HUGE LARVAE GROWING IN THE COFFEE GRINDS....What are they?

I have question concerning my coffee grinds and these HUGE creatures, which I don't think are fly maggots anymore cause they're too large. They look more like long, white, stretched out pill bugs (sorta), only bigger and longer. Anybody got an idea of what I'm hatching?

And, the garbage bags of compost I have are FILLED with these things. I emptied the bags of coffee grinds into 5-gallon buckets yesterday, and put lids on 'em. Pretty sure I'll find a teeming mass of something ugly next time I take a lid off...but will it be organic enough (and NOT anerobic) to move into the compost pile? Actually, I'm thinking I need to put these coffee grinds and filters into the BIG compost pile DH has way out back.

Need advice...Thanks

Gymgirl, I recently found a lot of Japanese Beetle grubs in my compost, which obviously hadn't heated up enough to kill them, though the compost itself was fine. They are about 1 inch long, white, with orange heads. They are UG-LEE!!

Don't know if this is what you are seeing, but here's a site with a picture of the grubs. Scroll down about half-way to see it.

Are you saying that "your" bugs have legs all around them? The JB grubs only have them near the head.


http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/cic_text/housing/japanese-beetle/jbeetle.html

Sounds like they'd add some nutrients to your compost if you can overheat them or drown them before they can morph.

Or grab your gardening tennies and smush 'em.

If you were closer I'd send one of the Puppy girls to help you get them....

Nope, they're not Japanese beetle grubs. They look more like white centipedes.

There are white centipedes - ceejaytown posted this link recently in the pests and diseases forum:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/39829

er, millipedes?
I had something recently in grounds that looked most like mealworms, although I wasn't looking too closely. My stance is, they're just doing their thing and will be gone before I need to dig there.

oops, yes millipedes. There are some tiny white centipedes, but they're smaller than what you're describing, Gymgirl

Not a milli or a centipede. I think it's called a vermiform larvae, although I still haven't found a pic of one online....

If I were you, I'd switch to a different brand of coffee !

hmmm - not a great thing to read mid-coffee-swallow....

I have one of those "Earth Machines" composters.
The Company that sells them set up all there truck-load sales events at different shopping centers and sells these for about $30.
The problem I have with the "Earth Machine" is that you cannot, really, turn over the contents nor can you dish out all the composted soil from the bottom "drawer" as they show in their ads. Forget it!!!!
From what I have read, rotating/turning over the composting material is a most important thing. In the Earth Machine, you cannot do it w/o cracking the bottom part of the container.

DON'T waste your money on the "Earth Machine"! This is the one that looks like a tapered drum container. It is black and comes apart in the middle. Over and over again!!!!

Sure! It compost things! I am always amazed at the fact that I keep dumping things in it all year and it never gets full! I realize that things compost in it, BUT--I have also come to realize that much of the content in my composter is just digested by all these incredible insects and larva. They just FEAST on all the scraps!

Any time I throw in fruit or vegetable waste, especially melons, banana skins, apples, watermelon, and such in there--all these greasy, gray grubs are all over the place until they have cosumed all of the pulp of these fruits. All I can hope for is that as they "consume"--they also "poop" out the remnants enriching the compost.

I have NO idea what critter these larva are of, but they sure do a good job of reducing the bulk of the compost.

Sorry! I know I got off the subject here!

Gita

Gitagal,
So after these greasy grubs consume your stuff, what do they turn into?

I only found one greasy gray grub in my garbage bags of coffee. But I found tons of some larvae looking crawly thingies. They're bigger than a regular fly maggot, and they have sections like a pillbug, only they're bigger and whitish. They move really slowly, too.

Who do they turn into?
I am not sure, but I also think they are Pillbug larvae, as there were just as many Pillbugs right next to them. Same shade of gray. The larvae were about 1" long.
I suppose by the time they have eaten up all the pulp of the fruits and veggies, they have pooped out enough to enrich the compost--much like earthworms.

What a topic for this early in the AM!!!

Gita

Well, if they are an immature, and you have the buckets closed, eventually they will turn into either pupae (beetles) (flies) , coccoons (moths) or adults . So you should soon be having a lot of something else besides the creepy things.

Sometimes, when my DH addes fish carcusses to the compost, he gets distracted and doesn't cover them immediately. If so, they are soon swimming in magots. I harp on him until he puts a layer of dry leaves, etc. over the top to smother them out.... I hope! If they live, it's just more flies, I guess, but if smothered, they are ingredients in the compost.

Oh, please don't say "SMOTHERED!" To a southern girl, this evokes images of pork chops/chicken in gravy with onions, bell pepper, celery, poured over a bed of fluffy white mashed potatoes.

That will be a whole new event the next time I eat anything "smothered..."

Maggots are a delicacy in some cultures... just substitute those fluffy mashed potatoes with some good ol' compost 'rice' and you've got a tasty meal! LOL!

Oh I think I am going to gag....

Sorry.

Nice. That's going to make me think twice about rice. Especially "fluffy" rice.

Yes, you'll have to go 'grubbing' around in the refrigerator for something else.

Weezin,
You're a "Survivor" wannabe, right? "Amazing Race" guru?

Nope, never watched them.

Ok,
Today I moved a garbage bag of coffee grinds sitting in my small flowerbed, and voila! You know those huge maggoty things I've been asking about for a year now? Well I finally got my picture. NOW can ya'll tell me what they are?

Definitely looks like a fly larvae to me. I'm just wondering how they got into the coffee grounds. If you had said composted horse manure, then I'd suspect horse bot larvae. But coffee grounds????

garden_mermaid,
Claypa figured it out. They are Soldier Fly larvae. I imagine they get into those thin garbage bags and lay eggs? Mystery solved. Thanks, Garden_mermaid.

Glad the mystery has been solved. Aren't soldier fly larvae popular with fisherman?
Are they bullying your worms?
http://www.happydranch.com/8.html

G_M,
Not sure if they're bullying my worms. I just know I emptied the compost bin into the trellis bed and you can't scoop a handful of earth w/o coming out with 4-5 HUGE earthworms! I think the fly larvae are being kept in their place.

The fly larvae and the earthworms get along wonderfully. http://nespal.cpes.peachnet.edu/sustain/fly.asp

I am sooo relieved. Thanks doccat! After all our worms have been through, those interrupted romances, the barnacle envy etc., I just couldn't bear the thought of solidier larvae bullying them to the bottom of the bin! :D

that link was interersting- about using those larvae as manure processors

Sally--you know that old saying----"in one end and out the other".......
G.

That's the other, less talked about circle of life
& ^)

More soldier fly larvae? I thought they were slugs at first glance, but they'r e bristly and the pointy end seems to be the head.

ugh.

Sally---and where did these come out of???? UGH! Maybe I don't need to know....

I had a mixed pile of weeds, leaf/lawn clippings and kitchen stuff, topped by an overturned bucket of cantalope rinds, coffee grounds, the usual. They were in the bucket when I picked it up.
I agree- something about them i just not 'right' Slugs would be cute by comparison.

Sally, those look like black soldier fly larvae. I've had them in my compost piles before. They like moist areas. I ignored them & they were soon gone.

Thanks- darn, that link above isn't owrking. anyway these guys are doing a job for me so I'm walking away. and trying not to think about them.