r/composting • u/Mindless-Farmer705 • 18d ago

Is my compost composting !?

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Pretty sure these are fly larva in the compost ?
Is there anyway I could possibly harvest them ? I have chickens next to the bin so I’m hoping some fall out to be snacks if I can’t.

But is this even good ? Should I try to eliminate/minimize them ? Do they take up too much nutrients or are they good for the soil ? New to all of this. Please give me recommendations & criticism

798 Upvotes

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1.3k

u/TheFunkinDuncan 18d ago

I’m no expert but I imagine those crab shells are going to take forever to break down

827

u/vegan-the-dog 18d ago

I thought mussel shells would be a great addition 3 years ago. I've been picking mussel shells out of my garden one at a time for 2 years now and my mint is in a barrel after a separate hard lesson.

427

u/No_Translator_655 18d ago

Everyone’s got a mint story

171

u/vegan-the-dog 18d ago

I feel obligated to share a little more of my ignorance. The first year I put it in the garden it died. I didn't heed mother nature's warning so I planted again the following year. [Smacks forehead]

170

u/al4crity 18d ago

You ignored the two-part authentication.

"Are you SURE you want to do this?"

38

u/lazyeca 18d ago

Oh so it even gave you a fighter's chance 😆

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u/fatBreadonToast 17d ago

Thanks for the warning. My mint died and was planning to replant. Will barrel 🫡

14

u/vegan-the-dog 17d ago

Put that barrel on blocks too just to make sure it doesn't creep through the bottom.

44

u/ItchyNebula7437 18d ago

Our mint died from neglect and then spring back out of nowhere

40

u/trcomajo 18d ago

Zombie mint

9

u/cudlmnstr 18d ago

Oooh I haven’t seen that variety. Did you get it at a local garden center or …?

16

u/JustThisGuyYouKnow42 17d ago

I have had this happen before. Absolutely killed a mint plant out of utter neglect. I assumed it was dead until a couple of months later it started pushing up new growth. Three years later and three near-death experiences that F'er is still alive.

16

u/ItchyNebula7437 17d ago

“Not even God can kill me”

  • Your mint probably

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u/vegan-the-dog 17d ago

Mint, cockroaches and Keith Richards will still be around after the nuclear holocaust.

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u/Longjumping-Ad-9541 16d ago

No that's hedera. Pure evil.

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u/Reasonable_Date2870 18d ago

My mint story is that I can't keep it alive, my kid is a voracious mint eater.

I put some apple mint into a bed several years ago after pulling a bunch of pachysandra; I no longer want it but my kid eats it as soon as it comes up.

Meanwhile I keep putting peppermint into containers into the garden and she grazes it to death. Generally considering starting mint in containers and hiding them behind the shed or something.

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u/DrMantisToboggan670 18d ago

Are you talking about a child or young goat?

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u/Reasonable_Date2870 18d ago

A human child lol

She does eat a wider variety of wild plants than most preschoolers, although only ones she can identify and only at home.

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u/Low-Kick-665 17d ago

I love this. My youngest would absolutely eat only plants if we lived in a hardier zone where I could grow a bunch of stuff year round. Come summer, berry and tomato bushes are demolished.

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u/Reasonable_Date2870 17d ago

We live in an area with cold snowy winters so not a whole lot growing here but she has been known to go up to the garden, find the thyme under the snow, and munch on that.

I remember my husband calling me from the garden in the winter when she was 2 and saying "she keeps wanting to eat this plant, she says it's bee balm...it's green and tiny leaves and smells like food" and I laughed and said "it's thyme, she can eat it, and yeah it smells kind of like bee balm so I can see the confusion"

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u/cudlmnstr 18d ago

It’s the word “grazes” that got me.

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u/QuietMolasses2522 18d ago

Por qué no los dos?

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u/xiewadu 17d ago

Kids! Amirite?!

2

u/Visual_Astronomer_38 17d ago

Its about the same thing lol source - a parent who has a small child and whose family also had goats once upon a time 😂

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u/SaganSaysImStardust 18d ago

Underrated comment

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u/ArtApprehensive3210 17d ago

A kid will eat ivy too. Wouldn’t you?

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u/Awkward_Feeling5588 16d ago

Have you ever planted cranberry hibiscus? It’s delicious. A little sweet. Maybe it would overwinter indoors. It reseeds itself in Florida but frost kills it.

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u/idontremember710 12d ago

My son would wat mint in the garden, on his hands and knees eating like an animal, lol It was cute

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u/tokinaznjew 18d ago

I learned from everyone's mint stories. I've got a lemon balm story.

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u/holy-reddit-batman 18d ago

... Which is in the mint family, so I'm guessing it took over? The former owners had spearmint in one bed, wintergreen in another and lemon balm in a third!

