Sounds like soldier fly larvae.

Means it's too wet. And yes, add some brown stuff and mix it.

The larvae of the Soldier Fly and those of the common House Fly are very similar, but they need a very moist environment to live and grow in. If you have them a dessicant, something that will suck the moisture from them can help (Blood Meal) and adding more, dryer material will also help eliminate them.

Having maggots in your compost pile is an indication of poor management of the compost. The only reason they are there is because the compost is too wet. Fly larva need a very moist environment to hatch and grow and that is simply too wet for proper composting.

Kimm, I wish you would stop saying that. There are a lot of different ways to compost "properly". I, me, Alfie, personally, would prefer not to have compost involving black soldier fly larvae, because I, me, Alfie, personally, thinking that writhing wads of maggots are truly nasty. But that doesn't make the composting improper.

IME, the compost is not too wet when the BSF larvae appear. I laugh every time, and its been many, that Kimmsr posts that.... the compost gets moist from their presence but its not too moist when they arrive. BSF larvae like to eat raw organic material, which is why they show up in a pile.

BSF larvae are less likely to show up in over managed, continuously turned hot pile. BSF larvae will show up in a cool, low maintenance compost even if its dry...

If you want to add dry browns, I suggest shredded junk mail. Its something that I always have plenty.

Lots of bugs play a role in the compost process, BSF are just one of them... and often times considered beneficial to the process. BSF larvae poo makes good compost.

Here is a link that might be useful: compos insects

I can only keep repeating as often as possible that the presence of maggots in compost is an indication of a too wet compost pile. They should not be there.
Note that the list of critters that could be present in a compost pile, from Cornell, does not include maggots. Several other good, solid resources on composting are the ones that have said that the presence of maggots in compost is due to poor management.

The list does, however, include sowbugs. And sowbugs need wet. In addition, it is my experience, as well as JPW's, as well as Kelly Slocum's (she is the Retired High Priestess of Vermicomposting), that black soldier fly larvae MAKE compost wet. I.e., they are the cause, not the effect.

And is this a good, solid resource? It says, "Larvae occur in greatest densities in moist rather than wet or dry media."

http://ipm.ncsu.edu/AG369/notes/black_soldier_fly.html

Let's please not just cite web pages that say that soldier fly maggots are the result of poorly managed compost. Let's use our own heads and experiences.

(All of the good, solid resources from the finest universities in Europe in the Middle Ages would have told you that the sun goes around the earth -- but it doesn't.)

Never read a book on composting. I got a lot of switches on my back side for not working the pile as instructed however. I am the 3rd generation working the 80+ CU yard pile at my place. It is a dry compost pile. From it I grow straight carrots & parsnip, Lots of cole crops and fat peppers and tomatoes. Meat (NO BONES), dairy and egg shells DO GO INTO it as part of the kitchen scrap.

Repeating something doesn't necessarily make it true.

If BSF larvae are such voracious eaters that commercial systems are being developed to use them instead of, or in conjunction with worms, to accelerate the compost process.

Here is a link that might be useful: BSF at your service

Having moved to VA almost 2 years ago from the desert, I was delighted to take on the hobby of gardening. I have a barrel-tumble composter that made excellent compost the first time. I have had several batches, some were slimy, although I try to balance greens and browns. I have started adding shredded paper. the most recent batch is invested with maggots. Don't know if it was the season or what. Although I understand that they aid in decomposition, I can't stand the things. Would adding lime help?

Since North Dakota State University, and several other sites on composting, have stated that maggots in compost indicate poor management of that compost, their presence should not be tolerated, but applying lime is not a good solution. Start with checking the moisture level of you mix, since the presence of maggots indicates the compost is too wet. Add material that will dry that compost out, some, and the maggots will die due to the change in environment.

I think most of us have missed the point. The maggots are there because the comnpost pile is not, well "composting! It is starved of oxygen which is needed for the decomposition process. Lacking oxygen, the pile can't heat up (which would kill or prevent the maggots in the first place)and the green organic matter will turn to that green slime you mentioned.

