maggots in my compost bin.

Sorry this must be a stupid question, but I am just completely new to composting, so I don't have a clue. About a week I was turning my compost pile I usually do this once a week and found tons of fly maggots on my compost bin, they usually gather where I place my food scraps. Today I just turned my pile again and they are still there. Is this a good thing or should I be worried. I have not placed any meat scraps or anything just paper, straw, grass clippings and veggie matter. Are the maggots part of the process?

Please Help!

Are you sure they're maggots and not just slugs or some other type of worm or caterpiller? I've never heard of actual maggots in anything but meat. To my mind bugs are just part of the process. Worms aren't the only things in there, I suppose they all play their part in breaking down the material. Congrats on having a compost pile in the first place, that's a HUGE step to happy and healthy gardens. Can you post an (ick) picture maybe?

Yes I'll take a picture tomorrow so you can see it. The only thing I can think of is that it could be grubs. In one of the raise beds that I put down I decided to dig a little into the soil take the grass that was underneath and place the raise bed on top, to my surprise I found tons of grubs underneath my grass, I decided to place the clumps of grass that I digged out in my compost bin but really did not think that there were any grubs in it, maybe a couple got in it and could have made babies. I just hope I did not screwed it up.

OH, nice, yes, those are beetle grubs knoshing on your grass roots. They'll grow up to be Japanese beetles and other beetle bugs. I always find those when I dig a new area and take the sod up. Yes, I just smash the little buggers and put the grass on the compost bin, but I find them in there anyway. The robin follows me around when I dig, he knows I'm going to turn up something tasty. Gah! But, yes, pics would probably help. Don't think they're maggots per se.

They sound like Japanese Beetle grubs to me--are they about 1 inch long, whitish and slightly-translucent with orange "insides"? Ugh, it's disgusting even describing them!!

I have a friend who raises chickens and she always offers to take any grubs I find off my hands!

I put them out for the robins, but I think they're pretty clueless, frankly. Maggots look kind of like long grain rice (sorry!!), not grubby.

Is this what you saw, carminator1?

Sorry it took me so long to post a picture, but I could not find the camera, so here is what I have in my bin.

I don't know if you can see it well enough but it is kind of brown in color, not white at all. Funny thing Puddle Pirate, is that when I took all the clumps of grass out of where I was to place my raise beds the worm you have in the picture is exactly what I saw, but like I said before I though I got rid of all of them before I place the grass in my compost pile. I still have to treat my grass for grubs, I really think they are everywhere in my yard, do you have any recommendations, also is there any organic methods of dealing with grubs or not?

Here is another shot.

That certainly isn't a maggot, but it looks like some sort of moth or beetle caterpillar. I'm sure it's distructive to something, but not sure how much and to what. I wouldn't freak too much, I find all kinds of creepy crawly things in mine, oh well, nature likes my work! You can just drop them in to a bucket of water as you work, that will be that.

Those are Soldier Fly or Crane Fly larvae. RELAX, even though they are creepy looking (especially en masse as they are attacking something big like half a cantaloupe!), they are GREAT for your compost pile and break down vegetation very quickly and efficiently. Once they develop into soldier/crane flies, they only live for a couple of days and cause no harm at all. Neither the larvae nor the flies are dangerous to anything in your garden.

See this article (it's rather gross but fascinating at the same time -- and will make you feel better about your larvae hard at work composting in your bin!):
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/26/HOEIV3JNR.DTL&type=printable

MrsJohhnyG, this is a dumb question--but do fruit flies perform the same function in compost as Soldier Flies? I know that FF (drosophilas) eat rotting fruit and veggies, but does this entail breaking down the vegetation into compost?
As you might guess, in this warm weather I have a lot of FFs buzzing around my compost pail and I've been wondering whether they are actually helpful or not. Besides being irritating!

Emily - there's a concoction of apple cider vinegar and something that you can put in a small glass or bowl that will capture the fruit flies that many of us find very annoying. It's on DG somewhere. I'd look but I'm truly in the midst of sending out packages today.

CapeCodGardener, I believe they do, but not to the extent that SF larvae do... I don't care that they're helpful, I hate them, so I turn in/cover any fruits or vegetables as I add them. Since I started doing that, I haven't had any fruit fly swarms like I did when I'd just throw it on top.

I found this info as well as www.myzerowaste.com, which seems to confirm what I had thought:

Fruit flies do have their role to play in breaking down fruit and vegetable peelings; so don’t be too hard on them!

These little critters love humid conditions, so they tend to be prevalent during spring and early summer. They feed on the sweet sugars that fruit and vegetable peelings release as they are breaking down.

Here are three tips to reduce fruit flies in your compost heap:

1- COVER!
Keep any stored fruit and vegetable peelings covered before adding to the compost heap. This reduces the risk of fruit flies getting in there and laying maggots before you’ve delivered your goods to the compost heap.

