explosion of crawly things in composter

[JeannieC]

Hi everyone,

Sorry for my very naive question... but all of a sudden there are tons
of inch long larvae (maggots?) in our composter...crawling around on
the sides and top of the pile (which is nearing the top). Some are
black some are white. Are these little guys ones I want in the
compost? Or don’t want? Not sure if it means the balance of the pile
is off if we’re attracting the wrong kind of things. Also, they are
pretty gross 

Thanks!
Jeannie.

[Lauren Angelo]

Hi Jeannie,

Are they black soldier fly larvae?

http://images.google.com/search?q=black+soldier+flies+larvae

If so, Jeral (on this list) will want to snag some from you.

Lauren

[JeannieC]

Yes! I think they are based on the the link you sent. Sounds like they
can be a good thing. But still, there are a lot of them and I don't
want that many flies (of any sort) around the house. Any suggestions
on how to curb the adult population proactively? I also read that they
can be fed to chickens. Anyone else here have chickens? If I can work
up the nerve I may try to scoop some out to give to our girls....but
they are really active and I cringe at the thought. Any
recommendations on the least icky way to collect the larvae to give to
chickens?

And sure if anyone wants some, let me know! :-)
Thanks!
Jeannie.

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[Lauren Angelo]

HI Jeannie,

I'm with you; I think they are totally disgusting, especially when the
larvae are quivering in their active state. Ew. But... they're
getting to be a thing with some composters, and I noticed you can even
buy them now on Ebay.

For what it's worth the flies seem harmless and were always a minimal
presence, even when we had tons of the larvae.

I'm curious if anyone (especially Jeral!) will respond with more thoughts.

Lauren

[JeannieC]

Thanks Lauren. Really glad to hear I'm not alone in thinking they are
super gross and that the flies stay pretty minimal. Given that I may
not try to dig any out to give to the chickens...too gross.

Have a great weekend!

Jeannie.

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[JeannieC]

I just had to share this... I was looking out the window to check on
the chickens in the rain and glanced over at our compost bin....I
almost gagged. Those black soldier fly larvae are out and crawling
everyone. Ugh. Since by all accounts they are good for the compost I
just tried to ignore them in our pile, but this is gross! They are
everywhere. I decided to let the chickens out in the rain to enjoy a
bit of a feast. They ate a bunch but still didn't really dent the
population. Hoping then end up back in the bin once the rain stops and
not hanging out everywhere else. Not sure what they need for a
"hospitable" environment. Ick. I may have to find a way to get rid of
them once the rain stops...I can't have this all winter! Anyone know
if a big dusting of DE will stop them? Sorry...had to share the
grossness.
Jeannie.

[Lauren Angelo]

Ha!  Get this -- when my husband came home from work tonight at 5:30 he took the kids into the backyard in the rain, and with my two seconds of free time, I decided to check my email.  Just as I began reading your email, he excitedly called my four-year-old over to him and asked me to come out back because lo-and-behold one of our compost bins was teeming with black-soldier-fly larvae.  Exactly the same situation...  They crawled out of the bin to explore in the rain.  Big EW.  But I caught myself when expressing my disgust because both of my kids thought they were pretty cool, and those things ARE really good at eating any and everything!

Lauren

[JeannieC]

Too funny. After my post I relaxed a little bit about them. My
daughter too loved them! Despite being in the rain, she really liked
scooping them up to try to feed them to the chickens, it was pretty
cute. They returned to the bin by the next morning. So I'm letting
them be so they can do their work on my compost and provide and
occasional snack for our hens.