Rats in the compost
Posted by DavidM in Gardening | 5 November 2006
Here I am trying to help nature by doing more green things and what does nature do? Bite the hand that's feeding her! Not literally fortunately.
My new composter has been going very well. All our vegetable scraps, the dead plants from my vegetable patch, the Style section of the Saturday Times (somewhat appropriately I feel), the guinea pig bedding and a portion of our grass cuttings are ending up in our big black compost bin instead of wending their way to landfill.
It's about a foot deep already and seems to be mulching down quite nicely.
However, we have a problem. When I installed the compost bin it said to put it directly onto earth to encourage worms. This I did, ignoring the base provided. Now I understand the importance of the base.
Last weekend I found a ruddy great hole in the turf beside the compost bin where a rat has tunnelled it's way in and is dragging rotting food and paper out to sneak into it's nest under our shed. Unpleasant in oh so many ways.
So this afternoon I dug all the compost out, laid the base down and shovelled all the compost back in. The good news is that they recommend you turn the compost occasionally to encourage good mixing and I certainly did that.
So that's my compost safe from the rat. I never thought I'd feel so protective of a pile of rubbish.
