Flies in the wormery?

Question

Hi,

We have a wormery at the bottom of our garden to compost kitchen waste, but it is full of little black flies that swarm up when you open the lid.

Its been getting worse recently, and we've been noticing more flies in the house as well.

We think the worms may have died, and are trying to get hold of some new ones. Could this cause the fly invasion?

Answer 1

No you have fungus gnats, which breed in continually moist, rich soil. You can't kill the larvae in your compost without killing the worms.
Your worms are not dead, they are just hiding. What you can do is turn over your compost more often, like every day during the summer to dry out the wet spots. Your compost should not be that wet any way. You can turn it over and over with a garden fork and add dry dirt and leaves as you do so. Shredded newspaper will also help. Turn it over so the dry stuff is on the bottom and the wet stuff can dry out at the top. That will reduce the amount of fungus gnats. They don't like dry soil, so keep turning that compost.
(It will also compost faster ;)

Good Luck.