Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi all, I've read all the recent threads on this and am still worried. My compost bin seems to be a haven for woodlice and is very infested and getting more so every day. Do I ignore them or should I do something about it?
One gardening book which I have suggests dusting with Benzene hexachloride (BHC). Has this powder been knocked on the head yet and if it has is there an alterative?
Regards Gerry.

Dear Gerry, i would leave them be, when you come to spread the compost out they will soon move on.
Do you really want to be putting those sort of poisons into your compost, i don't know whether you could buy it or not anyway.

Kind regards Old Herbaceous.

Theres no fool like an old fool.

They don't really do much harm and think of all that compost they are chewing up for you and recyling it in to lovely crumbly compost. As Herbacious said they will move on.

Beryl.

Thanks a lot O.H. and Beryl, I will take your advice and leave alone. I must admit one thought I had was that they were chewing the compost But when I spread it where will they move on to.
Regards Gerry.

Where ever they can find some rotting wood - so good hygiene is the answer. Maybe they will stop off next door!!!

Beryl.

A very good question Gerry, a few years ago i had a compost heap that had gone bit dry and was full of woodlice, but i spread it out over the ground anyway, next day there was only one or two lurking about in the compost.
So where they had all gone i don't really know, a bit spooky don't you think.

Kind regards Old Herbaceous.

Theres no fool like an old fool.

Before I dig in any compost, I spread it one th ground the day before. The blackbirds/robins/sparrows then eat their fill of worms/lice/ants and when I dig it in, there is no trace of any living insect left...

bob flowerdew had an article in kg a few years ago, in which he showed how to make a 'slater bin' out of an old linen basket, attracting woodlice purely for thier composting activity, on dried leaves, cabbage stalks and other dry material. My daughter would be fascinated, she adores 'woodlouses'

Mandy

I cannot see what harm they can possibly do in a compost bin, so leave them be. Maybe you ought to add more water. I had an argument some time back, somebody was convinced that woodlice were biting through living plant stems, I was far from convinced.
There was a large book published all about them, it called them "terrestrial crustacae", I heard a review of it, somebody spent years writing it. Maybe we ought to find out more about them.
Allan