Fruit flies, skunks and raccoons, oh my! We have all three.
Our city has recycling and composting pick-up. We’ve been using these services for several years. About a year ago, we purchased a little disposal canister to store kitchen scraps. Six weeks ago, some busy fruit fly decided that its contents would make an ideal place to lay and hatch her eggs. Soon, we had hundreds of fruit flies and thousands of larvae (maggots). Sigh.
I put the larvae-laden compost into the outside bin. Susan sprayed the kitchen with Zevo, and I unfurled a fly ribbon in the kitchen. The fruit flies slowly disappeared as they became stuck on the ribbon and lost their access to the composted food waste. It took a couple of weeks. After the first fly ribbon, I placed another and ordered a Zevo insect trap to place in the kitchen. The trap is simply a fly-paper trap with a blue LED to attract flying insects.
After a well-fought battle with the flies, we triumphed. I can only imagine how our primitive ancestors dealt with flies and mice and rats – fly swatters and cats, I suppose. We decided to put the recycling disposal canister on the deck rather than keep it in the kitchen. Susan decided to turn off the motion-activated lid so that skunks and raccoons, attracted by the odors of food waste, might not easily open the bin.
I haven’t seen a raccoon in a while, but this evening, I saw a skunk come up to compost bin to study it. If it isn’t one thing it’s another! I’m going to have to move that little bin further away from our door and put a heavy paver on its lid to discourage the critters. Alas.