Hi Mrs Green,

Sorry to hear of the mishaps around the compost bin. This is not covered in the instructions.
Wasps are beneficial insects but nests are always a problem. Is the nest near the compost bin or in it? I have a large Rose of Sharon bush, currently in flower, beside my compost bin and this keeps all the insects busy.
When the flowers fade later I usually put out jam jars to catch wasps. Cut 2 hole in the lid and 2/3 fill with water. It is a source of food, water and a final resting place.

John.

I’ve never had a problem with wasps in mine, but then again, my compost tends to be on the wet side(we’ve had a fair bit of rain this summer). I have a WAY bigger problem with fruit flies. Happily, they don’t sting, but they are super annoying.

Hi John,

I rather suspect we have a nest. We seem to have them most years. Our garden is full of ivy growing up trees, fruit trees, piles of wood and thick hedges. We removed two nests at the beginning of the season - we happened to catch them while they were small, so broke them up (again, only because they are near where Little Miss Green likes to play).
But there we are, no doubt they have found somewhere else to call home.

Kristen; the compost bin has now been saturated, so we’ll see if that makes a difference. I have a friend visiting tomorrow who might gladly take my last couple of days kitchen scraps, just so that we can give it a rest for a few days.

For fruit flies, the key is to cover your scraps with other materials - a thick layer of grass clippings is ideal

Hello from Europe. It is interesting to read these compost stories, and see they are similar everywhere.
Grass clippings however are tricky, you have to balance the use of these, as they might sufficate the compost if too much is added, making the compost a stinking slimy bunch. I would limit the thickness to max 6 cm. To avoid the grass clippings, you could use a special lawn mower (mulching).

What works perfectly for me, I have 2 bins, a large one and a small round bin. The round bin is used fro the fresh stuff. When added the compost litter, I cover it with a small layer of leafs which were kept in a seperate heap. When that heap is gone, I take the dry upper layer from the large bin. Whenever the small bin is full, I try to harvest most compost from the big bin, mingle the rest and turn over the compost from the small bin into the big bin. Giving the benifit that this process is adding air into the bin. This enhances the process and avoids problems.
Good luck with the wasp problem.

Thanks Didier Van den Meersschaut for that informative summary. It’s so much more valuable when someone talk from experience, rather than just theory. We have an added problem in that our soil is very acidic and this encourages a different eco-system in the compost bin. We also have many red ants that nest, even if we keep the mix very moist. If we raise the PH to more alkaline, the ants are not so happy. There are many factors to a good compost, but we will try to use your advice to air the compost better, if the wasps let us get close enough! Thanks for your comment on our site.

Wow Didder; that is some system to be proud of - I have one of those in my head and my imagination, but not in my garden yet

Interesting about the grass - for a few years we had only grass clipping in our compost bin and, you’ve guessed it, we ended up with green slime and no compost! Now I know why…….

We need to start taking better care of it I think. I’m convinced we have wasps nests; several of them perhaps, so we’ll see how things fare over the next few weeks.

Good luck solving the wasp issue.
I have little knowledge of wasps, we had them in a roof space above ds bedroom at the old house, and they used to find their way into the bedroom.
We have a compost bin in the garden, and 2 at the one allotment. They are the plastic darlek style bins that you can buy from the council. We are just starting a new allotment, and plant to make a compost area with pallets (still neeed to source these!) I have been told that 2 ‘bins’ next to each other made from 7 pallets is ideal for allotments, and they can get hot enough that you can add ‘nasty’ weeds to them to compost down as well. So we will see how that goes. so far we have one pallet! I might have to put a request on freecycle!!

Hi Sue,

yes, these wasps are in the dalek style bin - we had a visiting horse who found a way to break the lid off and eat our kitchen scraps every day

He’s left now for pastures new, and so the wasps have taken over.

Good luck with finding pallets - hot composting sounds great.

great post and some helpful comments. We too have wasps in our compost bin and if numbers are anything to go by I think it must be a nest.

We went for the square plastic bin with small holes in the side rather than the darlek one in the hope that the holes would let the compost breathe. These holes are just big enough to let the wasps in and out!

I really can’t see a sure-fire way to deter the wasps at this time of year. They are just part of nature’s eco-system trying to do their bit. What I have found is it’s best to just leave them well alone during the day and take the composting scraps to the compost bin late at night, just about after dusk. Most wasps have gone to bed if it’s cool and it’s safer to throw the scraps in.

i have gotten tired with my wasps hovering about the compost heap as soon as i lift my carpet which covers the heap the wasps leap to the disturbance leaving the solution to keep composting ineffective at this time of the year any suggesions i have recently started to apply some grass covering most of the heap each time i add other kitchen “scraps”. ANY HELP WOULD BE AAPRECIATED.

Hello Mr Morton and thanks for your comment. I have not found any ‘magic’ solutions to this problem. In addition, I fancy we have seen more wasps this year, maybe due to weather factors.

One idea that we’ve not tried, but looks possible is using a tumbling composter. There’s one in the Natural Collection that may be suitable. One question you need to ask is are the vents large enough to allow wasps to pass through? Then you need to consider the cost of over £100 The decomposition is apparently much faster and the whole thing easier to manage. That’s all I can think of for now. W are asking questions about this problem of wasps, so we’ll keep this posted if we find out more.

Hi Mr Green,

I have wasps in the latter part of summer. The trick is to block any entry point they could use. They will fly on elsewhere if no place is available.

For compost bins, fully sealed types are ideal. If you use a wet compost that will discourage them as well.

Thanks john, I’m still learning the tricks. We still have a standard, static bin and I’m thinking that a tumbling sort would suit us better. I would pefer to use an oak barrel and not a plastic version though.

I had this response from WRAP, via the Recycle Now website:

Wasps are often attracted by the fruit waste in the bin. Keeping the lid on tightly should prevent them from entering.

It may also help to leave a layer of paper on the surface of the compost to be mixed in with the next addition of fruit waste and replaced with fresh paper with each
new addition of fruit waste.

Remember, for all the ‘green’ waste you put in the bin you should always mix it with the same amount of ‘brown.’
Refer to http://www.Recyclenow.com/compost ‘How to make compost’.

The rat (yes, readers, we found rats in there too!!) may well have been looking for somewhere warm to nest. To prevent it happening you can stand the bin on wire builders mesh or layers of chicken wire. (see the website on ’setting up your bin’.

Try to use the bin as often as possible as rats are quiet creatures that do not like to be disturbed and of course, don’t add cooked food to attract them.

Your compost can still be used even with these problems but give it time and to restart in springtime would be my advice, if you wish to avoid the risk of wasp stings.