2- CONSISTENCY!
Check the greens to browns ratio of your compost; as outlined in yesterday’s post. Fruit flies are often found in compost that is too wet. Check the consistency and add more browns (cardboard, paper, straw etc) if necessary.

3- CONFUSE!
Every time you add fruit or vegetable peelings to your compost heap, cover with dried grass clippings or a brown such as shredded paper or cardboard to confuse the fruit flies.
An easy way to do this is to line your kitchen caddy with newspaper and wrap everything up before depositing in the compost heap.

As I said at the beginning, fruit flies are not harmful to you or the compost and the chances are, by the time you are ready to use your compost in the autumn, all the flies will have gone.

Just hold your breath when you take the top of your compost off; fruit flies can make you sneeze if you inhale them! (she speaks from experience)

Thank you, Pirl--I went on the internet and made myself a little apple-cider vinegar fruit-fly trap in a bowl tonight to catch the FFs that the warm weather has brought out around my compost pail! We'll see how it works.
And thanks for the tips, MrsJohnnyG, for reducing FF infestation in my compost pile. LIning my compost pail with newspaper sounds like a great idea.
Probably the most disgusting thing today was discovering that the FFs had laid eggs in the carbon filter that I use in my compost pail. Couldn't begin to dislodge them so I tossed the filter! Ugh!
But inhaling drosophila would be worse.

Ooof, heavens!!

Just to round out the discussion here- this is what I think are Soldier fly larvae from my bin last fall. Gross. I tried to ignore them.
Small birds may love your fruit flies swarms.

Sallyg, that's exactly what I have in my compost bin and still going, I am just doing like you ignore them for now, but my question is once the compost is finished will they still be there and will I have to go and separate them by hand. I keep turning my pile once a week, but I decided to stop adding grass clippings, so far I am just adding leftover veggies but I wonder if I should stop as well so I can compost faster. I guess my questions is when to stop adding stuff to your compost? Also I've seen some people baking their finished compost to kill all the bad seeds etc and then placing it in ziplog bags in the freezer to use for latter or for compost tea. Is this necessary?

Start a second compost pile so you can give the one you have now "time to cook". It has to break down into compost. NO need to bag and freeze it!!! You should end up with compost that has a lot of worms, no bugs or grubs.

carminator- they just went away after awhile.
Cooking and freezing? Oh brother. To me the point of compost is to achieve NATURE and not try to kill it! I feel nature left to itself will be basically healthy and balanced.
My current plan is to build various piles and bins, then stop adding at some point, and grow something on top or around it for a year, then by that time its well broken down and you can knock it down, dig out to use elsewhere or just spread it right there. It takes some room to do that. For example, I put fall leaves into a 4 by 8 foot bin, topped with some greens and dirt I suppose. The following spring grew gourds on top, spring and summer #1. The water and shade and some fert for the gourds, allowed the leaves to break down well. So after pulling the gourd vines I had some very nice compost to use, fall winter and spring #2, and then spread some remaiining compost out and that was my tomato bed summer #2

I just need to find something medium size and not too ugly, to do this within my flower beds.

Thank you so much for all the replies. Sorry I am completely new at all this, so some of my questions are going to sound absurd. I have a biostack right now which I love unfortunately the company went belly up so they don't sell any more compost bins. I might just go and have my DH build me one either out of wood or maybe I can use some fencing wire to build a very inexpensive one as well.

Thanks

Carmen

carmen- your questions are not ridiculous, just those sites or articles that make one fear all kinds of horrible things when you don't compost 'just right'
Hope I didn't offend.

No, not at all, I am definetely not offended, sorry if it seemed like I was. Really you are all helping me a lot in the learning curve. It is great to be able to ask all kinds of questions here in Dave's and so many great people that are trying to help you. I am really glad to have found this site. I also thought that cooking your compost was a little weird myself but since I am really new at this I just wanted to ask just in case.

Thank you all so much! :).

PS: I just hope I can get the catterpilars all out of my grow beds, they are really damaging my beans, right now I am spraying with BT but it has been raining so bad that I think the BT has not killed them all yet, I just hope and pray that I can get them under controll, I would love to be able to post some pictures of my beans if I ever get any.

That's the thing, the battle of the bugs is always ongoing. Just hang in there! You'll win some and you'll lose some every year but you'll learn a lot, and there's always next year!

Well, like I said before I am just on the learning curve. I want to try to keep it organic as much as possible. Right now I am thinking of planting a cover crop of legumes to try to build my soild up, then I'll be planting some veggies hopefully by spring when my soil is ready.

Hi, no you didn't sound offended
but better for me to make sure than to ass- u- me
^_^

No problem Sallyg, I would have done the same.