Your maggots may be black soldier fly larvae which are quite useful in a worm bin.

BSF or plain old maggots, I find 'em creep too. I had multiple bins and all the worms had migrated to the bottom bin only. I dug a trench in the garden, lined it w/ torn corrugated cardboard, poured out the hot compost mistakes, covered w/ the original dirt, covered w/ 3 inches of mulch, no more smell no more housefly problem.

If it were me, I'd just dig a hole near a tree or plants I wanted to fertilize, put on a pair of disposable gloves and remove the offending material. Make sure the bedding is well covered w/ a several inches of new newspaper, clean bedding etc. You should be rid of the problem in a few days. You might want to leave the lid off also.

I'm now using ice cream buckets w/ no holes to pre-compost my worms food. I cut it up a bit, vent the lid on the bucket once or twice a day and give it a shake. Then w/ disposable gloves I fill ziplocs and put them in the deep freeze to feed them one at bag at a time. Make sure all new food is buried well under newspaper.

I've got a Can-o'-Worms. I've got all three tiers on now. There seem to be a lot of worms active in the top tier, but they are underneath and the maggots are on top. There's not any odor really. I'm just a little creeped out when I lift the lid.

How can I tell if the are black soldier fly maggots? They do seem to be very active. A half a head of lettuce was nearly gone in just a few days and it looks like it was mostly the work of the maggots. The worms were on it at first and then it was covered with maggots.

Is the compost produced by black soldier fly maggots as good for the garden as compost/casings produced by worms?

I have been a little lax on the newspaper thing. I usually shred newspaper every week for the top of the bin, but haven't been lately - so that's on my To Do list today.

BettyN

A black soldier fly looks simular to a black dirt dobber or a wasp. It does not sting or bite. Nor does it have any workable mouth parts. It's larvae grows to about the size of a wasp. When they become flies they just live a few days to breed and die. They do not eat so they do not contaminate food like the dreaded house fly. The manure of the black soldier fly larvae will most likely enter the gut of a worm a few times and be intermixed with the other worm castings. I'd say that the castings in a worm bin with black soldier fly larvae is just as good as without. The black soldier fly larvae just helps to speed up the process.

Some of the larvae are hatching and they are indeed black soldier flies. Vermiman - you are right, they certainly do speed up the process! Now that I know a bit more about them I think we can get along. The worms and the larvae don't seem to hang out together. Are the fly larvae eating the food before it decomposes as much as it needs to for the worms? Interesting stuff...

BettyN

BettyN

Worms get most of there nutrition from the microbes and not too much from the food scraps. If you are concerned, you could bury some of the food a little deeper for the worms. Just be careful to not overfeed.

I have gotten some soldier fly larva in my bins before and in fact there are a few I never get out entirely. But I put in a large zukini cut in half and the soldier fly maggots will all be inside eating it the next day. There are usaully a few worms in there too. Then I put them in the compost pile with more over grown zukinies. Then after a few days of doing this I get most of them out and the worm get the zukes for them selves. The maggots are so active that the worms seem to leave the area. I wouldn't say they are aggressive but the way the worms act I wonder. They are just verashous eaters like peranas but do not hurt the worms just bothers them ( spelling?) BIll C

Bill C

That's my experience too. They definitely don't mingle. I thought it might be because the maggots eat the food before it rots and the worms don't. The maggots are impressively fast at consuming the food and if they don't create a problem for the worms I don't have a problem with them being in the bin. Sometimes I have to slow down adding compost because the worms are slow - but not now...

BettyN