Composter Nightmare.... id and advice please?

Hi,

I started composting late last summer and have managed to keep a regular supply of kitchen and garden compostable waste going in over the winter.

My problem is my compost bin now appears to be infested with both ants and some sort of white fly. There are hundreds of the little sods that fly out when I open the lid (its one of those green plastic ones you get from the council) and at the last inspection I could see loads of ants crawling about inside.

Firstly, can anyone id this for me, apologies for the quality of the pics, but this is the best I could do, there's an ant in one of the pics for scale =)



And these white flies seem to come from some sort of larvae that looks like this and can be found all around the rim of the composter.



Are these bad, and if so what can I do to get rid of them? And secondly what can I do about what looks to be developing into an ant problem too?

Thanks in advance,

Rich

 

Hi Rich, my compost bins dont have this problem, maybe because there made of wood, with yours being plastic could be a bit hot and humid in there, i would spray the little B***ers

 

The presence of ants could indicate the bin is too dry. This can be addressed by considering the materials used for composting. I believe ants can benefit compost by making air tunnels as they burrow, and by processing some of the materials. To deter the ants, I hear spraying with cold water is of benefit. Do not use poison or boiling water. You do not want to overdo it or kill of other beneficial organisms!