I would empty the pile, and spread it out to dry, exposing it to as much air as possible. Sprinkle some powdered lime over it all. It should only take a day or so in the sun. You can intruduce it back into the pile, but you must mix it with a large amount of none-green organic matter like chopped leaves, chopped corn stalks, chopped hay or straw, etc. Look for a ratio of 2 parts green to 3 parts brown at the most. Keep the pile moist, but loose and you won't have any problems with maggots.

Ron
The Garden Guy
http://www.TheGardenGuy.com
Come on over for a visit!

There seems to be persistent opposing perspectives here on the presence of maggots. Here's my situation: This year, for the first time, my compost bin is full of them. The bin had been well maintained, mixing green and brown matter, and had been quite dry. Then, very quickly, it became a very wet sludge with maggots everywhere. I put in more brown matter (leaves, grass clippings), mixed, a little more green stuff, and it seemed to settle down. But lo and behold,now after nearly two months of drought-like conditions here in northern GA, the maggots thrive and the sludge continues. Is it really simply either good or bad? Certainly ugly.

SO I am brand new to composting. Today I went to turn my pile and there are small white maggots ( thousands of them it seems), not the good grubby ones everyone is posting about. When i started my pile I read that you can throw everything in there so I did. I dont have one of those nifty compost bins just a plastic storage container that has a crack in the lid. What should I do? Just throw it all out?

jbarnes676 - You may want to check with those on the "Soil And Compost Forum." Lot's of knowledgeable people over there on compost issues. Link below...

Greg
Southern Nevada

Here is a link that might be useful: Soil And Compost Forum

There are a lot of people on this Organic Gardening forum that are very knowledgeable about composting as well. Composting is the basis of organic gardening so we need to know about that more so than the conventional gardeners on other froums.
As a general rule of thumb any wee critters that you can see are not desireable in your compost, but there is no reason to throw that compost away. Wee crutters that you can see moving about on your compost is an indication that there is too much moisture in that mix and the addition of some dry material or a dessicant (something that will absorb moisture) will aid in eliminating those undesireables. Blood meal would be an example of a dessicant that can also add Nitrogen, if needed, to the process.
Many people once thought that having the larva of the Black Soldier Fly, maggots, in your sompost was good because they thought, erroneously, that these were the Black Soldier Beetle, an insect predator, which the BSF certainly is not. Since it is not easy to tell the difference between the larva of the common house fly, the stable fly, the Black Soldier Fly, or others until late in the larvas development and since most of the other fly species are known to be carriers of diseases there is no good reaon to have them in your compost.

Hi all,
I've been reading this and other GardenWeb threads related to the BSF grubs (such as below) avidly because my compost too, here in SoCal, just got visited. Last month they were younger and light-colored, and now that I've "browned" and dried out the pile, they're darker and less in number, and appear thruout my pile (I turn it 3x week).

Here's my Q for y'all: whether they're GOOD or BAD for my compost (they're certainly stomach-churning and thought-provoking: I am confronted with my own mortality every time I turn my compost) isn't the question, it's their SPEED. Whereas months before I had a nice goodly amount of compost to spread in the garden, now at the rate they're grinding thru my heap, I don't see them leaving much left to toss into the garden! Isn't this reason enough to try to rid the pile of these big boys?

Here is a link that might be useful: Another Garden Web forum discussion about our friends the maggots

Wow. I never had yucky maggot stuff in my compost (but I've had truly awful creatures creeping around in wet poultry manure on the poultry floor!) but then, I am of the old school that feeds the kitchen garbage to the animals around -- cats, dogs, sheep, hogs, chickens --- whatever you have.

The idea of giving good food to compost piles must come from the disappearence of family farms and properties getting ever smaller and people treating livestock as pets; this is all a change from how things used to be.

Well, one possibility so flies don't get in the house is to hang those new fly-catching jars you can get at feed stores by the compost pile. They are quite organic since the bait is just some rotten stuff they provide with the container (gross smelling, but wow, does it ever work).

I don't say I never put meat-type stuff in the compost pile (dead eggs when I used to hatch a lot of poultry, for instance), but I prefer to stick with weeds, manure, and the occasional bag of bad feed. Cleaner, no creepies.