DE in the garden compost a bad idea?

[BarnsB]

I use DE on the floor of my coop. Just a dusting under the shavings & in the laying boxes. I also paint the walls & roosts once or twice a year with a DE whitewash. I also feed DE as a worming preventative & put it in the chickens dusting box. I have no worms, mites, lice or other nasties & there is little odor in the coop & it stays much drier (I have a clay floor) with DE use. So I'm a fan of DE.
My question is this...I would really like to use the old chicken bedding as compost in the garden; But if it kills all the bad bugs won't it kill all the good bugs too! I have heard that DE can be used "responsibly" in the garden...whatever that means; but am seriously worried that it will do more harm in the garden than the compost will do good. Does anyone have any knowledge about wether DE is something you do not want in your garden. I would really hate to waste all of my potentially bountiful compost...but then again I don't want to kill off all of the good organisims that make my soil rich in the garden!

 

[cobrien]

Great question. I've been using stall dry and DE in my coop and putting the poop into the compost bin so I know some DE gets in there. I can say that the worms have not been adversely affected, as I seem to have some very prolific worms in my compost bin, but don't know about the other bugs. Anyone?

 

[cobrien]

Wait...I just remembered reading on BYC that DE is less effective when wet. If true, then think it would be okay in the compost bin since it is pretty moist...I will continue looking for info as I want to know!

 

[patandchickens]

As far as I can tell, nobody really knows for sure, proper studies have never been done (or anyhow not published anywhere visible).

In principle, insofar as DE works the way people say it does, it should be fairly harmless in soil or inside a compost pile, since those are damp areas; soil or compost that contains DE *could* in principle damage invertebrate populations in situations where it is dry and exposed to dry air, e.g. at the surface of the ground, but you have to wonder about how much DE is really there once it's been diluted out in all that compost/soil.

So I think it's up to your best guess, whatcha feel like doing. I use very little DE (it *is* an essentially nonrenewable resource, among other things) and have no compunction about putting bedding that contains an itsy tiny am't of DE onto my compost pile or garden; I have even tried dumping some DE directly on especially-problematic anthills in the garden, with unconvincing results btw; but if I were someone who used DE very very liberally and it was not getting mixed with an especially large quantity of soil or other material, I might be a tad more cautious, just in case.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[cackilacky]

Hi, I posted this same question a while back and the replies were basically the same: a little DE in your compost is okay, especially if you add water or if your compost gets wet from rain. Our worms still seem to be happy and I've been adding stuff from my hen house pretty regularly.

 

[littlethorn]

I have also used old bedding as compost in the garden with no ill effects that I can see. There still seems to be plenty of worms.

I have even tried dumping some DE directly on especially-problematic anthills in the garden, with unconvincing results btw

Yep hubby tried this too and it did absolutely nothing for us either. Still plenty of ants too so I doubt it would have much effect on anything else either.

 

[Slywoody]

I use DE in my coops and it goes on the mulch pile and from there onto the flower beds and garden. I'll keep doing it, unless i actually see some kind of major problem.