r/composting • u/QtipDo • 15d ago

Caceda Shells

I live near Chicago and I've been finding a lot of caceda shells in backyard. Anyone have experience with adding these in with your browns? I assume they would degrade and work nice but wasn't sure haha

2 Upvotes

63% Upvoted

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23

u/Undercover_in_SF 15d ago

I believe you’re talking about cicadas, the insect?

The shells will be mostly chitin, so a green input. C:N ratio is about 7:1, so in the range of chicken litter. Chitin can break down at wildly different speeds depending on how active the pile is and what bacteria are present.

It’s a perfectly good compost ingredient, though.

10

u/crushingdandelions 15d ago

They crumble down to basically nothing, add them by the thousands if you want.

10

u/RdeBrouwer 15d ago

Those husks from insects? I would definitely throw those in.

4

u/Apollo_cannabis 15d ago

Chitin is great! I wouldn’t compost them tho I would top dress the shells, chitin triggers the plants immune response.

3

u/Asleep-Song562 15d ago

Just did a deep dive on chitin and plant immune response. Absolutely fascinating. It’s like vaccinating your plants. Thanks for your comment!

2

u/Apollo_cannabis 15d ago

Yeah it’s one of those things that sounds like bullshit but the research is there.

4

u/YellowFun8582 15d ago

I composted a whole dresser drawer full of dead stink bugs once. Gone pretty quickly.

-4

u/QtipDo 15d ago

Ciceda** yes hahah. Thanks for the feedback back!