4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Gertie]

Hello Everyone

 

I went to put something in my compost bin today...which naturally has a lot of egg shells in it. I noticed tiny dots on one of the egg shells in there. On closer inspection it was a tiny reddish spider like creature...and there was not one, there were hundreds all around the lid inside, falling down the sides where I had opened the bin. YYYYYuuuuucccckkk! I suspect they are red mite because I emptied the bedding from my ex batts in there, just from the carrying box I brought them home in, but I threw all the bedding from the coop in the dustbin until after I treated them with diatom. Could it be that this is red mite just from that tiny bit of bedding? Are they breeding in my compost bin? I have not seen any in the coop and I smother everything inside the coop with diatom every week and wash everything with Smite.

 

I emptied a whole tub of red mite powder in the compost bin and all over it so it now resembles a snow covered dalek. I'm not sure that is going to help the composting process

 

Has anyone else had this experience and what did you do about it?

 

Thank you!!

[Plum]

They are only red when they have recently had a meal of blood otherwise grey so I suspect they are probably those little red garden spiders.

Don't stand a chance with you anyway

[Gertie]

Hhmmm that's a good point. They were definitely reddish in colour. Maybe they were those spider mites. If that's the case then maybe they were in my coop last year, not red mites. BUT there were defo bugs in the coop the first clean after getting ex batts but not there now...evil laugh!!!

[abwsco]

Sounds like spiders to me as well. Red mite are miniscule and not much bigger than a dot a pencil would make from what I've seen.

[Guest]

if they're bright red and you can see their legs then they will be those red spiders...red mite are tiny dots and even when engorged with blood will look more maroon than bright red.

[Egluntyne]

Sounds like red spider mite to me too, which aren't the same thing, so no need to worry.

[Gertie]

Yes, I think you are right. Just did some research & it seems quite common. Well, I'm glad it's not red mite. There were hundreds of the things though, just seemed to appear overnight!

[chickencam]

Compost bins usually have a good selection of little creatures, they help to break things down. The milder weather will have made them more active.

 

I have had to leave the lids off my compost bins so that some rain could get in the aubiose was so dy it wasn't breaking down.