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Soil, Compost & Mulch

Is there any way to keep undesirables out of the pile?

16 years ago

By undesirables I mean snakes (I have yet to see one, but I'm always paranoid about it) and bees. I've seen a few bees crawling around in my piles after I buried some dead fruit in there but they were pretty docile and I was able to water my piles without them attacking or anything. I think I drowned a few in the process. I'm pretty sure they aren't living in the piles, and they aren't attacking, but I'm concerned about flipping the piles(which I try to do weekly) with them in there.

Any ideas?

I was thinking for the currently non-existant snake problem I could use hardware cloth to make up some new bins. Would that work, or would the little suckers make it through?

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Comments (6)

Kimmsr
16 years ago
In all the years I have composted (50 or so) I've not had a snake take up residence in any of them. Voles sometimes, but not snakes.
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sylviatexas1
16 years ago
"Is there any way to keep undesirables out of the pile?"

sure, same as anywhere else, institute a dress code & make neckties mandatory; snakes can't keep 'em on...
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sylviatexas1
16 years ago
oops, was having one of my spells last night, & "keeping out undesireables" just made me snicker...

I never have seen snakes in the compost, either;
maybe the activity in the pile is too much for them.

I usually find them in undisturbed places, like under the wooden pallets in the shed or in the bottom of soil-filled flower pots that haven't have plants in them for about a year.

I wouldn't worry about these almost-always harmless creatures, especially if nobody's seen one in the area, & if I saw one, I'd leave it alone.

Hardware cloth will keep out all but the tiniest snakes (hatchlings, which you aren't likely to have & which aren't likely to migrate to a compost pile anyway).

Since your bees aren't aggressive types, like Africanized bees, they'll fly away when you start stirring things up.

Just make a gentle start to turning the pile, so that they go away rather than get agitated.

but I would be careful not to drown the bees;
they are a gardener's friends (pollinators).

I think as you gain more experience in the yard, garden, & compost pile, you'll become more comfortable with the critters we find "out there".

The micro-critters in the compost have their place in the garden,
the medium-critters like earthworms & bees have their place, &
the macro-critters like snakes, & us, have their place, too.

Best luck, & enjoy your garden & compost!
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paulns
16 years ago
We had snakes in a pallet bin pile one year. I even forked one up with the pitchfork once, surprising us both. But then we never turn a pile more than once in its lifetime. If you disturb it weekly or even bi or tri-weekly it won't make a very tempting home for a snake, I would think.

Hardware cloth sounds like a good idea if you're still worried.
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kqcrna
16 years ago
I've been composting for 15 years or more and never found a snake in there, either. I have found a few small ones in garden beds, but I just hope they eliminate more undesirable critters.

Karen
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digdirt2
16 years ago
Can't say that I have ever seen one either. Going on umpteen years of composting - nary a snake. Good ole Garter snakes in the garden lots of times but none in the compost pile.

I agree with Sylvia - try to learn to be more comfortable with the critters in the world of gardening. 99% of them are far more beneficial to a garden than we gardeners are. ;^)

Dave
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