I don't recognize it. The picture is kind of small. Do they fly? Is your bin indoors or outdoors?

Need closer pic, but looks like a grain beetle.

I think ernie is right re. grain beetle. Don't know where they came from but I got them in my bins too. Their presence in my bins are very noticeable around the food, especially starchy stuff. Looks like they are there to stay so I look at it this way. They break down the worm food to worm bite/mouth size, in effect as speeding up the process. Don't know if they would damage plant roots but I didn't see any in the finished compost once it's aged. I guess if there is no food they just die and become compost, just like what happens to mites and pot worms.

I have some kind of tiny "flies" in my bins. Most of the time I see them in pairs linked together bum-to-bum. I'll have to post a picture sometime to see if any of you know what they might be.

As for your bugs Chris, I don't know what those are but I'll bet somebody here will recognize them.

harry: the mating "flies" in your bins are fungus gnats. They are a real pain.

Thanks Otis. Do fungus gnats go through a larval stage where they are tiny white worms 'cause I have lots of those in some of my bins? Still trying to figure out why they are in some bins yet almost none-existant in others. Most of the time I give them all the same foods but I have experimented with different types of bedding such as newspaper, cb, leaves, compost, horse manure etc.

Harry

""they are in some bins yet almost none-existant in others"". Same here. There is one 3gal. bin with lots of gnats with unbelievable speed in multiplying. Yet, considering the size of my main bin (2' x 4'), I hardly see any gnats in there. My guess, although I too feed them the same food, there are probably predatory mites or nematodes going after the larvae. There are instances where I threw dead flowers, dandelions etc. into the 2x4 because it's easier. Probably these beneficial "something" were introduced this way. On the other hand, this 2x4 has lots of other insects that are not in the 3 gals. and this is why I do not add bedding or compost trying to inoculate. The 2x4 has sow bugs, grain mites, centipedes, millipedes, and another kind of black insect, sort of longish and agile.

""Do fungus gnats go through a larval stage where they are tiny white worms."" Yes they do. I doubt we can see them with the naked eye. Probably the tiny white worms you see are the pot worms? Well, not that tiny actually.

Otis, I don't think that what I have are pot worms from the pictures I've seen. These look more like a bug than an actual worm - only about 1/16" long. I should try to get one out and have a look through a magnifying glass.

Harry

Harry... fugus gnat larva are small and clear-ish white making them even harder to see... the best way to gather them is to slice up a potato and place it cut-side down onto the bedding and in a day to two pick it up and flip it over and you should have a bunch of them attached. The adult version of the fungus gnat will fly or swarm when you disturb the bin, they are not good fliers and will tend to walk around a lot, so they will be found mostly hanging around the bin.

Its best if you take a picture and put it into a posting.

And Chris... I don't know what that is... a better close-up would likely allow a more positive ID from some of the wormers here.

To Otis and monomer, thanks for the replies. Just wanted to give you a little update on the tiny white bugs I mentioned in my Wed post.

Today I harvested about 3 gal of castings out of one side of my bin that hadn't been fed for couple of weeks. Most of the worms were at the other end where the fresh food was. Lots of the tiny white bugs still. Well when I put some of those castings into some direct sunlight and moved material around with a garden fork I'm sure I could see some of them "springing" off the surface, so I think they are probably just juvenile springtails. I'd like to post a photo but they are so small I don't think it would help with a positive ID.For now I'll just go assume they're springtails.

As a side note, even though it didn't look like there were many worms in the portion I harvested I had about 3/4 lb worth by the time i got to the last of the sorting. They're all sleeping soundly now in their new replacement bedding.

By the way, have any of you wormers out there ever had a problem with raccoons getting into any of your outside bins? My kids spotted one yesterday rolling and dragging my 3gal pail of just-harvested castings across the back porch! Luckily it had a secure lid on it or I'd have a real mess on my deck. Haden't yet separated the worms from the castings so was the raccoon just horsing around or could she have been interested in a bit of worm "spaghetti" for dinner?

Harry

The raccoons at my place tried to get to my WF (Worm food) stash and tumbled the bins all over the place. A real pest they are.

What I got in my bins, especially between the layers of corr. CB are real tiny grey insects. Not sure if they are springtails or their cousins but they do sort of jump a little bit besides scurrying. I guess all that is part of composting.

Lately, I noticed a lot of potworms in my bins. I have been giving them the rabbit pellets (food, not droppings). So, I need to go to my fave cafe that serves breakfast and lunch and asked them to save the egg shells. Small companies don't mind to do some favours for members of the community. Same thing like asking for produce rejects that goes in the garbage anyway. The big grocery stores told me: Oh, we got our own green composter bins. Do they think I was going to eat/cook those rejects.

Otis, the springtails(?) I have in my bin are pretty-much pure white.

Re the "garbage" from the big stores, I think it's just a liability issue. If they let you have anything and you get sick or something from handling (or eating) then they might somehow be considered responsible. I'm sure he could have found someone who would be happy to take it off his hands. I asked for some stuff from our local grocery chain and I got a similar response. Bet if you tried some of the smaller fruit/veggie stores they would let you have lots.

I did some work a few years ago at a pet-food warehouse and they would routinely throw out bags and bags of dry dog-food once it was past it's "best before date". I tried to get the owner to find a dog shelter, farmer, zoo-keeper or someone that he could donate the expired foods to but he refused to change his current methods. Seemed like such a huge waste to me. Heck, even at our house we'll quite often consume something that is past it's b-before date and I'm quite sure that dogs are not too worried. Any animal that will bury a piece of meat and dig it up and eat it weeks later could handle a bit of "expired" dry kibbles. They're a lot tougher than we are IMO.

I sometimes feed my bins with quite large portions but I have never seen any potworms. My guess is that it's because of the high-protein foods you put in. Does the addition of crushed or powdered eggshells get rid of the potworms? I often mix some powdered eggshells into my worm-foods before adding to the bins.

Harry