Hi everyone, I've been lurking on these forums for the past month, thank you for all the useful information you share here. I find myself in need of some advice, or reassurance.

A friend gave me some red wigglers three weeks ago, from his home compost heap. I immediately built a flow through bin using instructions from this forum. I followed the advice on the forum to the letter, so these past three weeks, I've been very happy with the bin, which is outdoors by the carport and always in shade. I haven't overfed, there is enough bedding, everything is moist, but not sopping wet, I've had no leachate and no escapees. I've fed about once a week (part of a rotten apple, a banana peel and some coffee grounds) and whenever I buried the food, I found active worms just below the surface.

Four days ago I received a bag of fresh horse manure as a gift (it's strange what you appreciate once you start vermicomposting). The man who gave it to me manages a stud farm and made sure that the dung didn't come from a recently wormed horse. Since it's been cold and raining lately, I decided to risk the manure heating up and placed a shallow layer of droppings on top of my bin. The rest of the bag I added to my regular compost bin (no worms in there).

Today I went to mist the top of my worm bin with water and to check that everything seemed okay, when I noticed ants around the top rim of the bin. They were happily carrying away yellow larvae, around 3 mm in length. To confirm that the larvae originated from the manure, I checked my worm free compost bin and indeed, they were in there too.

The larvae are climbing up the sides of the bins and presumably trying to escape. The ants are stocking their larders. My red wigglers are feasting happily just below the moist dung. They don't appear to be in any distress or immediate danger from the ants or larvae.

I have no knowledge whatsoever of the differences between various types of insect larvae, but I'm guessing these are fly larvae. Since my red wigglers seem okay (for now) and the ants only seem interested in the larvae, should I wait the situation out and let the ants take care of the infestation, or is it time to panic?

- Mandie from Port Elizabeth, South Africa.