Critters are decomposers too.

They are possibly springtails, but there are numerous other types of micro arthropods, no they are not harmfull to you or the compost they feed off of the bacteria and fungus growing on the organic material.

The wee ones are your friends. They are part of the 'soil food web'. They will assist in the conversion to compost and later they will be living in your soil's community.

They are mites and thrive in wet condition.

Otis

Sorry I took so long to respond.
What are mites - with regard to compost. Are they the same mites that are sometimes found on tomato leaves? If so, how can they be good for the compost.
And my compost is not wet. It is like a wrung-out sponge, the exact wording of the website.
And they were not in there before I added the leaves that I scraped up from the park lot. So are these friendly wee ones or enemies?

You are worrying too much. ;) As already posted above, all sorts of critters are common to the composting process and while some are beneficial, the rest are neutral at worst. These may one of any number of things, impossible to know from your description, but none of them are "enemies" and all will come and go as the conditions in the compost changes.

Are they the same mites that are sometimes found on tomato leaves?

Can't say because "mites" is a label applied to many different soil dwelling insects and they are seldom associated with tomato plants. Aphids yes, whiteflies yes, spidermites yes, but not soil mites.

Dave

Thanks for comments.
So why did Otis11 say, "..they are mites and thrive in wet conditins."
From this site I picked up that wet conditions are not conditions we strive for in composting, so the comment implies they are bad mites. Am I correct? Yes, I do worry bz my first batch was lousy and I am now trying to make a good batch, and I thought "so far, so good" only to see MITES!!!
Perhaps I worry too much.......

Whatever may have caused your last batch to be "lousy" was unlikely to have been bugs, big or small. Maybe too much water; maybe not enough....maybe too much of one component; maybe not enough....

Unless you're planning to be in a compost-making contest, I really wouldn't worry about your CP. Eventually, you'll have compost! And, unless the experts here correct me, even the "lousy" compost can be used in the garden, to the garden's great benefit.

I used to question so much - how many browns did I need, did I need more greens, if so, what kind, were animals getting into the pile and etc etc etc.

Now....there are several big piles sitting out there. One never got turned much, and it had FAR too many grass clippings in it. In fact, you could have called it my grass pile. Now? It's beautifully aged compost. Next to it is a smaller, nicely evolving pile that I tended to more conscientiously. It looks...well, suspiciously like the first pile! And next to that is my newest experiment -- I fill paper grocery bags with combos of shredded papers & other "browns" (like floor sweepings etc) and "greens," like the contents of our kitchen compost bucket. When filled, a bag is piled on top of or next to the bags already there in the pile. I stab holes in it and leave it alone....I'm expecting perfectly good compost in time.

I don't worry about animals using my piles because it's impossible to do much about it. The fenced-in part of this property is visited by: birds, large and small (including vultures); rabbits; a groundhog; mice; squirrels; feral cats; and, at least once, a coyote. (Hmmm....one of these days, I really must repair the holes in the fence!) No way am I going to sift through my piles and remove any little offerings that may have been left.

And I certainly never worry about insects. Do anything about bugs? An absolute impossibility. Besides, insects are an integral part of the great act of decomposition. Or they're not....regardless, I get compost piles...eventually. :)

The only compost I think of as "lousy" is the stuff that gets anaerobic and makes the person trying to harvest it gag in the process. Such compost can be fixed if mixed with some dry stuff and allowed to age a bit more till it quits smelling.

I say don't worry about the mites in the compost, it is natural. Just try to keep the compost only as moist as a wrung out sponge and with all that turning, you should be fine.

I never turn my compost until I'm moving it to spread it.

We run a continuous Hot pile so when we add new stuff, we dig a hole in the hot top center of the pile to add any buckets of compostables then dump another bag of other people's bagged leaves on top. Our piles are big (5' square) on the ground piles contained in post and fencing type bins. Regularly the hot top center is 140-160 F according to the compost thermometer. Once a pile if full, it is allowed to age for most of a year before use. This sort of composting doesn't work as easily in any sort of plastic bin though.

Here is a link that might be useful: TCLynx

Catlover, don't worry so much.

"So why did Otis11 say, "..they are mites and thrive in wet conditins."
Um, I don't know why he said that.

"From this site I picked up that wet conditions are not conditions we strive for in composting, so the comment implies they are bad mites. Am I correct?"
Nope. You are trying to draw a conclusion from an incorrect statement. It's correct that wet, as in dripping wet, conditions are not desirable in compost. It is incorrect that mites thrive in these dripping wet conditions, and it's incorrect that mites are bad for composting. Soil-living mites like the same degree of dampness that is ideal for composting. Spider-mites on your tomatoes like very dry conditions, but they would not live long in your compost pile.

"Perhaps I worry too much......."
yes, you are worrying too much about your compost. Compost happens. We don't even know that you have mites, no one could possibly give a definitive identification from a vague description of size and color. My guess would be at least some of your critters are springtails, as noted above. Some could also be mites. Some inevitably will be any number of other soil-dwelling micro-arthropods, and even plant-living micro-arthropods that fell to the ground with the leaf they were living on.

So what? absolutely nothing. Leave them alone. The only bad critters in compost piles would be something dangerous like yellowjackets or fire ants or rattlesnakes, or an overpopulation of anaerobic bacteria, which of course you wouldn't be able to see anyway. Those last ones are what grow in dripping wet conditions, and you'd be able to smell them. And yes the first three do turn up sometimes in large, unmanaged compost piles. So, leave well enough alone.

Sorry, I forgot about this thread.
I have a worm bin and when it is too wet, worm bins will have a mite explosion.
But with my outside backyard composting, I don't really care about mites. Just like people here said, eventually, you will have compost.