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Post by troykerr on Apr 28, 2009 12:23:14 GMT
Any suggestions please? It is one of the council promoted plastic composters with a lid. Today I removed the lid to add stuff and the rim (underneath) was full of gritty that the perishers had laboriously carried from some waste material out of pots to teh top. They were not well pleased.
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Post by rosemarytheherb on Apr 28, 2009 20:28:09 GMT
And how do youget rid of the flies? Its a bit of a difficult moment when I open the lid to put in more stuff. Rose x
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Post by Fi on Apr 28, 2009 23:32:06 GMT
Ants aren't necessarily bad news, because they will help break down the material in your compost bin, which I suspect may otherwise be a very slow process from what you describe - in that they are similar to worms in a cold compost heap - they eat and excrete. However, if you do decide you want rid of them, make sure the compost is always a lot wetter than it is at the moment and/or turn the compost over regularly, rather than just adding stuff at the top. Both of these actions will also speed up the composting process considerably. If you really want to speed things up, a regular addition of chopped up comfrey and old chicken poo could be just the thing - the combination makes the heap initially very hot, steaming hot, which helps to kill a lot of nasties like weed seeds and some diseases as well as insects etc. Once it has cooled down a bit, anything from bacteria to worms move in and complete the job. If you will always be adding just bits at a time, a wormery might be worth considering as a more efficient alternative.
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Post by Peek on Apr 29, 2009 6:35:51 GMT
We had this problem when we first set the compost bin up Carl, but we left 'em to it, and now have a healthy bin with loads of worms in. Don't forget to add " brown " composting ( e.g. cardboard) as well as the normal " green " composting stuff.
Talking of ants, I have 2 areas in our small ( but nearly perfect ) plot that suffer with ants in the ground. They eat anything that I plant near there, be it in the ground or in pots...the rotters.
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Post by Suzy R Sopham on Apr 29, 2009 6:59:12 GMT
We left ours to it as well. We have two huge compost bins that are sited a long way from the house so we try to leave nature to it where we can. As Fi says, they do break down some of the material.
Peek, you could try a mixture of Borax and sugar (equal quantities sprinkled on the affected area). I tried that in places on our lawn last year and it seemed to work
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Post by lottielou on May 3, 2009 14:20:09 GMT
Carl Fi is spot on.
We also had a plastic compost bin with similar problems. We found it was not large enough to take all our garden and kitchen waste. Ian built two wooden cages at the bottom of the garden covering it with some old linoleum. We turn the compost from one to the other to aereate putting our chicken pooh in as well. Ater two years we have lovely dark rich compost. It certainly beats buying it from the garden centre.
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