maggots would likely be larger than a grain of rice - could be any number of compost community critters, but I'd think that getting the bin a bit dryer [maybe feeding too much?] and burying the feed every time would help - also try keeping an inch or 3 of damp shredded paper on the surface, that goes a long way to keeping other things at bay, and the worms like it

Bill

There are all different types/sizes of flies and I would guess that their maggots would be different sizes. (I know there is one small enough to be the cause of the leaf miner trails in the leaves of many plants.)

Anyway, the advice about burying the food, not feeding too much, letting things be a little dryer, and extra layers on top all sound good for keeping the problem from happening in the first place.

As to what these things are, perhaps get a magnifying glass and examine one more carefully and try to identify it. If it does turn out to be some sort of small fly, you may have to do a bedding change or risk a fly infestation later.

I realize that I dont have the stomach for an indoor bin, if this happened to me, I dump the whole mess in the hard and let the birds take care of them. Then Id have to start all over and buy new worms, eh?

:) good luck with this!

Seacat:

I recently had a problem with fly maggots in one of the 4 bins that I keep in my garage. Everytime I opened the bin, I noticed a few house flies escaping. Upon further investigation, I noticed some food that was covered with quite a few maggots. I removed the ones that I could find and stopped feeding that one bin for about 2 weeks until the maggots dissapeared.

mataka4

Maggots don't multiply unless flys lay eggs on something in the bed or perhaps laid eggs on some food laying out before it was put in the bed and then hatched in the bin later.

Chris..I am going to guess they are Black Soldier Fly.
This is the season for these guys. (They start out like a white grain of rice, and then grow to 1/2" turning more light yellow, and then as they are ready to leave the bin and pupate, they are a dark gray, segmented, 3/4".)
They are telling of what is happening in your bin. (Mostly too much food and your worms are not keeping up.)
They are not filth flies and are great composters.
You can scoop them out and feed them to birds or fish, but in order to get rid of them you must back off feeding, so your worms can catch up.

Thank you very much everyone for your input.

My nerves are calmed. I'm glad to know my worms won't be gobbled up. I'm not looking forward to these guys growing in size though!

I do cover the food with old potting soil but I didn't know that I should cover surface with newspaper also. Tx Bill.

Wfike, thank you for noting that the maggots won't multiple. My science background is obviously very poor.

Dorisl, I don't want to give up. Maggots are to me what rats were to George Orwell's Winston Smith but this has been a really interesting learning experience. 'Will have to take on a Gil Grissom/CSI frame of mind to deal with this.

Bill/Sqhl, I have been putting very large quantities of food in the bin rather than smaller portions more regularly. For now I have stopped feeding and will drain, as Bill noted, the water which has collected below. Bill's comment somewhere else about how I shouldn't have too much water in the catch bin makes sense now - too much food, too much water.

I will change tack when this resolves itself and be much more diligent about either chopping or processing food in blender first so it get's digested by the worms faster and more easily, and feeding smaller portions more regularly.
Follow-up question: I guess I shouldn't put the bin out on the balcony; this could make the problem worse by giving more fly-types access to a breeding site, right?

Guess I have to figure out what type of worm it is before I can determine whether I might have a fly infestation in a short while.

You probably don't need to burn out your blender trying to process your scraps. The smaller the bits, the more surface area for the microbs to grow on and thus the worms to eat quicker but it probably isn't that necessary to go to too much trouble. Processed food is more likely to soak the bedding and make it difficult for you to know when they have eaten most of it. Chunks are easier to recognize so you know if it is really time to feed again or not. Bedding coated with liquid food can attract pests as well as the chunky food bits.

My bin is outdoors but protected from larger flies by a screen lid.