The message
from "PieOPah" contains these words:

Hello

I'm new to this newsgroup and I am a novice gardener - I am ok at hard
landscaping but know little about plants.

One of my New Years resolutions this year is to recycle more so I bought a
compost bin from the council. It's doing quite well and nearly half full.
but I have a couple of questions

1 - it appears that ants have made a home in my compost bin. Does this
matter or should I try and get rid of them?

They don't do any harm, but they indicate it's too dry for proper
decomposition. Water the heap.

2 - It smells and with summer coming I'm sure it will get worse - what
can I
do to reduce the rotting odour?

It shouldn't smell at all; possibly the smell indicates there isn't
enough air in the process. This can be a problem with tightly enclosed
plastic dalek composters. Try leaving off the exit cover at the bottom,
and leave the lid open occasionally; stir the top around with a fork.
As you fill it, include some cardboard screwed up into fist sized balls
(this will make air spaces). And don't ever include any meat or animal
fat scraps as they will stink like, er, a decomposing corpse.

Janet