Looking into composting toilet

[Franziska]

Originally Posted by Icarus

Hard to get rid of the odour..

It permates everything.

No doubt some like it...

No odor if your extractor fan inside the separating dry toilet runs 24/7 and you spray a little scented vinagar into the bowl of the wet side once done with business.

[Phantom Jim]

Of course appropriate ventilation is a good thing.

My proposal may really be directed to separating compost toilets where the operators are having difficulty keeping minor amounts urine out of the solids container, with the result being minor bad odors. This seems to be a fairly consistently reported problem.

My real experience is with the non-separating sawdust compost toilet, but I do value the effectiveness of the separating compost toilets. They just will not fit where I need the toilet to be.

[jen1722terry]

We have an issue with our composting head this summer. The boat is in Mid-coast Maine and the head is an 8-year-old Airhead.

After a 10 day absence from the boat, we returned to find many tiny black flies in the cabin. We vacuumed them up and traced them to the Airhead.

This happend once before, and we just sprayed bug spray in the solids tank. Flies gone.

Perhaps the flies species has evolved to be resistant to our bug spray, for the flies are still there, though in much smaller numbers.

Today, I emptied and thoroughly cleaned the solids and liquids tank ( our liquids tank is plumbed to our holding tank, but not sure if this is a factor with the little flies).

We'll see tomorrow if the flies are gone or are back.

Questions:

Any other composter users encouter this issue?

Do you know of a good bug spray for these tiny flies? We've been using Raid House and Garden, but the can may be 4-5 years old. Do such sprays lose effectiveness over time?

Any other ideas to combat these little critters?

Fortunately, my wife is away from the boat for a few weeks visiting her parents. I'd like to have the flies gone before she returns, as I'm sure she'll be
ecstatic to use a head with little flies in it.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Nice here in Maine today. Hope you all have fair weather also.

Terry

[Mike OReilly]

Hi Terry, I occasionally get some flies, but it's always been when I'm pushing the system and should really have dumped earlier. An emptying and thorough cleaning has always halted the problem.

But one time I did come back to something like you describe. We'd been away from the boat for a while (weeks I think), and we opened up to find a lot of dead flies all over the boat. Originated with our head (Nature's Head in this case).

Turns out that for some reason, the venting fan had died, and the box wasn't drying out as it is supposed to. I replaced the fan and haven't had a reoccurrence since.

I've never used this, but some report using diatomaceous earth in the head to kill of bugs.

[BlueH2Obound]

X 2 on using diatomaceous earth.

[chris mac]

Originally Posted by jen1722terry

We have an issue with our composting head this summer. The boat is in Mid-coast Maine and the head is an 8-year-old Airhead.



After a 10 day absence from the boat, we returned to find many tiny black flies in the cabin. We vacuumed them up and traced them to the Airhead.



This happend once before, and we just sprayed bug spray in the solids tank. Flies gone.



Perhaps the flies species has evolved to be resistant to our bug spray, for the flies are still there, though in much smaller numbers.



Today, I emptied and thoroughly cleaned the solids and liquids tank ( our liquids tank is plumbed to our holding tank, but not sure if this is a factor with the little flies).



We'll see tomorrow if the flies are gone or are back.



Questions:



Any other composter users encouter this issue?



Do you know of a good bug spray for these tiny flies? We've been using Raid House and Garden, but the can may be 4-5 years old. Do such sprays lose effectiveness over time?



Any other ideas to combat these little critters?



Fortunately, my wife is away from the boat for a few weeks visiting her parents. I'd like to have the flies gone before she returns, as I'm sure she'll be

ecstatic to use a head with little flies in it.



Any thoughts would be appreciated.



Nice here in Maine today. Hope you all have fair weather also.



Terry

Our nature's head had a similar problem this winter. We were aboard, and using it. Long story short, we had a leak to the solids side causing it to be too wet.
After emptying and cleaning it, most of the flies were gone. Some diatomaceous earth took care of the rest. It also kills the new flies as they hatch, stopping the cycle.
As to the leak, we contacted nature's head and they replaced the entire unit free of charge. The new one is working perfectly

[rwidman]

The term "composting head" is a lie!

Compost takes months to make and you will never have "compost" if you keep putting fresh poop in it.

These things are like a cat litter box.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by rwidman

The term "composting head" is a lie!

Compost takes months to make and you will never have "compost" if you keep putting fresh poop in it.

These things are like a cat litter box.

And how does this answer the most recent question, or indeed any questions on this thread? Why are you even here?

[jen1722terry]

Thanks to all for the thoughts.

A special thanks to Mike O for again generously sharing his hard earned wisdom. Mike, and folks like him, make cruising easier, safer and more special.

So where would one find diatamaceous earth?

All of us who use composters know that the waste generally does not remain in the solids tanks long enough to compost completely. But we still like our heads.

Yes, they have to be dumped on occassion, and kept clean like any other head.

