Saturday I found some fire ants in my compost pile so I remembered that you can drive them out with molasses, but not knowing how, much I added 35 lbs to 1 cubic yard of compost. Yesterday (monday) I got home from work and checked it and the pile was steaming and had a pungent odor that it has never had before. I thought the odor was from the microbes going anaerobic so I turned the pile and watered it down to try to cool it back down some. Well, this morning I got up and the pile was steaming again and extremely hot, I turned it and went to work.

Now obviously I used to much molasses, but is it possible that the smell is from the molasses its self? I have been composting for over a year and have had warm piles, but never so hot and never have they smelled bad.

Can a compost pile catch on fire like moist hay in a barn? I would think the moisture would supress it but I am not sure.

This is just beyond anything I have seen, if it wasn't for the smell I wouldn't be worrying. Is it possible that what I smell is the nitrates escaping the pile.

The only thing I see to do is let it run its course and turn often to keep it oxygenated.

Any thoughts would be helpful.

I'm actually really glad you did this experiment and reported it here. I always wondered how much was too much. Now I have at least an upper bound. So you added three and a half gallons of molasses (10 pounds per gallon). I wonder what a gallon per yard would do?

Did the ants go away

Actually that was 35 pounds of dry molasses!!!

Yes, the fire ants made a mass exodus to my neighbors yard.

This mornig I checked it and I think it is finally starting to cool down some to normal compost pile temps.

What ill effect would this cause anyway...I like to layer my new compost pile with dried molasses & water in to get pile really cook'n quick...

How much molasses is to much? & is there any side effects to the end
compost.