Are Maggots in Your Compost Good or Bad?
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- Опубліковано 2 жов 2016
- If you have ever wondered what the big grubs are in your compost...they're maggots. But more specifically, they're the larvae of the Black Soldier Fly, and they're actually not THAT bad for your compost...unless you have a lot of them.
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Instead of compost bin mine looks like a conservation project for common house fly
LOL
😂😂
Same here😂 This is my first time composting in a plastic bucket. Never faced this issue while composting in open. I'm thinking of tossing it beside my bitter guard plant tomorrow. I hope this larvae don't kill my bitter guard plant. 😯
This is hilarious😂😂😂😂
lol
If you love to fish, fish loves them! I used them to catch trout, perch, carp, catfish, sunnies, bass. If you use kitchen scraps, then expect maggots. If you don't, then there will be no maggots. Once maggots finish their work and you don't add more kitchen scraps, they will die off. Worms will stay cause they don't care, they just need soil.
Good to know !!🙌🏽
@@PRATYAKSH-hj1fg It they get out, the can turn into flies. Maggots won't die until their food is not done.
Oh ghad thanks. I starting to panic when I saw big white worms on my bin. Glad I stumbled here.
My compost is literally a sea of maggots. They love watermelon.
That's good. They aerate and they are almost as efficient as the ground worms. Just make sure that you bury them from time to time as they tend to stay on top parts of the pile.
Yeah they seem to love any and all melons
I hope that all I will keep seeing I’m my compost just earthworms 🙏
I do really bad with creepy crawlies 😭😭😭 mine is full of such nastiness. How do you guys lay this stuff down in your gardens and then garden in it without being super grossed out?? Lol
I thought they were harmful for my plants... That's why I sprayed chilli powder water on them 🤐
There is absolutely nothing wrong with them, and they accelerate the breakdown of the raw compostables. Just another part of the cycle. I saw a comment about using them for fish bait - great suggestion. I do it too and catch limit after limit of bluegill.
But is this harmful for our skin or they just get in our skin sorry for bad english
@@tokirKhan24 I don't think these maggots are harmful to humans in anyway. Haines is saying that this is part of natural decomposition process.
@@tokirKhan24 false. also, adding a blue gill to your compostie is gangster.
Their castings are no different than worm castings...plus they breakdown larger pieces faster than microorganisms. I'd leave 'em.
Yup unless they get crazy it's fine!
i'm tryin' it right now,,,,just looked in---i got thousands-workin' their asses off....surface of my compost is literally moving,,,they actually fight over food,saw a big ball of 'em on a pc of meat/none were givin' up any territory.....easier than DAMN worms/tooooo much freeking work,,,they'll eat one more day-then i'll cap the ben-trap inside,, hot/suffocate..then microbes will eat them
Don’t put meat fish or poultry in your compost purely because of pests like rats mice etc
Mark Whittle you can actually, I have a bin so most pests couldn’t get in, so we could put meat inside. Depends on the setup.
@@epicgardening the crazier the better! More maggots = faster compost.
I don't understand why everyone is so upset/worried about the maggots in their compost lol. They don't stick around forever and they are literally doing u a service.
True 💯
I read they eat away all good nutrients. Is it true?
You don’t want them when you add your compost to your soil, they will destroy the roots , happened to me
They eat eat eat and eat and eventually die when the compost loses its moisture and becomes dry leaving all the nutrients behind.
So I checked my compost bin like the video one and yes, I have huge maggots. I thought wow I've never seen maggots that big and wondered if they good to have in my bin. So I am a little confused from some posts: someone says to add grass clippings to discourage them, others say to use a layer of card board or cedar chips to get rid of them. I would think these maggots are doing a good thing decomposing the material. There's a couple posts about once the soil is ready to be used, will the maggots live in the new area - that is will they spread further, will they damage the soil in your already planted area? You would think maggots will become "flies" - no / yes? Depending on the conditions of its environment? BTW: this is my first attempt to make compost in this rotating bin like device. All your comments are appreciative. Cheers
Too many maggots = not great. Too few = fine. A decent amount = will speed it up w/o making it go slimy and gross (and being annoying to work with)
@@epicgardening will they damage my plants if I put this "overpopulated with maggots" compost directly to the plant like I would with normal bought compost?
Btw. I like your videos very much. They're short, simple and to-the-point. 😇
I have a slightly more open system and the maggots fall out the bottom. My thoughts on it is that the maggots and flies are more food for the local birds.
