shrimp shells????

Has anyone ever used shrimp shells in a compost pile? Good, not good??

I put them in all the time. Haven't seen any negatives.

Well, I have, and trying to remember tidbits of info...... They are quite rich so they will be good for the finished product. But . You will really want to bury them deep and make sure there is lots of other material around them as they can attract all manner of critters -- also, at a certain stage of their decomposition they can get extremely stinky!

I read an article once about a municipal composting operation in Florida somewhere, one of those big operations where they have the material in huge windrows and shove it around with earth-moving equipment. The fellow writing the article was being given a tour by the compost boss, and the boss guy made a point of unearthing a piece of decomposing shrimp shell to give the writer a "taste" of the odor! Apparently it was a rather mind altering experience! ;-) But, buried and well mixed in, no problemo.

Editing to say, threegardeners, great, you clearly have more experience than I, I just did it the once, and read about it. We cross posted.

This message was edited Jan 31, 2009 11:43 AM

Here's a result of search for 'shrimp' in this forum
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/search.php?forum=&search_text=shrimp+&limit=soil&search_area=body&limit_poster=&Search=Search
In case you want to read more.
I didn't search 'shrimp shells' because then I think every mention of egg shells gets flagged too- too many threads.

Thanks! Will continue using. Had already put a few in, but wanted to be sure.

I've been putting mine in compost forever. I usually top them with a 4" layer of shredded newspaper, which helps with the "fragrance".

With Crawfish season upon us Im wondering if they would be similar to shrimp shells. Im sure just as stinky but what do shells add?

I googled for shrimp shell nutrient analysis and got links to human consumption--eew. 5% dried shrimp heads used in potato cakes. MM, beware of "filler" Anyway, shrimp shells are high in protein, which mean N for your compost. Shrimp should have some sea minerals, but not sure about crayfish.