Black soldier fly larvae. Harmless and not the same as the common house fly - you will not see a cloud of them flying around.

It means your pile is too wet and/or too high in nitrogen. Are you adding some Browns to go with your food waste?

Hi Toxcrusadr, Thanks for the response.

Yes, the composter seems to be wet and so for the Inputs to the Composter are

1. Vegetable and Fruits waste
2. Egg Shells
3. Pruned out plant cuttings and other garden waste such as flowers, leaves etc
4. Coffee grounds
5. In the beginning I added about a 2lb of cow manure compost

Thanks

Your mix is essentially greens. You're in need of browns - dried leaves, animal bedding, sawdust, wood chips, shredded paper or cardboard all will work.

Thanks TXEB, sure will add browns and check after a while and update the forum as well.

BTW the cow manure compost is already compost and won't add much to your compost pile. It won't hurt anything in there, and might provide some microbes, but you can add it directly to the soil. As long as your compost is in contact with the ground it will get all the microbes it needs. Small potatoes though - balancing the greens and browns is your big thing and you'll be in good shape when you do that.

Happy rotting!

Hello ~~ I just discovered these same larvae in my compost bin and I'm a little freaked out over it. I bought the kind of composter that spins and has two sections. I suspected I had too many kitchen scraps and not enough browns, although I've been trying my best to balance those. Obviously I've failed! This is the only way I can compost where I live now. My former home had a great yard with an open bin that worked perfectly. I'm not used to this small tumbler; it works very differently.

My question is, if I can dry it out with shredded paper and other browns, will these larvae disappear? I would like them GONE and can't imagine how to accomplish that if they've been multiplying in a very full bin of too-wet kitchen scraps for weeks now.

Please, someone help me to get rid of them. I'm not looking forward to the day they turn into flies!!!! (Plus, these larvae are really ugly.)

As stated earlier in this thread, they do not make a cloud of flies like house flies do. You don't say where you are but it's getting cold out, and they do not survive freezing temps anyway. One way or another, they will be gone soon.

If you have two sections, you could transfer the wet stuff into one section, layering with dry browns as you go. This may get it mixed together better and it will dry out and correct itself sooner.

Happy composting!