Re: Compost

**j* e* m* s* <h*@sbcglobal.net>**

An alternative is not to put kitchen scraps in the compost pile. It 
still feels good to compost only yard waste. My problem wasn't so 
much the wildlife as my dog who eats anything and everything and who 
is quite persistent.

jems

>Hi all,
>A rodent proof $500 model would be the Mantis ComposT-Twin which is 
>enormous.  A round or rectangular single black plastic bin does cost 
>around $30.  Rats will chew through plastic if what's inside is 
>attractive enough.  We use galvanized metal garbage cans with tight 
>fitting lids, too, for the same reason.  Rats are under the radar 
>because they are evasive and nocturnal, but they are everywhere, 
>city, suburbs and countryside.  I've had some interesting discussions 
>with the people at the county health dept. who do rodent control.
>Carol Bradford
>
>
>On Jan 17, 2008, at 10:35 AM, gardenwriters-request@lists.ibiblio.org 
>wrote:
>
>>  Message: 1
>>  Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:46:11 -0800
>>  From: yarrow@sfo.com
>>  Subject: Re: [GWL] Compost
>>  To: Garden Writers -- GWL -- The Garden Writers Forum
>>	<gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org>
>>  Message-ID: <f06110406c3b303578900@[66.81.79.76]>
>>  Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
>>
>>  It's very easy to keep rats out of bottomless black plastic bins: put
>>  hardware cloth underneath.
>>
>>  I saw a tunnel in the finished compost in one of my bins after an
>>  unusually cold night, so I added quarter-inch hardware cloth under
>>  all the bins and haven't seen any sign of rats in the bins since.
>>
>>  Oh, and many county/city solid waste depts. offer bins at a big
>>  discount, so the cost is more like $30, not $500, each.
>>
>>  Tanya Kucak
>>  Palo Alto, Calif.
>>
>>  At 1:48 PM -0500 1/15/08, Carol Bradford wrote:
>>>  Nobody's mentioned rats.  We had enormous ones living in a "pile it
>>>  up and leave it alone" compost heap. They eat anything people eat.  I
>>>  first spotted them at dusk feasting on watermelon rinds.  There were
>>>  no bones, meat, fish, fat etc. etc. in there.  The $500 composters
>>>  have the virtue of being rodent proof which is good in an urban
>>>  situation, at least.  The bottomless black plastic ones are quite
>>>  accessible to vermin.
>>
>
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________________________________________
Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp
Garden writer, speaker, author, photographer
Region III Director Garden Writers Association
Phone: (317) 251.3261
Fax: (317) 251.8545
E-mail: hoosiergardener@sbcglobal.net
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