LOL! I was wondering where all the banana skins came from, too! As for the pesticides. I just read an article (although I cannot remember where) that lists banana peels and some other vegetables and fruits in a list of the top 12 items (I think it was 12?) that have the most pesticides in them. The reason I remember is I had just eaten bananas with the kids and asked them all for the peels so I could put it in the compost pile. Now, as you can see, I am a bit concerned about putting any more out there. How do you get pesticides out of the soil (after it is composted)? Will just watering it work? And, after composting, is there any pesticides left? Does anyone know about this? ~Angela

Thank you all for your information. I'm going back to the drawing board, I guess. I'm impressed, now, with looking at the open bin systems. If they really aren't too smelly, then maybe it won't be a problem here. Do mice get into these, though? The thought of mice dying in a compost pile or bin is kind of icky. Regarding the tumbler, I, too, was wondering how it would work if we're just putting in daily scraps. I'll take a look at the Envirocycle suggested by Motria - but, it sounds like you have to pay more attention to this type of composting than with a bin or pile system. I had never even considered vermicomposting - I will certainly look into that now. I grew up with my parents composting in the 70s, but they never got dirt out of it. It was a big pit in the backyard, and we would lift a sheet of plywood to dump the kitchen scrap bucket into. I want the dirt, because I do both vegetable gardening in the yard and greenhouse vegetable container gardening. Currently, I'm recycling dirt, but would obviously like to supplement that with the homemade compost. I may be back with more questions - vermicomposting - so intriguing!

I made two new piles yesterday. Two different sizes for comparison purposes. One was a 30" diameter mesh bin 20" high. The second was the same height but was 40" in diameter. In less than 24 hours the core temp of 30" was 85F; and the 40" was 112F. The average temp the last few days was 40-45F. The material in both was mix of fresh cut grass and shredded leaves, with a sprinkling of rain water. My experience, and what I read; indicates that a optimal compost pile will reach max core temp in two to three days from the start. The hottest part of the first pile was 11 inches from the top, and the second pile 15 inches from the top. In previous winters I had piles which had 100F+ core temps but also had frozen outside areas.

Hi Naomi! Sounds like a frustrating problem. I have crazy ants in mine, but no fire ants.....yet! Gosh, I hope I didn't jinx myself. As awful as fire ants are, remember that all ants are decomposers, so they are really assisting the process as they help themselves to your goodies. I really don't have a sure fire answer (no pun intended), but I would try a number of things. If you are up for it, put your boots on, get your pitchfork, and spend a couple of minutes every day disturbing them. Maybe they will move if there is regular disturbance. If your pile is not too wet from the rain, you might try adding daily water with a hose, to the disturbance time. In our heat, it can be difficult to keep a large pile moist, so it may actually be beneficial to water it daily, unless you've gotten lots of rain lately with Fay. I think small amounts of daily UCG may not be enough. Have you tried to get the large, plastic bags of UCG from SB and cover the mounds with them? Personally, most of the time, I put UCG straight on my plants. I use it as compost itself and I feel like it's precious and that I might be wasting some of it if I process it through my compost first. If all else fails, and your pile is not too big, try covering it for a few days with a tarp. Fire ants generally like sunshine, so they will move somewhere else. Maybe not permanently, but long enough for you to be able to turn your pile without fear of being attacked. I don't know if there is any basis to this, but I'll tell you what works for me in my yard. When we moved here, less than 3 years ago, this yard was sort of abandoned. Fire ant mounds were not uncommon. We are big mulchers (several inches of wood chips in many areas). We have no fireants except at the very edges of our property (where the mulch stops). Very rarely, in our utility area of the yard, when the mulch gets thin, I might see a small, linear mound forming by my stepping stones. If I get some wood chips and cover the exposed areas thickly, the ants disappear again. I don't know why, but that is my experience. If you can get wood chips, you might lay that as the foundation of your compost pile in the future? Or maybe just the immediate surrounding area? Another note, if you have any way of getting your pile to heat up quickly, for sure they would go away, but this usually requires larger amounts of material at once. Lastly, I wanted to mention that the compost pile I have on the ground in my yard I reserve for mostly yard waste.... and an occassional nitrogen burst from my DH. I end up putting my kitchen scraps in my two bins, where creatures can't get to it. Sometimes I put leaves and paper in these as browns if things start getting a bit funky, and it goes back to being fresh. Wishing you luck and a pile of gardener's gold for your trouble. Please keep us posted on what happens. I'd like to know what ends up working for you so I can learn from it too. Don't let this discourage you. You'll find the solution. Happy composting! Anna