Compost piles are used by a number of people to help recycle their waste. They are great for the environment and great for your garden. Once composted the materials can enrich the soil in your garden beds which means your plants will grow with new vigour. Creating a compost pile is not particularly difficult although there are a number of different ways to go about the process. Some methods are high maintenance while others require very little maintenance at all.
Compost - this is great stuff!
What you choose to add to your compost pile can vary quite a bit. Some people use them strictly to get rid of garden waste and lawn clippings while others will throw in old food products as well. Depending on the exact conditions of your compost pile and the ingredients that can be found in it, there are going to be a number of little monsters hiding in its contents. This is not exactly a bad thing as some of these little monsters help to turn your ingredients into compost. There are other little monsters that you do not want to see in your compost pile that could be there because something is not quite right.
What little monsters lie in your compost?
One of the first things that anyone who has a compost pile should understand is the difference between greens and browns, the ingredients that will fill your pile. The right combination of the two will ensure that your pile is healthy and free of a number of the bad little monsters that you might find. Green items are fresh ingredients like leftover food scraps, fresh lawn clippings, and weeds. Your brown items are going to be dry like straw and newspaper. Your compost bin should be about 75 percent green items and about 25 percent brown items. This will keep the pile moist which is necessary for composting. Make sure to stir it now and again as well!
Green or brown - what colour compost is this?
Once you have the basics of composting down, getting to know the various monsters that might be found in a compost pile is a great way to help you monitor it to make sure the composting process is proceeding smoothly. If you see the bad little monsters you can quickly take corrective actions as well.
Someone that has too many green ingredients in their pile may notice an unusual number of fruit flies gathered around the pile. While these are harmless they can be a bit gross and a total nuisance. You can reduce the amount of fruit flies lurking in your compost by adding a few brown items to the pile to absorb some of the dampness that you might be experiencing. Amusingly enough, if you tend to compost a large number of fruits you might notice you have a fruit fly problem as well.
You don’t want these little monsters in your compost
Many people also have issues with rodents getting into their compost bin. Rodents can be attracted to your bin for a number of different reasons. If you have been discarding food items like meats into your bin this is the likely cause of it. Rodents can also be attracted to certain dairy products and even foods that have a lot of grease in them. If you are having problems you might want to switch to a compost bin that has been specially designed to keep out four-legged little monsters. Also you will want to remember to add a layer of brown on top of any food ingredients that you add to your bin.
An infestation of ants in the compost pile is another common complaint. If you are seeing ants running around your compost pile it could be a good sign that you have too many brown ingredients mixed in. By simply adding a few green items you can add some moisture back into your pile which will deter the ants in the process. It is also a good idea to try to stir up the pile to disturb the ants which will help to cause them to evacuate the pile. Just be careful the ants do not crawl up whatever instrument you are stirring the pile with. Adding a bit of double sided tape can help to prevent this from being a problem.
Despite what you’ve seen in the film Bug, these aren’t nice
A great example of a good monster that can be found in certain types of compost piles is worms. Certain earthworms are particularly good at eating up all of the wastes in your compost bin. As they do this they produce what is called worm castings or, more simply put, worm manure. This product is extremely fertile and makes great compost that can be used in the garden. Keeping your bin moist will be necessary in order for the worms to live in your compost bin. It will also be important to make certain that your bin does not freeze.
There is great controversy regarding maggots and whether they are good little monsters or bad little monsters to have in your compost pile. It is not an uncommon problem to experience and many simply do not want them in their bins because, well, they are gross. Others believe that having maggots in the compost pile can actually help speed up the decomposition of the pile. If you decide that maggots are not for you, try adding more brown ingredients to the pile. It is likely that if you are seeing a large number of maggots it is because the compost is just a bit too moist. Also keep in mind that if you do not regularly turn your compost, maggots could become a problem in the right conditions.
Maggots aren’t controversial due to their beliefs
There are also a number of microbes that are infesting your compost pile. If you notice that your compost is particularly smelly it is likely because there are too many of these microbes hard at work. It is also possible that there are not enough microbes able to survive in the pile which could be because of too many green ingredients. A compost pile does not typically smell bad so if you do notice a stench, something is off balance. Try stirring up your pile to rearrange the materials.
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[...] had a huge population of flies in our box earlier this year. As I learned from this great post on monsters in the compost, it was probably due to too much moisture and green stuff and adding more brown stuff (like old [...]