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.

We had this problem once with the fruit flies.
Put a good glug of apple cider vinegar and a banana skin in a glass and put a funnel of paper in. They go in but the can't get out!
Sorry if that dosnt make sense, I found it on google so I'm sure you will find similar with some searching.

Much more rank to put food in your main bin. I have a small caddy I keep under the sink. I line it with compostable liners (5p bags from coop are perfect). I take that out every evening and put in the council provided food waste bin which is lockable and collected weekly. We only get problems with flies if the kids leave food lying around.

I was opposed to a food waste bin for ages as I thought it would be disgusting but actually it means my main black bin is now full of clean waste so doesn't get dirty in the same way and the food waste bin is really easy to clean as it is small. We never have maggots / flies around the bin anymore.

If you don’t want flies absolutely empty your bin daily. I always do this sometimes twice a day. If you’re waiting until it’s full over a few days it will not only smell but attract flies

How about keeping all fruit waste in a bag in the freezer until the night before the bin men come?
That’s what we do with any scraps of meat or fish, to avoid attracting bluebottles..

Get a worm composter for food waste, ensure kitchen bin lid is tight

@Smallsteps88

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

you can't put cooked food in it though?

Our council don't collect any food waste, we don't have much fortunately.

We just empty the bin every day

Put all DS's fruit waste and any veg peelings etc into a compost heap, and all food waste goes straight into the bin outside.

If it takes you so long to fill your bin that you get fruit flies, get a smaller bin!

We don't have a separate food caddy. All our rubbish goes in large kitchen bin which has sealed top. Emptied a couple of times a week. No flies.

Actually I lie. I once found a cloud of flies swirling over the bin in teenage DS bedroom. Open bin also had maggots eating their way through his leftover sandwiches. (not envy).

Separate food caddy.
Change bin daily (Get a smaller bin if you need to).
Clean bins regularly.

I have a food bin caddy - make sure its solid and lid seals shut. I put contence into brown bin. Rats cant get into wheelie bins if they are in good condition.

All our food waste goes into our kitchen bin and it's emptied when it gets full, twice a week? People empty their bin every day?!

Yabu. Never had maggots or flies in my bins.

If you're emptying it twice a week it must stink with all that rotting fruit! Empty it at night before bed and maybe get a smaller kitchen bin as you clearly don't need a big one

We empty our food caddy once a week. What a waste of liners to do it every day .

OP - food like fruit and veg peelings are easily compostible in the garden.

Does your council have a separate food waste collection?

I have a plastic box with a lid in the freezer. Any waste food like bones etc go in here. We have a kitchen caddy that stuff like bread veg peelings go into

I can't believe people empty their bins everyday! Our council doesn't do food waste bins, so all our food waste goes in the normal bin, which we empty when it's full, which is generally every 3-4 days. We have never had a problem with flies (except the one time we were living in a different area and our then-food bin got maggots ).

OP, do you keep fruit in a bowl on the side or in the kitchen? I've seen small flies in mine before if it's a little on the ripe side, have you tried keeping the fruit in the fridge?

I have a none food bin and the food caddy for waste - gets emptied 2 a week but you have to keep lid on or it does attract flies or fruit flies. I use a tiny bit of bleach to clean every time its emptied and scrub it out let it dry and then add new bag. All that goes in the none food bin is plastic wrap and black plastic everything else recycled - we have that many bags and bins they need their own room

Fruit remains, veg peelings, tea bags, coffee grounds all go in a bucket in a cupboard under the sink, which is emptied on the compost heap every couple of days or so, whenever it gets full. No fruit flies.

We have a big bag for recycling. A small green caddy for all food waste and a normal.kitchen bin for everything else. Since using the green food caddy the kitchen bin never smellls or has flies . The green food is only emptied a couple of times a week but we never have flies for some reason . It does have a tightly fitting lid though . Maybe that helps.

Tesco and also do food waste bin bags.

Aldi

We have a small bin and empty it every night.

@YellowEllis I have this problem intermittently. I make sure the food bin is sealed as pps have said and then I get rid of the flies that are already there by putting a small glass of vinegar (or left over wine to be honest but I never have any of that!) On the counter near the bin. The fruit flies seem to love going for a swim and then they remember they can't swim and they drown.

It takes a few days to work but stick with it. Xx

Fruit flies lay eggs in the sink too so this might not be your bins. Once you've got them they are a bugger to get rid of but you can do it. You need to put some white wine in a glass or apple cider vinegar as a pp suggested and put cling film over the top. Poke some tiny holes in it with a cocktail stick and the flies with go in but can't get out. When there is lots of dead ones in there you need to empty it and repeat the process until the glass goes a few days without any fruit flies landing in it. Trust me it is the only way to get rid of them for good and they don't leave fruit out on the counters. It's unlikely your bins alone would be causing them it will be fruit on the worktops