That time my bin turned into a fruit fly hotel overnight

I live in a third floor walkup in Brooklyn and thought I had this down. I was layering browns and greens, keeping the lid tight, no meat scraps. Then one July morning I walked into my kitchen and saw a cloud of fruit flies hovering over my compost bin. I opened it and the smell hit me like a wall. Turns out I buried some overripe mango peels too deep and they just rotted without enough airflow. I spent the next 3 days setting up apple cider vinegar traps and freezing all my scraps for a week before adding them. Has anyone else had a bin go bad because of a specific fruit or vegetable that just won't cooperate?

2 comments

2 Comments

karen_hart1mo ago

Needing to freeze before adding means the pile wasn't hot enough. Fruit flies only show up when things are rotting slower than they should be.

diana_king1mo ago

Had a neighbor once who tried to skip the freezing step and just tossed old fruit in whole. Flies showed up so bad her whole yard smelled like rotten wine for a week. She ended up having to dig a new hole and bury the whole batch because it just turned into a slimy mess. I mean maybe it's just me but I'd rather do the extra step than deal with that kind of cleanup. Freezing definitely breaks stuff down faster once it thaws, you can see the difference in the texture.