Compost bin again

[Lil' Dave]

Live in TX hill country. Seen the different types of compost holding solutions (bins) available. The one I like most is just setting aside an area in the ground, and turning it with a shovel. The only viable solution is the standalone type that resembles a small concrete mixer. Reason: ants. Lots of ants, many fire ants. They eat anything organic. Tough just keeping them in check with ant mound type insecticide (Amdro). They don't bother the garden, but eat anything decaying immediately. Kitchen food waste included.

Any solution to using the in-ground compost bin with all these ants around? Dave

[Omelet]

I ran into the same problem which is why I gave up on open composting (except for leaf piles, they leave those alone).

For anything eatable, I now use black bag composting. BIG bags! Construction grade bags from Lowe's.

Only drawback is is that it's anaerobic composting so takes longer. If you mix lots of leaves and grass in with the kitchen stuff tho', and turn the bags 3 or 4 times and leave them for 1 year minimum, they do pretty well:

google searches for "black bag composting" will show up additional materials.

Those construction cleanup bags are fantastic, tough, durable and easy to use.