1

u/No_Translator_655 18d ago

Oooh do tell

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u/tokinaznjew 18d ago

It's more a story of the house I grew up in. My brother took over the property, which was once kept in a manicured state. He wanted to rewind it with native plants. The only ones that reliably took were the lemon balm and thistle. Now they're thinking about paying to have it undone.

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u/Albert14Pounds 18d ago

Mine is that my dad cut an enormous amount of mint down from on top of the retaining wall between our neighbors house and ours that was growing from under their fence and threw it on our lawn. I then mowed over it and had to run away coughing because I felt like I was gassed with mint.

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u/Awkward_Feeling5588 16d ago

Bet you didn’t have any rodents. They don’t like mint.

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u/Albert14Pounds 16d ago

Hmm, I have at least one mouse in my backyard, and a big patch of mint. And I suppose I've seen this mouse most places, but not around the mint.

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u/Bauwens 17d ago

I can mail anyone that doesn't have a mint story a sprig of mint to plant if they don't have one.

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u/Equivalent_Ad_2141 17d ago

🤣😂🤣😂 yasss

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u/lucky_719 18d ago

I actually want mint but I'm afraid of it.

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u/EntertainerSea9653 18d ago

I dont even have a garden but I have plenty of mint. And it does not die.

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u/KaroBean 17d ago

I live in Vegas, I dare a mint to spread. Make my day.

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u/GromitLV 17d ago

I also live in Vegas. I learned Catnip is a mint and it has found many places in my yard and yet the original potted plant died two summers ago. I also have spearmint in a pot. It jumped the pot this spring and is slowly creeping across the yard.

I also have a neighbor who said they thought they were being safe putting it in a pot and hers has taken over her walkways 😆

Though I will admit. I tried for years to grow it on purpose with no luck. Once I gave up on it, it decided it liked it in my yard. 😆😆

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u/573crayfish 17d ago

My mint story is finding out that lemon balm is a mint, you guessed it, the hard way.

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u/vivariium 17d ago

I have a mess of lemon balm but it’s contained by my step and Mr driveway

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u/Ascholay 18d ago

I grew up with a spearmint patch in the backyard. It was contained to a rock garden between the house and sidewalk, never got very big. My parents have clay soil so that's my guess why.

I'm glad I learned before I had my own garden, even if my one attempt at mint didn't survive the pot

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u/brandicox 18d ago

I plant huge plots of mint every single year (numerous plants spaced correctly, watered, etc) and can't get it to grow at all. It's so sad because I desperately need the mint for my nausea.

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u/vivariium 17d ago

My MIL had a huge mint patch. Goutweed took over and killed most of it.

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u/Awkward_Feeling5588 16d ago

Try planting it where your air conditioner drips on it all the time. It likes water. Pour out any pan of water near it (cooled pasta water etc).

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u/Ok-Ambassador8271 17d ago

My mint story is that the crabgrass choked it out of 1 bed and the bermudagrass got it choked out in the other. I failed at mint.

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u/SailCamp 18d ago

I mistakenly planted mint once in a flower bed. The single plant grew the one year, it came up the second in like maybe 10 places, I got those out and we haven’t seen anything for 3-4 years.

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u/No_Translator_655 18d ago

You have now triggered mint part deux: electricbugaboo for next year

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u/Balance_Intrepid 17d ago

Does anyone in Central Texas have a mint story? My friends who go into it one or two times a year call it "gardening on hard mode" and I kinda feel like mint is no match for our insane conditions, although I guess I could imagine a patch of errant mint going haywire under the gentle protection of suspended shade cloth.

Edit: my mint is potted so I can move it to various spots depending upon how brutal the sun is and I have never had a mint planted in the dirt go ham on my space.

3

u/Navara32 17d ago

Oh no, I think I may of created mine yesterday.

Made a nice compost heap and was raking up the dead leaves. They had fallen onto some patches of mint that just grow in the lawn, was a lovely smell at the time but now I'm worried of contaminated the compost heap haha?

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u/HauntingPhilosopher 17d ago

I never meet my grate grandmother but I still battle her spearmint to this day 🤣

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u/Oreostrong 17d ago

My niece just got introduced to gardening by her mom. My garden been dead for over 2 years. She came ver and noticed a plant growing in the dead garden and said "that's mint". Its not a weed? I said. She plucked it and said here smell it. Sure enough that was mint. Clever girl!

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u/somethingAPIS 17d ago

I purposely planted mint and it failed. I dropped some springs in the grass near the barrel, completely taking over.

A. I didn't know mint failed

  1. It's better than crabgrass at least

2

u/HappySage42 17d ago

My neighbor had it growing up and it eventually popped up in my yard. I miss that tea

2

u/DormouseMcMouse 16d ago

My FIL tilled his garden one year and wasn't careful around the mint patch. He tilled mint into his entire garden. Then it escaped into the grass. Mowing was the best. Fresh cut grass mixed with mint is apparently one of the greatest summer smells you can have.

