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johnjoe

By Johnjoe

Ireland Ie

Hi, A gardener retired from your garden group, and kindly passed over his swing tumble compost bin to me.

I have been using veg green waste + fruit that has gone off potato peeling banana skins and some old compost from my flower pots.

My compost bin is situated beside my fruit & veg plot. when I open my compost bin a cloud of white fly emerge from it. Can you see a problem with me having it beside my plot.



9_april_2019.._

Answers

 

if you are concerned just move it away a bit. put some sticky tape near it so when you next open it you catch some. if they are the pest whitefly then yes they need killing.
if they are not 'white flies and there are many different species of them I suspect the flies are just fruit flies or the normal decomposer flies. in which case they wont do any harm.

26 May, 2019

 

Thank you Seaburngirl,

26 May, 2019

 

Is the picture an allotment, so immaculate!

26 May, 2019

 

Thank you Honeysuckle, we do our best. The greenhouse in the photo is made of recycle plastic bottles.

26 May, 2019

 

Do you have a lot of green waste in the form of cabbage, sprouts etc? I had exactly the same problem. My compost bin was situated near my greenhouse and when I removed the lid of the bin I had a cloud of white flies. If you grow cabbage family, then this could be a problem. Why not try and sprinkle the contents of your bin with a little sulphate of ammonia from time to time; this will help the contents to decompose more quickly, build up the heat and the acid environment might help to kill off the white fly population.

26 May, 2019

 

If you put a layer of lawn mowings or wood ash over the fresh stuff the flies will go.

26 May, 2019

 

Thank you Jimmytheone and Steragram. I will give a try with wood ash & sulphate.

27 May, 2019

How do I say thanks?

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