Homemade Compost Bin Pile Fruit Fly Trap

I've been working on a compost pile this summer. Probably should be turning it more than I am, but I'm in no rush to get it ready to use. That's my plan for next summer's gardening. I was going to buy a compost bin over the internet, but they can be expensive. The cheap compost bins all seemed kind of flimsy. I need something to keep animals out. For the past few years, I made an unenclosed compost pile. Everything turns into usable compost, but animals, like skunks and raccoons, kept getting into it. This year I figured I would try something different.
What I did was take an old storage tote and drill holes in all the sides and bottom. To it, I've been adding all my kitchen fruit/vegetable/tea bag scraps, leaves, sawdust and grass cuttings. The top latches securely and so far, no animals have gotten into it. It has attracted ants, bees, fruit flies, worms and millipede worm things though. I guess those are all normal and help with the composting process. They even add more nutrients to the compost.
The compost needs to be kept moist too, but not extremely wet. I turn the compost pile about once every few weeks. Turning the compost pile daily is a better idea if you are in a hurry to use the compost.
I was keeping a few days worth of kitchen scraps in a small container and then adding them to the compost pile. Not a good idea. Either keep the collection of scraps to go in the compost pile outside, or keep it in a tight container and add it to the compost pile daily. My scrap collection attracted fruit flies. Now I can't get rid of them. Setting a trap by putting a few scraps on a plate covered with saran wrap and a few holes poked in it has helped, but the fruit flies reproduce so quickly, it's hard to get ahead of them. One more trap idea I'm going to try is demonstrated in this video. You fill a bottle with a little apple cider vinegar, make a funnel out of paper and stick it in the top of the bottle. The fruit flies should fly into the bottle, get trapped and unable to fly back out. Definitely worth a try before resorting to a chemical spray.


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