William,

If you compost them in a hot compost pile, the heat will kill the diseases. If you compost them in a cold compost pile, I don't know if anything would kill the diseases no matter how long the debris sits there. So, if you don't hot compost, then I'd bag 'em up and have the trash men haul them off.

Dawn

Dawn,
Thanks for the prompt reply. I just read up on hot composting doesn't seem too hard. Heck it says 160 degrees thats only a couple degrees hotter than it was today, or thats what i seemed like! Can you hot compost in the winter? Or does the cold weather keep the heat down? Thanks

William

It is harder to hot compost in winter, but it can be done, especially if your pile is cooking pretty good before the cold arrives. It helps to turn it every now and then and to wet it down with a hose occasionally if rain isn't falling.

I can pile up chopped/shredded leaves, grass clippings and garden debris in autumn into a huge pile (head high!) and usually it is steaming hot whenever I go to turn it. I can't turn my piles in summer because of the snakes, but I can turn them and work them in the winter.

You do have to be careful this time of year. Sometimes a compost pile gets so hot that steam is coming out of it and people think it is burning. I suspect at that point it might be close to burning!