sawdust toilet

Does anyone here have any experience with a waterless toilet? (5 gallon bucket)

i expect at least a few do. is there something particular about them that you want to discuss?

In the summer months, there is a small type of fly, like a fruit fly, that frequents the bucket. In short order, there are thousands of small, white larvae crawling up the inside of the bucket. I've been dealing with the problem by spraying insecticide around the inside of the bucket, but I don't want to make the bucket contents contaminated with poison to the point where the stuff won't compost.

I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem and how they dealt with it.

No, I never had this problem.

I have 2 buckets so it's always easy to change over.  After rinsing the soiled bucket, I thoroughly clean it with bi-carb and vinegar, and if sunny, let it dry outside.  When I start with a new clean bucket, I put a small layer of sawdust at the bottom and sprinkle a few drops of essential oil: sometimes Pine, sometimes Lemon, maybe Peppermint or Lavender, depends on my mood or what is available.  It seems to keep critters away, not even regular flies go near it, but then again it might be sheer good luck.  If it got really infested I guess I might use Neem oil or powder.

I hope you find a solution to your problem, best of luck.

Thanks, Olga.

I'll try your suggestions.

I agree with Olga's suggestions.

Here is another thread that might help:

https://permies.com/t/59021/fast-bucket-fill

Thanks.

Have you tried sprinkling dry biochar on top? I've been using this for urine buckets. It does an amazing job killing any smells, and insects seem to avoid it. I've been using pure char so far, and based on other experminents I'm going to try a mix of dry wood chips and char next.

Maybe you just need more cover material. Or are you using something light and fluffy that the flies can get through? I've never had flies in my bucket, and it's just out in the open with no cover, not even inside. And, yes, we have many types of flies here.

I'll definitely try the bio-char.

Thanks.

I think it's the cover material I've been using. I haven't used actual sawdust in a long time. I began using compost sifted through hardware cloth, and that was stuff that flies could definitely pass. Now I'm using wood ash because I'm out of everything else, but I'm using it lightly because I'm almost out of that also. I need to get to the sawmill and get a big bag of fine sawdust and see how that works.

Thanks for the reply.

We've had similar little flies recently and we suspect that it is from a particular batch of wood shavings we've been using lately. No maggots though, thankfully, just a little annoyance. We don't have our pooper in our living space, so it's a little less of a problem for us.
In 5 plus years, this is our first experience with flies.