How To Keep Animals Away From Compost
Animals And Bugs In Compost – Preventing Compost Bin Animate being Pests
By: Susan Patterson, Master Gardener
A composting program is a fantastic way to put kitchen scraps and k waste to work in your garden. Compost is rich in nutrients and provides valuable organic material to plants. While composting is relatively like shooting fish in a barrel, controlling pests in compost piles requires some forethought and proper compost pile management.
Should My Compost Bin Have Bugs?
Many people ask, "Should my compost bin take bugs?" If yous accept a compost pile, y'all are probable to take some bugs. If your compost pile is not constructed properly, or yous only plow information technology infrequently, it can go a breeding basis for insects. The following are common bugs in compost:
- Stable flies – These are similar to house flies except that they take a needle-blazon beak that protrudes from the front of their caput. Stable flies love to lay their eggs in moisture harbinger, piles of grass clippings, and manure mixed with harbinger.
- Green June beetles – These insects are metal dark-green beetles that are about an inch (2.5 cm.) long. These beetles lay eggs in decaying organic affair.
- Houseflies – Common houseflies also enjoy moisture decaying matter. Their preference is manure and rotting garbage, but you lot will also notice them in composted lawn clippings and other organic affair.
Although having some bugs in compost is not necessarily a terrible thing, they can get out of hand. Try increasing your brown content and add some bone meal to aid dry the pile out. Spraying the area around your compost pile with an orange spray too seems to keep the fly population downwards.
Compost Bin Animal Pests
Depending on where you live, you may have a trouble with raccoons, rodents, and even domestic animals getting into your compost pile. Compost is both an attractive food source and habitat for many animals. Knowing how to proceed animals out of the compost pile is something that all compost owners should sympathize.
If you manage your pile well by turning it ofttimes and keeping a adept brown to green ratio, animals will not be as attracted to your compost.
Be sure to keep any meat or meat by-products out of the pile. Also, do not put any leftovers with oil, cheese, or seasonings into the pile; all of these things are rodent magnets. Exist certain not to add together any feces from non-vegetarian pets or cat litter to your compost either.
Some other method of prevention is to continue your bin located away from annihilation that might be a natural food source for an animate being. This includes trees with berries, bird feeders, and pet nutrient bowls.
Lining your compost bin with wire mesh is another tactic that may discourage animal pests.
Consider Using a Airtight Compost Bin Organisation
Learning how to keep animals out of the compost pile may be as simple as knowing the type of compost organization you lot have. While some people have considerable success with open compost bin systems, they are often more difficult to manage than an enclosed system. A closed bin system with ventilation volition assistance to keep animate being pests at bay. Although some pests will dig nether a bin, a closed system is too much work for many animals and information technology as well keeps the scent down.
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Source: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/composting/basics/compost-pest-control.htm
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