Pests in homemade compost?

Hi All, I'm sitting here looking at the snow and planning this year's gardening. I'm hoping to grow quite a lot of veg in containers, but I'm on a tight budget and buying large no.s of growbags and big bags of compost looks expensive.

Trouble is, my compost bins are full of creepy-crawlies, and those are only the ones I can see!! If I use the compost out of my bins, will it spread pests into my plants?

 

as said I would assume the bugs are good rather than bad...most are benificial....its the bugs and micro-organisms that break down their compost and make nutrients available to plants...most bugs are your friends!!

I like to use home made compost sparingly...I put a good dolop in the bottom of planting holes (only for things that like a good bit of water) Home made compost is great at retaining water so it acts like a resevoir for the plants..brilliant in dry spells (probably not neccassary last few years - although there are other benefits)

 

I think we have a confusion here. The compost in your compost bin is not the same type of thing as you get in Growbags - why they were called the same i never know. Potting compost such as you get in Growbags is basically like artificial soil, it is a growing medium so you could put good garden soil in the containers instead.
Garden compost from your compost bins is like farmyard manure, except it is richer in plant foods so use it like you would manure to feed the plants.
As someone has said most of the creepy crawlies are quite useful, they are helping to break down the compost. Even the huge slugs you find are feeders of decaying material. The slugs that tend to eat the garden plants are the smaller whitish slugs and the little black keel slugs but I never see those in my compost bins.

 

Can you get hold of composted green waste from your local council? Sometimes it's available free, often very cheap.
Great as a potting compost ingredient, mixed with fine composted bark and sterilized loam. Bung in a bit of Blood Fish & Bone or Hoof & Horn
You can make barrowloads for a few quid and it will probably be better than some of the rubbish you buy

BTW the composted green waste should be completely free of pests, diseases and weeds as well

 

My compost has attracted lots of woodlice, not sure if this is a good thing or not.

 

woodlice are meant to be gardeners friends. dont they eat aphids and stuff?

 

Having had a go at making compost for the first time, I have noticed that my compost is rather wet and smelly. Is this normal or do I add something organic to it to improve xxx

 

Wet and smelly compost sounds like too much greens and not enough browns added to it. You need to mix in more card/paper/twigs etc.

 

yes you might have some bugs in your compost heap

if you add lots of woody material you will get woodlice. "ideally" you are going to shred the woody material and mix with with grass cuttings. in practice however you may have woody layers on the top which attract woodlice

at the bottom where you have very fine compost almost ready for use there might be some earth worms (which are good for the mix and do you no harm )

ants are a nusiance but only if they start building a nest - in which case you need to turn over the material a bit more

flying insects like midges are generally to be avoided. only becuase they aren't very nice to have around. they like very wet conditions. keep the compost moist but don't let it get too wet. if necessary cover with old newspaper. it absorbs moisture, deters midges and composts eventually

don't add cooked food, don't add meat

 

ants indicate its too dry aswell