To not understand how to have a kitchen bin without flies?!

[YellowEllis]

I guess I'm posting for traffic but please help I am at my wits end.

A couple of months ago we started having trouble with fruit flies, we moved the kitchen bin outside until we were on top of it. Cleaned the kitchen twice daily, bleached floors and eventually they were gone. We moved the bin back in and within days we have fruit flies starting to reappear. DS eats his body weight in fruit.

I was going to buy one of those small food bins some people get from the council and keep this in the garden and just have non food bin in kitchen. DH said that small bin would attract rats if there permanently, as kitchen bin has only been out temporarily and haven't had any issues as yet.

Do I buy a small bin? Do I keep it inside or outside? MIL said to just empty bin daily but it takes us about 3/4 days to fill a bin bag so we'd get through way more bin bags than normal. I'm so confused. Kitchen is kept spotless. It's just the bloody bins.

I empty my bin every day, never have a problem. 3/4 days and food will be rotting and attracting the flies.

You really need to empty the bin daily if you're putting food waste in it.

Why don't you have a food waste caddy - which I think is what you mean by the little bin - keep it in the kitchen but empty it daily? They're much smaller than a bin - if you're getting through that much fruit I don't think you'll find you're emptying it much more often than if you waited until it's full.

Does your bin have a lid that completely seals gaps? Everyone needs to keep it closed all the time. I've never had this issue, kids eat lots of fruit and only empty bin once full. I have one of these, no gaps for flies to go in/out.

www.johnlewis.com/simplehuman-rectangular-touch-bar-bin-brushed-stainless-steel-30l/p231673812

Empty your bin bag daily. We always do this? Every evening after dinner and school lunches are made up, no more food for the day and then the bin bag goes outside into our wheely bin and a new bag goes in the bin. No its not full, but it goes in the outside bin. It would never occur to me to not put it out. Why would you keep smelly food in the kitchen bin for days? If you have flies you are not emptying the bin regularly enough.

I don’t have a normal bin. I have a tub in the cupboard underneath the sink, alongside the food caddy, where any rubbish goes and it gets emptied and washed after dinner every day. No flies.

I have a small kitchen top food waste bin with compostable bags that I change daily and it goes outside into the slightly larger council food waste bin. The normal bin has nothing wet/no food in it and then I have recycling.

The key with storing food waste is 1. Using the compost bags and 2, one of the bins that locks because you do get cats and foxes trying to get into them. Mine locks by the handle but I also put a large rock on the top of it

Food bin definitely needs emptied daily.

I need to get an outside bin and a food caddy then. We only have the kitchen bin and then put bin bags out twice a week tops. Our bin collection is private not council so we don't have a big outside bin as of yet and I didn't want to be putting out 7 bags a week. We've been doing it this way with our bins since we lived here but only now DS is 1 and eating loads of fruit are we having any issues. I didn't realise I was doing it all so wrong. I sound so dull. Thanks everyone

On the left is the normal bin where anything that isn’t food and can’t be recycled goes. On the right is the food caddy.

We have a food caddy that sits under the sink. Usually only gets emptied into the outside food bin once a week, the night before bin day. Never had flies.

A smaller bin with smaller bin liners emptied everyday seems like a good solution - food waste hanging around for 3-4 days must smell as well as attract flies.

YoI either need a food caddy for waste which can then be collected and composted by the council or you need a much smaller bin which you empty daily instead of waiting 3/4 days for it to fill up.

I have a good caddy and we empty it weekly. I only have an issue when DP leaves the blinking lid open 🙄 I usually make sure it’s closed right

Seems not being covered by the council is where things are getting confusing. I don't know where to empty a bin daily. If I get a wheely bin for the garden and put food waste into that everyday then empty that once a week would that attract rats or would that be ok?

Food waste into wheelybin in sealed bin bags

If you think it's fruit remnants that's causing them, start a compost heap.

We don't use the council food waste caddy (I can't open and shut it, the lid clips too tight for my arthritic hands) but we compost all vegetable matter and the dog eats most of the rest.

We get "normal" house flies, but have never had fruit flies in the house.

Bleaching your floor will have absolutely zero impact on flies. They lay their eggs in your food waste, not on the floor.

Yes start your own compost heap that way you aren’t relying on external contractors to come and take your food waste away.

If I get fruit flies I take the small compost-rubbish bin outside the door and spray (a minimal amount of) flyspray into the caddy-bin where they are, and the problem vanishes. The little-bin compostable bags cost 13p each, and I am blowed if I am prepared to use one a day or more when the bin is not at least three-quarters full.

If it gets smelly even when the lid is firmly on it (fish skin does that, and rotting-down cabbage), then it is time to change the bag.

So you get one small lidded bin for the kitchen that you tip all your food waste into the green bags every day

Then every evening you take that outside to a slightly larger bin or bucket with a lid and put the bag inside it.

Then on bin day tip all of those bags into a normal bin bag

Or line the bin/bucket with a bin liner and put all the green compostable bags into that

I don’t always take my green bags out every day I think as I have a food bin indoors with a good closing lid, I don’t seem to get flies in there.

This is what I use indoors
I also clean it whenever I empty it out

Do you have a green waste bin outside?
We have a small caddy inside with compostable bags. We empty this a couple of times a day into the green wheelie bin (food/grass cuttings etc) and use a small plastic bag on a hook for non recyclables.

Really couldn’t have a ‘proper’ kitchen bin. Just seem to be muck harbourers.

Have ordered a caddy and will buy an outdoor bin and empty it into it daily. Thank you all!