Did you purchase the bin this way or did you make the vent holes yourself? Either put some aluminum window screen over those holes, or make (or purchase) a bin that is better designed. I cold compost, so dimensions are moot to me, so I use a 30-50-gallon (not sure of capacity) heavy duty plastic garbage can as my main bin with a large number of drilled holes about 3/4" in diameter in all 4 sides as well as the bottom of the can (my materials are suspended from the bottom of the can by a false bottom made of mesh covered with window screen sitting on four blocks of wood to allow air flow up from the bottom). The lid, which is one of the fasten types, is fastened, but propped open with a wedge, so I get plenty of air exposure from the top, bottom, and sides, but it keeps the critters out. I compost a LOT of fruit and vegetable waste! Turning the material gets rather difficult when the containers get about half full :-( Worms cannot enter... I'd go with a large number of smaller holes and add a screen lid (or any lid that allows airflow), or jsut keep what you've got and screen the holes that you've got :-) .

I am not computer literate so I will rely on my husband (the computer genius) to post my story. Bless his heart, he has never faltered in believing me (after 37 years, he still listens). One fine day in November of 2011 I decided to purchase a bird feeder to help the birds thru the winter. We thought it was such fun to watch them and then the squirrels (who broadcast the seed when they jumped onto the feeder). On occasion when I was running low on bird seed, Iâd throw stale bread. That created a frenzy��"way too much fun! More bread Iâd say! More seed too. The long, dark days became fun. Until dooms day. Dooms day was somewhere around the end of January 2012. I was in bed (my love sleeps in the next room due to his disabilities). What was that moaning sound? Moan, moan. Then nothing. Until Iâd start to doze off. This would occur in no particular pattern so, of course, it could not be heard by anyone but me. Being terrified of rodents, rats in particular, I was on the phone to Exterminator #1, a guy we had come to our home previously for bee control. He was nice and admitted he was going to retire so he didnât want to go in the crawl space. He also didnât bill us. Enter exterminator #2. He had never heard moaning sounds and did not have a clue as to what might make these sounds��" after 22 years in the business. A friend asked a local gardening store what they thought might make these sounds and an employee said he had squirrels and they were what I was hearing��" the babies crying for mama. I called exterminator #2 and played him the sounds of baby squirrels (which the afore mentioned computer guru found). He was at our house the next day to once again look for evidence of squirrels. He even made an extra trip to pick up squirrel repellant (cost to us $50 for the extra trip) and left us with the valuable information . . . âIf you find where she is getting in, do not plug the hole or she will eat through the side of your house to get to her babiesâ. Exit exterminator #2. I decided to have my older granddaughters come and spend the night to document those moaning sounds and reaffirm to myself that I am sane. Would you believe that there was absolutely no sounds made, no movement detected, no evidence whatsoever that we âhad companyâ. Remember, I am a grandmother! So now, behind my back Iâm getting the snickers and rolling eyes because POOR GRAMMIE HAS lost it. Before I called Exterminator #3, I had more occasions than I can recall to jump out of bed, take apart my bed; right down to removing the mattress and box springs and even take the mesh material off the box springs BECAUSE IT SOUNDED LIKE ONE OF THE CRITTERS MOANED UNDER MY PILLOW. Because I am relatively regarded as being intelligent and still possess all of my faculties, I did not pass on to my family my escapades during the night but instead kept this to myself. They could NOT be in my mattress��" theyâre squirrels. NOT!! So, now Exterminator #3 tells me a good news and bad news story. The good news, I AM NOT NUTS. The bad news, the moans I was hearing were not that of squirrels but were from a similar sized animal: NORWAY RATS. Take a peek at these guys on the internet. Twelve to 14 inch bodies. Oh, and mice too! Did this happen because we have total slobs living at the end of our block who opt to not have garbage pickup? Folks, I never realized that this was not a requirement in my neighborhood of $300,000-$400,000 homes (weâre evidently in an unincorporated section of Vancouver, WA. Code Enforcement tells me). Well, anyway, it doesnât help me in my quest to have my home back to just the two of us! Exterminator #3: total cost about $3500 (possibly more later) has removed most of the vermin��" all they could find which included rats and mice, they took out all of the insulation in the crawl space and the vapor barrier. I think I have reason to celebrate. Every possible entry has been plugged, every inch disinfected, all furnace pipes vacuumed, tunnel holes plugged and cemented; in other words my world is so good and free of vermin. Unless you count last night. Iâm so tired because of constant sleep deprivation for going on five months now. I fall into bed knowing we are critter free��" now approaching $6000 because we did not replace the insulation now so weâre, hopefully, not giving anybody a place to nest. The reinstall of the insulation will occur in August at a price of $2000. I put my head on the pillow with the knowledge that we are free (are we?? Two seniors 70 or so, one disabled, now depending on social security and owing so much). I almost jumped out of my skin when the little squeal came from under my pillow. At this point I want to just give up. As I tell my poor husband, I think I have mice in my mattress, am tearing apart my bed in and enlisting help to move the mattress on our back porch. I am wondering if I have lost my mind. Time will tell. At least I did one thing right in my life when I married probably the one and only man who would say he believed me.

I'm a retired finish carpenter, US Northwest coast. I put primed 8" Smartside on my own two-story house three summers ago. I chose to vent the wall behind the siding. That took a bit of time. I then pre-painted each piece with one coat of SW Superpaint, rolled and back-brushed, and then did a second coat once the siding was on the wall, also rolled and back-brushing. I primed all nail heads before the final coat. I flashed behind every joint and caulked every seam with OSI. I faced nailed every board by hand to eliminate overdriving the nails; no air nailer was used on the siding. It took 400 hours by myself, working evenings and weekends, but that also included tearing off layers of old siding, fixing the sheathing, replacing the soffits, replacing all the windows, and building a new front porch, so it wasn't a normal siding job. This summer, for the first time, I checked all caulked seams for shrinkage and cut out and re-caulked and painted small sections around four windows and three joints on the west and south walls. The siding and joints everywhere else looked as pristine as the day it was installed. I have absolutely no complaints or concerns with my decision to go with this brand of siding. One final thing, I left a unpainted 1-inch triangle-shaped piece out on the patio exposed to the weather the summer I did the job. It's still sitting there. The edges have swelled only slightly and cracked slightly, but I still can't chip even a small piece from the edge with my fingernail. I'm beginning to think it's indestructible.

"SmartSide" Lap and Panel Siding is zinc-borate treated aspen wood oriented-strand-board with a resin saturated MDO paper face and three coats of edge sealer. Louisiana Pacific says it has to be painted every 3 to 5 years. The well-known class action lawsuit against LP in the early 90's was for another OSB siding product called "Inner-Seal" that didn't have the zinc-borate treatment and failed due to moisture retention and rot especially in the Pacific Northwest. Production of Inner-Seal began in '85 and to LP's credit they initiated a settlement that was completed in '95. Production of SmartSide siding began in '97 and so far LP says, believe it or not, there haven't been any warranty claims for fungal decay. I would recommend giving it another 5 years before using it but only if you have a really tight budget and like to paint your house a lot. It appears that developers love it.