Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => General Gardening => Topic started by: Frizzle1 on April 01, 2021, 17:57
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I’m not sure if I’m in the right place for this question but does anyone know how to rid mites in a composting wormery. I’ve tried lots of things but still haven’t had any luck. I think now I need some advice thanks
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Hi Frizzle, I've split your question off so it can be seen more easily by other people :)
I've not used a wormery before, but I'm sure that others may have done, and be able to answer your question.
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I’m not sure if I’m in the right place for this question but does anyone know how to rid mites in a composting wormery. I’ve tried lots of things but still haven’t had any luck. I think now I need some advice thanks
The mites you are most likely seeing are soil mites. Soil mites are highly beneficial to compost or soil health. If you have information indicating these mites are not beneficial, please share that information.
Remember that compost is partially a living material. When the compost is healthy, it contains bacteria, fungi, and a large variety of arthropods (insects, spiders, mites, isopods, millipedes, centipedes, etc.), and worms. To learn more, see:. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://plantcaretoday.com/soil-mites.html&ved=2ahUKEwj5gdTByOTvAhWRZs0KHQeKDG4QFjARegQIKRAF&usg=AOvVaw1mnI2AFssytd02ypPNthNb (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://plantcaretoday.com/soil-mites.html&ved=2ahUKEwj5gdTByOTvAhWRZs0KHQeKDG4QFjARegQIKRAF&usg=AOvVaw1mnI2AFssytd02ypPNthNb)
There is nothing I can think of that you can add to compost that will get rid of them without also being toxic (such as acaricides). You could try spreading compost very thinly on a plastic sheet on a sunny day, that could reduce the number of them. But, put that compost to use in a pot or flower/vegetable bed, the mites will be back fairly soon.
Best course of action is to do nothing unless you see harm being done by the mites. Something worse than not liking the look of them.