Spring is finally here! and for those who like me love to garden, it’s the start of the best time of the year! Those who have their own compost bin, know very well it’s definitely that time of the year for the rise of problematic pest invasion! I’m going to share with you my story of my compost becoming problematic and how I was able to get rid of the pesty invasion issues! Keep on reading lol!

compost bin

I may not be your conventional gardener

You see I garden with love and trial and error. I’m currently living in an apartment complex with a very big balcony that wraps around. Keeping that in mind, I know I can’t let my entire gardening love get too wild! But boy do I get tempted lol! I’m trying to keep my forest (just a small one) to a minimum. I wish I could let me wildness go free, as when it comes to growing everything that my mind and hand pleases!

I love planting things from seeds and propagate them as they grow. To include, I also love and have been successful at using my cuttings from my store-bought items and regrowing entire plants and even getting fruits from them! In conclusion, that’s how I found out that I had a green thumb.

How I discovered my green thumb

It all started with a Facebook posting and me trying it out to see if the post was even legit. And let me tell you!!! It worked! Everything I tried from the list sprouted roots. All I did was placed the containers by the window, rinsed off the roots periodically, and by the summertime I had a small garden. I even tried placing the seeds of the vegetables such as tomatoes, eggplants, bell peppers in a wet napkin and waiting till their roots sprouted all while they were in the refrigerator! Surprisingly, that too worked for me!

By the same token composting came into my life

I love everything about composting! Altogether, just seeing how you transform leftover scraps into high quality, nutritious feed for your plants. The chemistry of the entire process is what amazes me! All in all, I enjoy getting my hands dirty. I’m pretty sure due to the weather conditions of my last location, dealing with pests in my compost was very minimal. that being said, this has been the first time during my years of gardening that I encountered such out of controlled infestation.

This year, I tried to go ahead and start my compost out of a plastic bin on my apartment porch. Things were going rather well, until I slacked on the compost mixture of greens (fresh grass clippings, fruit and vegetable scraps, and coffee grounds) followed by a layer of browns (dry leaves, twigs, and branches). I had in mind to check on the compost mixture periodically and adjust to its needs accordingly. But life got in the way and before I knew it, spring was here.

It wasn’t until I received an email from the apartment complex. Stating that its gnats’ season and there has been an increase of complains in regard to them. Offering us tenants’ recommendations and some tips on how to eliminate and help out with issue of infestation to the tenants that were experiencing an increase of activity.

Thanks to that email and my boys

To include, my boys had been complaining about going to the bin a few days earlier. And I thought it was just them being lazy, my oldest even joked about being eaten alive by the gnats! (lol). I really thought he was exaggerating.

My sons joked and said mom they are going to find out you’re the main culprit of the apartment wide infestation. I said boys “be quiet” my compost bin is not that bad. They exclaimed ” go check it out for yourself then!” I went and oh boy, were they RIGHT!!! (LOL).

To no one surprise!

I was prompted to take a look at bin. To which, I discovered my bin was infested with gnats and many more pests. By the way, they were already inside my apartment as well. For sure, I ran to the internet and got down to it! Doing research on natural ways to get rid or at least minimize my infestation.

What i did and worked!

I knew i had to balance out my compost, and i went straight to my shredder and started shredding away! (Side note) i had a ton of things that i needed to shred and kept postponing (LOL). Again, life has been just getting in the way lately (LOL). Once i got the amount of brown materials, next i had to combact the infestion and kill as much as possible off.

I went with a mixture of vinegar and dawn detergent, to soak the stack of shredded paper. I also added some scented cloves, laurel, basil, and rosemary. All trying to deter them away from coming back to the bin. My most potent remedy was the use of NEEM oil!! Once I soaked the paper with neem oil, that did it! That was what eliminated and prevented them from coming back! I also had to wash my walls and windows with the vinegar and soap mixture.

I continuously go out there and check out the compost bin and spray it with a mixture of vinegar, soap, and neem oil. I’m no longer the culprit for the apartment complex issue (LOL). I had to take it when the boys exclaimed “WE HAVE BEEN TELLING YOU, to check your compost MOM!!” I just couldn’t help but get a good laugh out of the ordeal!

Gardening takes work, but at the end of the day I love it all!! I also enjoy that all of my kids get to participate, even if its them keeping me on check. It’s okay if live gets on the way, as long as you recover and start again!