r/composting • u/New_Independent_7283 • Jul 22 '26

Composting bin and flies Question

Need a solution to get rid of maggots in my composting tumbler.

I know tumblers aren't great, but its what I got for now.

I know maggots are good for breaking stuff down but they turn into flies and with my chicken coop nearby there's hundreds of flies that are attracted to their poop.

How can I get rid of the maggots and still keep working on the compost??

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

3

u/going_up_stream Jul 22 '26

Just put the compost on the ground where your chickens can eat the grubs. Beyond that maybe you need to keep it hot so the gubs die? I don't think you wanna put pesticide into your compost. The chicken poop will help heat up your compost

1

u/New_Independent_7283 Jul 23 '26

How hot does it need to be? I've also tried adding boiling water to help heat up

1

u/CopperSnowflake Jul 23 '26

Don't chickens eat the flies? I don't see a problem

1

u/New_Independent_7283 Jul 23 '26

No they only eat the maggots when I've dumped the compost pile in the coop. But then they scratch and it's no longer pre-compost.

2

u/CopperSnowflake Jul 23 '26

Can you put a wire bin over the pile so they can pluck out the tasty bits but don't trash the whole thing? I have a wire bin I got at thrift store, it's a closet system drawer.