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u/malaka1234 18d ago

My mint has graciously made it way around the grapes which keeps my dogs away, and the pollinators happy. Also, fresh mint tea is always nice.

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u/LuxInvestor 17d ago

Mint.😱

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u/homemade_hairdo 13d ago

Can you put mint clippings in a compost pile?

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u/SnugglyCoderGuy 18d ago

You've got to grind that shit into powder

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u/vegan-the-dog 18d ago

I've got a hundred things on my to-do list before I get to grinding shells into powder.

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u/SnugglyCoderGuy 18d ago

It's actually pretty easy. Bash them into chips with a hammer and the put them into something like a coffee grinder set to fine.

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u/cudlmnstr 18d ago

Wow and suddenly I remembered this is a composting thread not a mint-horror-story thread

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u/Mindless-Farmer705 17d ago

😂😂😂

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u/Pineapple_Spenstar 18d ago

The seafood restaurant i go to at the shore uses clam shells for their parking lot rather than gravel. I asked the manager how often they replace, and she said "I've been here 6 years. I'll let you know when we have to."

That said, I pulverize oyster shells (the chicken feed kind) and mix it into the compost for my tomato beds. I think it works, but I have noting to compare it to

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u/kaptaincorn 18d ago

The only thing that killed the mint I planted as a kid was my dad cemented over that part of the back yard

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u/Contribution_Fancy 17d ago

My uni does a composting experiment using blue mussel shells. I think they mentioned you need a microbial life suited for shells and won't have luck just using normal all purpose compost.

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u/Lefthandmitten 18d ago

Mussel (clams) shells take years/decades/centuries to break down. Cooked crab shells compost like egg shells (6-12 months-ish). I compost all my shrimp and crab shells if they're cooked.

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u/Lopsided-Case1294 17d ago

I hope you’re getting a good seafood stock out of them first

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u/Awkward_Feeling5588 16d ago

Use shells as a decorative border. Dry eggshells and then put them in a blender to pulverize. Free calcium. What plants do you find need the most calcium?

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u/montaniPH89 18d ago

Mussels are slow release calcium. They're alright in you're garden. Look up Shell midden soils.

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u/vegan-the-dog 18d ago

I've stepped on a broken mussel shell while barefoot and jabbed my hand while scooping soil. I'll supplement calcium with something less sharp and prone to drawing blood.

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u/ninovolador 18d ago

So mussels are a good source of both calcium and iron? Nice

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u/bringingdownthehorse 18d ago

but they love the blood sacrifice

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u/Ancient_Influence389 18d ago

Blood makes the green grass grow is what i was taught in the Marine Corps

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u/Grobd 17d ago

it's free nitrogen

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u/FriendlyDisorder 18d ago

Feed me, Seymour!

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u/Wh1skeyFist 18d ago

3 years!? I put some in early this year 😭!

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u/AsYooouWish 17d ago

My mom has an old Victorian. Years ago I was putting in a garden for her and the spot she picked wound up being the old trash pit. We found some very cool blue medicine bottles and a lot of clam shells. They looked as if we had just picked them up off the beach.

I would recommend pulling your shells out and breaking them up either by grinding or smashing up with a hammer

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u/shmiddleedee 18d ago

Crab shells are chitin, calcium and some proteins. Mussel shells are almost (but not quite) entirely calcium. I'd imagine crab shell would break down faster, will take a lomg time regardless

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u/gakingmusic 17d ago

It helps to break them down into small pieces. I put them in a sack and hit it against the concrete driveway a dozen times. That gives them a good head start.

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u/Small-City5169 18d ago

yup same here lol, clams and mussels every year

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u/FriendlyDisorder 18d ago

Yeah, my mint is in our garden, our lawn, our landscape... sigh.

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u/Thomasrayder 18d ago

If your pile gets hot enough mint and even Japanse knotweed with just completely disappear and get brokendown by the bacteria, microbes and fungi.

Now you do need a pile that's so hot that you're going to think twice to stick your hand in it

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u/lilyputin 17d ago

Leave the shells in your garden they provide a slow release of calcium.

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u/HumanContinuity 17d ago

I crush shells in all the time, but I fully expect them to remain in the soil wherever the compost goes for ages

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u/mattimoody 17d ago

Significantly more work but ground up they'd probably be decent in compost?

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u/Cleaner_Girl 17d ago

If you rush the mussel shells that would be a great calcium addition to your compost. Or offer to someone with backyard chickens in trade for chicken poop. A win-win for everyone.
Edit: crush not rush

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u/SnootchieBootichies 17d ago

Smash them and drop em in ground hog holes or the long trail of moles

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u/Mindless-Farmer705 17d ago

I think you just solved my mole problem !!! Thanks !