They are gross and I panicked when I saw them, which is how I ended up here. Most say it's ok (yet still gross). We are new composters so I was worried we did something wrong. Luckily, I have some more "brown" to add now that the everything is starting to die for winter.
Perfection, gladt o hear that!
Me too, I thought that I might have done something wrong 😅it's really feel gross by seeing maggots moving ..I'm still in phobia..
Tar Munu we have since quit composting. It just wasn’t worth all the work - and maggots.
Same here! I'm glad I'm not the only one
Penelope Pitstop this is exactly what keeps holding me back from trying. Sometimes it’s just easier to buy a bag... no mess, no smell, no pests, no gross vomit inducing experiences.
i did this in Phnom penh cambodia. I got a trash bin and started putting all my vegetable scraps inside. WIthin a few months it was full of maggot. They did make shortwork of whatever i would put into it. However a few months later i looked in the bin thinking it would be full of maggots. When i opened it this time there were no maggot and realized ants moved in. I guess once ants find out that there is plenty of mango being added than they basically made my compost bin their home and likely ate all the maggots. I learned how to make potash from charcoal ashe and added that. It eventually drive away the ants. I am guessing it changed the pH to a point where the insects could not handle it anymore. My girlfriend has brought her dying aloe plant and after giving it a little potash and compost it started growing like crazy. It started out with brown leaves and small. Within a few months it leaves were all green and were so strong i could almost sit on them. It also kept creating more shoots
I've been trying to find an answer to this like for 3 days, finally made it while binge watching your channel. Thank you very much!
Your video was quick and very helpful. Thank you.
I have this exact same tumbler and when I went out today to check it everything, and I mean everything was covered in the maggots. The compost, the walls, and I remember seeing half an eggshell was completely full of maggots. I immediately decided to shut the lid and rotated the bin.
BSF are not your common housefly. Actually, I don't know if I have ever seen a BSF in the house. They do love the compost!
Can one use charcoal ash instead of lime? Will that help with reducing the maggots?
Black soldier fly help to reduce housefly population.
Thanks for sharing, I had no idea :)
No problem .
The problem isn't maggots in the compost.
The problem IS they become flys in the home.
I would rather stop them at the source than run around snapping at them with a kitchen towel
I would set fly traps nesr the compost
What happens if there are a ton of them?
Hi, I am new to composting and discovered maggots in there this morning, I thought I had done something wrong. I am not sure if you still respond to viewers, so... if I add perhaps shredded paper or dry, this will make them go away or become less. I live in the city, Phoenix AZ with a small condo size back yard. Let me know if you can. Thanks Happy Gardening.
Yup, maggots helps decomposition ... If you have any chickens, large fishes or small lizards, they will be a great food source for them.
Are we just conditioned to think maggots are gross? Won't the maggots break down food waist before it goes anaerobic? So far on my search it seems that maggots do a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to turning food waist to compost. What is bad about having too many? So far it seems to me, the more, the better. I used to think maggots are gross but now that I have a better idea what part of the nutrient cycle they occupy, I don't find them gross at all.
I've got small thread like worms in my compost bin. They're white / creamy colour, about an inch long and about the thickness of thick cotton thread, and they always seem to wriggle frantically when exposed. Any idea what they are, and if they're bad, how do I get rid of them?
Please help!
I have also a problem with these maggots, that's why i dried my compost direct to sun and they died their bodies will added to my compost which is rich in nitrogen. My maggots were fried because the temperature here in the philippines was almost 42 degrees celcius
@Alone Forever ew that's gross 🤮🤢🥵
Thank you! I'm new to composting and have a bi-weekly pick up service since I don't have a garden space. I've been composting for about 6 months and today was the first day I saw maggots and it was like a layer of them!!!! The tip about limes was helpful--I normally cook with limes but hadn't lately so i wonder if that's why I saw some today.
I think he means powdered “lime” from garden center
I think he is talking about limestone
Lime that you purchase at Home Depot/Lowe’s etc.
I've got so many my compost bin could get up and walk off if it wanted to 🤢
I need to limit them, I practically have nothing to show for my compost.
LOL. Yeah they will make quick work of your compost.
Question number one, does the line kill the worms too? My next question is, if the maggots or larva help decompose the material in your compost, but attack your plant roots if added to your garden.... it seems you want to keep them in your compost until you have enough castings to add to your beds and kill (lime) The larve right before. Sooooooo, how many days after adding lime should we wait before adding the compost to our garden beds? Thanks
will they cause problems in the garden if i use compost that has maggots in it
I've seen people sterilizing their garden/potting soil with boiling water. My guess is you can do the same to compost.
