Melissa1982
California
Posts: 109
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| Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 6:58 pm Post subject: compost problems, how to get rid of grubs? |
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Hi all. My sister has a large container of compost, and it was doing great. But...then she put a couple dead tomato plants in it and she soon found grubs had infested the bin. She said it happened last year too, and she had to throw it away.
Is there anything she can do to save the compost and get rid of these grubs? I saw one, it's huge! She said the compost is full of these things...gives me the creeps thinking about it!
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trudy
South Georgia, left at nowhere
Posts: 264
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| Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2008 9:29 am Post subject: |
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Can she sift them out somehow? Is the compost done composting so it wouldn't be so labor intensive? Just a thought.
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Sjoerd
West - Friesland
Posts: 7024
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| Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2008 9:44 am Post subject: |
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That sifting idea sounds a good one, if the bin doesn't hold too much compost. Are they the big, white grubs with orangy-brown heads? --The ones that inhabit the insides of old, dead trees? if they are, they should be easy to spot when sifting. Just set then out in a tin or something and you will make some bird VERRRY happy.
The way that you wrote your posting, it sounded to me like you were drawing a connection between the tom plants and the worms. Is that right?
I do not know if there is a connection, but I do know that it can be a bit dangerous to compost tom plants in case they harbour some blight spores. I have to be OTT with vigilance here because it is such a big problem. I just put my plants in the cities green refuse pick-up bins, The vegetal waste gets composted at such enormous temps there that sicknesses and spores perish. If we were allowed to burn on the complex, I'd probably burn the plants, leaves, fruits and all.
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Sjoerd http://www.volkstuindersvereniginghoornenomstreken.nl/Page11.html
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dvmcmrhp52
Posts: 31
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| Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2008 4:47 pm Post subject: |
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Adding the tomato plants with soil still on the roots could be the possible source of the grubs.
They came with the root ball. They could have come from other sources as well, and their life cycle may make it seem as though it's the same source although possibly being nothing but coincidence.
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