Earwigs help!

[Arriga]

I am new to composting. My DH gave me a tumbler for Mothers Day. I went out to give it a whirl and looked inside. Ther are loads of earwigs! Yuck! Should I be concerned? If yes how can I get rid of them? Thanks.

[rainbowgardener]

Don't worry about it. They are detritovores and are part of the process of breaking things down. Compost tumblers often tend to stay too wet. You may need to put extra air/drainage holes in it. And be sure you have plenty of dry "brown" stuff (shredded paper, sawdust, corn stalks, or whatever - see the greens/browns thread at the top of the Compost section) in it. Staying too moist encourages the earwigs and keeping it a bit drier discourages them.

But they will go away when the compost is finished, because there won't be any more food for them.

[brinboise]

Not too worry, earwigs like moisture and most tumbler type composters owners keep them too wet at first...they will be gone when your compost has the correct amount of moisture and green/brown mix...like Rainbow said, you may need to drill more holes in your tumbler for aeration and drainage