Janet Baraclough wrote:
The message
from "PieOPah" contains these words:

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.

Although the second point could indicate stagnant water with anaerobic
soggy compost turning to smelly blck slime at the bottom. Many of these
plastic dalek things have nothing like enough ventilation.

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.

I wouldn't say it should never smell. Mine smells of short chain fatty
acids (slightly odd stale smell) for a few days whenever I add a cubic
metre of grass clippings. It has an internal temperature fo 70C mid
season. Best off placed at the far end of the garden rather than
outside the back door.

As you fill it, include some cardboard screwed up into fist sized balls
(this will make air spaces).

I'd favour screwed up newspaper too but something coarse will help
aeration a lot.

And don't ever include any meat or animal
fat scraps as they will stink like, er, a decomposing corpse.

And attract lots of flies too.

One other thing that may help with a small heap is to use a starter
culture like the proprietory Garotta stuff to help get it going in the
right way. With luck you only need to start it once per season.
Unnecessary with a large or established heap.

Regards,
Martin Brown