Gross Guest in my Bin

Ok, so I was adding some scrap to my bin this morning and found a mass of very gross looking bugs. They almost look like cocoons of a sort and I have an awful image of some brazilian cock roach coming flooding out of my bin, lol! I had put some corn husks, papaya, and mango in the bin a few weeks ago and they were definitly not in there. They wiggle like the worms and are light sensitive. The whole mass of them freaks out when I open the bin and scrambles for the bottom.

So, What are they? Are they bad? If so, how do I get rid of them?

Good or bad, I'd really rather not have them in there. I like the worms... but these things gross me out, lol.

OK... I guess I jumped the gun a little. Finally found a page that had pictures to identify worm bin bugs. http://mypeoplepc.com/members/arbra/bbb/id16.html

So they are soldier fly larvae... ew... I realize that they are beneficial... but does anyone have any suggestions for getting rid of them? I live in an apartment and have no desire to be breeding flys in my bin. Plus it grosses me out.

I agree on the gross out factor, ime the only way to get rid of them would be to try and pick every one by hand.

I decided to keep mine, outdoors of course.

http://vermicomposters.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=2094123%3ATopic%3A5008

New problem with these nasty little bugs... I noticed about a week ago that I had twice as many of these things as I did my worms. Some of my worms were high in the bedding and clinging to the sides. As of today I have an army of BSF larvae and NO WORMS! I have dig around in there and can't find a single one...
This is rather depressing (trying to keep the fact that they are worms in perspective) since I have worked this bin for 6 months and was thinking I'd start a second one in a month or so. What happened? Has anyone else had this problem?

Thanks for you help.

I lost my worms when the soldier fly larvae became plentiful too. I dumped the contents of the worm bin into the compost pile, scrubbed it thoroughly and started over. Not entirely sure what happened. The heat wave may have contributed to the worms demise.

My bsf disappeared for a while, worms were doing good. Then the bsf made a comeback and it seemed my worms had gone awol. I took a look last night and I seem to have more worms than the last time I looked and still a large population of bsf.

We emptied the worm bin out completely today. Not a worm in sight but hundreds of soldier fly larvae. The crows were happy with the larvae snack. I'm going to disinfect the entire Wriggly Ranch and wait a month before staring over. I thought I had eliminated the fly larvae last time I washed it out. Although doccat has indicated that the soldier flys and red worms are compatible, I'm finding that my worms dissappear then the fly larvae show up. If anyone knows why that happens, please give me a clue!!! I've had worm bins for decades and never had this happen before.

My bin has made a swing back to plenty of worms, no bsf in sight. I didn't feed for over a week to let the last food go away. I just fed today so I'll see if there's bsf tomorrow.

My worms are officially gone. I stopped feeding a couple weeks ago in the hopes that the worms would rebound, but nothing. The larvae have taken over and I can't stand them! They are even hatching in the bin so that when I open it the nasty flies come out... I think I am going to have to order some more worms and start over, but I really need a way to prevent this from happening again. Any suggestions?

I didn't have a problem with fly larvae until I made the mistake of using composted horse manure as worm bedding. I think the fly eggs were in the compost.

Well I live in an apartment and it's not a "farm" environment so i have no idea where the things came from. My guess is that they are in one of the community trash bins and after a couple months found their into my worm bin.

Does anyone know of a way to get rid of them though?

I ordered a new batch of worms and will be rebuilding, but if/when they show up again I'd like to be able to do something about it. As it is, I plan on putting them in a storage area now that things have cooled off some.

You could try screening the holes on your bin. Try no-see-um netting. It has holes so small that fruit flies cant get in. It would keep the BSF from getting in to lay eggs.

Putting netting over the holes is as easy as duct taping the netting over the holes in the bin.