But we've never had to clean a clogged pipe, or replace a bad joker valve. Splitting the wastes between the solids tank and our holding tank (liquids only) reduces pumpouts and repairs. Good enough for us.

Thanks again for the wisdom, and a special second thanks to Mike O.
Jenn and Terry McAdams

[Dsanduril]

Originally Posted by jen1722terry

...So where would one find diatamaceous earth?...

Diatomaceous earth is frequently the element used in swimming pool filters, although you will likely only find big bags. It is also used as a soil amendment/pest control in gardening and many garden centers will have it, sometimes in smaller bags. Should even be able to get it in the garden departments of the big box Home Depot/Lowes, etc.

And I'll second your thanks to Mike O for his generosity on this subject.

[SuW]

Originally Posted by jen1722terry

Thanks to all for the thoughts.

A special thanks to Mike O for again generously sharing his hard earned wisdom. Mike, and folks like him, make cruising easier, safer and more special.

So where would one find diatamaceous earth?

All of us who use composters know that the waste generally does not remain in the solids tanks long enough to compost completely. But we still like our heads.

Yes, they have to be dumped on occassion, and kept clean like any other head.

But we've never had to clean a clogged pipe, or replace a bad joker valve. Splitting the wastes between the solids tank and our holding tank (liquids only) reduces pumpouts and repairs. Good enough for us.

Thanks again for the wisdom, and a special second thanks to Mike O.
Jenn and Terry McAdams

Diatomaceous earth is often available from good gardening stores or online. It's a "natural" and non-toxic insecticide. Just sprinkle some on the surface and it gets inside the insects' exoskeleton and scratches them to death...Haha!

The reason they came back after you used Raid? This only killed the flying insects not the eggs, nor perhaps the larval form buried in the medium.

Keeping the medium dryish will help. If you can wring water out of it, it's too moist.

[Mike OReilly]

That's very kind of you to say Jenn/Terry. I just try and help where I can (in areas that I actually know something about ).

I think you can buy diatamaceous earth at most garden centres, or even hardware stores. I see Home Depot lists it, as does Walmart, and of course Amazon. Hope this solves your problem.

One thing to consider is whether your bin is staying too moist. I believe the only times I've got flies is when I've left things too long. At that point, the bin is overly moist and full, which I think is what lets the little buggers breed. Perhaps look at your venting, and make sure no additional moisture is creeping into the main bin.

And thanks again for the kind words. Love to hear how things go.


ADD: I see SuW and Dsanduril already beat me to it . Great to have such a helpful community of actual users.

[SuW]

Oh, another thing...the flies may be getting in through the air vent. Our Nature's Head is 12 years old and when I took it apart for the winter last year I found the little mesh screens inside the intake and outlet ports had disintegrated to dust. They had been a kind of stiff foam mesh material about 1/8" (1 mm) thick.

There was mesh on both the air intake and the fan inlet on the other side.

They are simple to replace, I taped on a couple of layers of mesh fabric, but I'll check them every year. We take the whole head apart and take it home to clean it out when we winterize the boat.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by rwidman

The term "composting head" is a lie!

Compost takes months to make and you will never have "compost" if you keep putting fresh poop in it.

These things are like a cat litter box.

IMO, many are better described as desiccating heads. But so long as they function well and do not smell that is not a shortcoming. You can compost the material off-site if you like.



The difference between a separating head and a cat little box is that the poop and pee are separated. It really does make a difference, though few believe this until they live with one.



BTW, this is part of the reason clumping litters are a big improvement over plain clay; the pee and poop are separated, something like a separating toilet. The poop is coated with litter and dries, and the bentonite clay encapsulated the pee and keeps it separate. Simple. At least with males (cats and people), the geometry works for us.


I had a portable head for ~ 12 years. Ick, no redeeming virtues other than price. I had a holding tank system for 12 years. Can be very good, if well maintained and operated properly. It can also be very troublesome if neglected or poorly designed. I've had a desiccating head for 8 months. I will never go back to a portable, that is for certain. Desiccating vs. holding tank? For a larger boat I was cruising I would favor a holding tank, and for a smaller boat I was day sailing and weekending I would chose a desiccating head. Poor availability of pump-outs could sway that quite a bit.

[BlueH2Obound]

Originally Posted by rwidman

The term "composting head" is a lie!

Compost takes months to make and you will never have "compost" if you keep putting fresh poop in it.

These things are like a cat litter box.

Ron, I think everyone knows that. A more accurate description would be "desiccating toilets", but since all the manufacturers call them "composting toilets", that is the term that people use.

Question: Did you really not know what type of toilets the OP was talking about when he wrote "composting toilets"? If not, than you need to do more education, if you DID then communication was successful, and your post is mere meaningless dribble that does nothing to further the OP's understanding of solutions to his problem.

Perhaps you should consider starting another thread discussing the misleading term "composting toilets"
To the OP, I hope you get your problem solved quickly!