rain around here, so that is probably the problem. I think if I turn it a little more often that may help dry it out. I'm also going to find a tarp to put over it. We've got rain in the forecast.

Somehow I stumbled across this: http://www.emilycompost.com/faq_compost.htm when looking at the other page and clicking links, and other stuff.

It looks like it could be either gnats or fruit flies. But they seem to float in the air, so who knows. I think I just need to cover the thing.


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## jrabbit (May 10, 2008)

you need brown stuff in it, too - to make the mixture "right". Hay is easy to acquire for that purpose, and it will help dry it out. Plus, it has to be hotter so that bugs won't survive.


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