r/Vermiculture • u/Chumps55 • 6d ago
Advice wanted Pre-compost potential fly infestation vector?
Hi! Recently acquired a new worm farm a handful of days ago so still figuring this out.
My current set up I have is a tumbler compost bin and a 3 tier worm farm/cafe. We’re dumping kitchen scraps into the compost bin with the aim to feed the worms from the composting bin weekly or whatever schedule works out best. Compost is roughly 70-80% browns to greens (lots of shredded cardboard/paper tissues).
Was planning on this setup since Ive read worms tend to prefer slightly decomposed bacteria laden scraps over fresh food.
My concern is I’ve noticed some flies and gants hanging around the compost bin. I suppose its to be expected and its nothing insane and its definitely not infestation levels but it got me wondering if Im setting myself up for failure here. By feeding from the composting bin do I introduce the risk of introducing a bunch of fly larvae into my bin and is there ways to mitigate this?
Or do i just do away with the precompost step and go straight to feeding the worms?
3
u/overdue_momentum 6d ago
you're basically running a fly nursery and then gifting it to your worms, so yeah the concern is real. i pre-compost too and what worked for me was keeping the tumbler sealed tight for a week or two after adding fresh scraps, let the heat build up enough to cook any eggs before it goes near the worms. burying the pre-compost under a thick layer of bedding in the worm bin also helps, the flies can't reach it to lay more and any that hatch inside tend to stay buried. wouldn't scrap the whole pre-compost step though, the worms go nuts for that half-rotten stuff