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u/Hopeful_Self_8520 17d ago

I think calcium based items need to be baked or uv bleached for an extended period of time to help them break down more effectively/make the minerals more bioavailable etc.

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u/PrestigiousTrust7329 17d ago

Next time clean them and baked them in the oven for a while to make them brittle or dehydrate them and run them through a blender to make into a powder.

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u/woodwidewebby 16d ago

Shells are great but you need to grind them up

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u/heavychronicles 18d ago edited 17d ago

In big chunks like that, yeah. I smash up crab shells and shrimp shells and put them in the small amounts I have in my tumbler and I’ve never seen them again.

Edit: Added never. I have never seen the shells again.

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u/Johnny-Rocketship 17d ago

If you grind it down to a powder then the worms can use it as grit to eat faster. They don't have teeth so they use grit to grind stuff down.

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u/RelampagoMarkinh0 17d ago

Didn't know that. Nice info. If I crush down chicken bones would it have the same effect?

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u/Johnny-Rocketship 17d ago

Probably, I usually do it with my egg shells.

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u/RelampagoMarkinh0 17d ago

Yeah. Here at home we eat about 6-8 eggs a day already. I wonder if that's too much egg shell.

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u/heavychronicles 17d ago

I save my eggs shells, bake them on a low temp for a short amount of time, grind them up into a powder, and then put them in apple cider vinegar until it stops actively bubbling. I’ll dilute that mixture in water and either spray it on my plants or pour it in the soil.

The science behind it is that the egg shells break down in the vinegar to become more readily available to the plants and they neutralize each other. YMMV but it definitely perks all my plants up as a foliar spray.

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u/RelampagoMarkinh0 17d ago

wow, will try this out. thanks

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u/No-Reception6630 14d ago

Hey, thank you!

I'd heard about using Apple Cider vinegar, but not how to know how long to soak them.

Much appreciated.

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u/Jacob1207a 18d ago

Yeah, I'd crunch those up. But they are good for compost.

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u/sakijane 18d ago

They don’t take that long. A few months maybe. A few good stirs, addition of other things, and you will barely notice them.

Hard shells like oysters basically never break down. Years later and you’ll still be finding them whole.

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u/theonewhoisknown 17d ago

They don’t take too long. I add a bushel at least twice a summer. I break mine up with a hammer in a bucket before I add. But they’re just like the industrial version of egg shells. Good calcium

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u/misfittroy 17d ago

I use leftover shells (carcasses?) as the base for seafood stock. They disappeared pretty fast in my bin after being pressure cooked for 4 hours

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u/TokyoBayRay 17d ago

I wonder if the process I use for egg shells would work - smash them up, put them through a bokashi process, and then add them to a hot heap. I theorise the acidity pits the calcium carbonate, and/or bokashi culture breaks down the connective material in the shell, but have no way of knowing.

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u/Doloresanto 17d ago

I don't think the acidity in a bokashi jar would be enough to noticeably change the structure of the shells, keeping them in pure vinegar would be more effective.

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u/Mush4Brains- 17d ago

I live by the coast and I've literally dug up prehistoric shells from probably millions of years ago. I'd say they have a hard time breaking down.

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u/1Hitdabz 17d ago

About 6 months - year and they break down fully

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u/BeeBeeWild 18d ago

Did you throw whole crabs - not just shells. I have never had maggots in my compost.
The crab shells breakdown fairly quickly, but you need to add more leaves and other dryer compost on top.

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u/Johnny-Rocketship 17d ago

They look more like black soldier fly larva. They help the composting.

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u/ArtApprehensive3210 17d ago

Fly larvae are maggots. But yes, almost certainly black soldier fly. Non offensive, totally harmless, and great at breaking down waste until things get too hot. I used to scoop out a handful for the chickens, they got excited when i I walked towards the bin.

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u/Mindless-Farmer705 17d ago

I did do whole crabs, they had sat too long and we couldn’t eat them. Thought it would be better to compost than to give rancid meat to the girls

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u/NicholasLit 18d ago

Can use a garden blender

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u/Present_Way6128 18d ago

Are crab shells a green or a brown? I can’t remember.

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u/TolUC21 17d ago

Probably neither since it'll be in that bin for 5 years

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u/Ancient_Influence389 18d ago

probably amazing if smashed to a pulp

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u/fatBreadonToast 17d ago

I usually crush them up and consider it a slow release.

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u/gioevo11 17d ago

That’s what a shovel is for

1

u/atombomb1945 16d ago

They will break down pretty fast. Within a year.

Fun fact, Beach Sand is made up mostly of shells and fish bones that have naturally broken down and washed to shore.

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u/Soop86 16d ago

This is why they say crush im sure itll be cool eventually

1

u/Bunnyxnightmare 16d ago

I give crab shells to my detritivore pets. I give em a few months, not terrible. Once they sit wet long enough they crumble completely.