So I'm gonna add dry leaves. And reduce them ,the main thing is that I am worried about them damaging my plants. (What if they are all fully white ,are they something else?)
Got a question 1. are you supposed to put red wrigglers in a compost tumbler like that? 2 is that still the case for people in Arizona where there is an average temp of 110+ in the summer? A lady said they would just fry
Are fruit flies good pollinators? I'm growing veggies indoors and I would like to grow bell peppers and eggplant... maybe tomatoes.
they're not a bad thing at all. give me black soldier fly any day of the week.
So I had some dirt that was pretty much dead in terms of nutrients and I mixed It with some food scraps (including meat) in one of my old flower pots. I turned it today to see how it's doing and I saw maggots, although I don't know if it's the same type that you have or some other. My question is, when the food breaks down, can I use the compost to plant anything? Will the maggots harm my plants?
Milica Miljanić you should only be using organic matter such as greens, produce scraps, yard leafs, dried branches. No meat!!! No animal products!!! Strictly GREEN as in produce and BROWN as in dead leafs, brown paper bags, sawdust etc. Green&Brown equal parts usually does the trick
Soldier flies don't have a mouth (can't damage your plants), only lay eggs because they are at the end of their life cycle.
GROSS was my first reaction as well! 😆 Thnx for the video.
You're welcome!
Your videos are addicting! Question: Is there a point where you might just need to abandon compost in a bin and start over? I am a site host for a CSA so I get a TON of scraps. I was handed down a large single tumbler and have been throwing the scraps, as well as egg shells and coffee grinds in there for A FEW YEARS. I haven't been adding many browns and tumble it once in a great while (I know, I know....I've been a half-assed gardner until now! Your videos are inspiring!). Anyway, there are a ton of flying bugs swarming inside (not flies) when I open it and I just want to know if there is anything I can do to save the compost, as I assume it's not okay to use as it is. Thanks so much!!!
Is it ok to add that compost to plant soil if it has some maggots or eggs??
Why would you remove them? They are composters just like the land worms. I love it when I see a ton of them. They also make great pond feed when the their amount is excessive and starts looking like boiling. (they compete with land worms when their numbers is so excessive and that's the only reason I depopulate them by making them pond food. Also I remove the largest ones to avoid them turning into flies.)
I don't remove, I just make sure they don't get out of control
Black soldier fly larvae are magnificent and great source of calcium, protein and vitamin for chickens, reptiles, and other animals. They also make the BEST black gold and compost very quickly and better than worms. I am happy I have BSFL for my reptiles and sugar gliders because they aren't cheap to purchase.
LOL, I thought those maggots were normal in my compost. It rained yesterday so a lot of them decided to exit my compost bin. I was wondering what was going on and just found out people have compost bins without them? Woooow. I'm gonna leave them because I keep throwing food in there and they just eat it all really fast
Thank you for your video!!! I just watched a video where a guy put his own urine in there to deter the flies 🙈. Maybe I’ll put my chickens to work in my compost area… it’s my first year composting as well and I really appreciate this short to the point video. Thank you!
I'm a first year composted. I always wish I had chickens or birds of some sort, to give them to when I come across them. I just toss them over the fence and hope a birds 🐦 finds a tasty treat. I live in apartments. . Mine bin is an old tall trash 🗑 bin with lid. No smells. No pest/ rodents. Not hard to keep up with at all. .
I freaked out when I saw them & started to chuck out the babies by hand. So they’re good for the compost I guess 🤷🏽♂️
You can harvest the black soldier fly larva and use that to feed your chickens. They love them.
Are the maggots an alternate to earthworms? I don't have earthworms because I do roof gardening.
Compost down I have collected water which in black in colour but maggots are in that water.Can use this water to plants
Great tip, thank you
Are you talking about the fruit lime or the powder lime that you get in gardening stores?
Powder
@@epicgardening thanks
@@epicgardening damn i just poured lime juice all over my compost before i saw this 😭😭😭aw man its gonna be slightly acidic now
They don’t look like house flies. They look like a small wasp.
Are they the same as root maggots. ???
Are they black solidier fly larvae or the scarab beetle larvae?
I run a hot compost in ditch. I turn the maggots on the edge into the middle where they die from the heat that way their bodies become part of my compost and they don't fly off with my nitrogen when the mature.
Super smart strategy
I’m an urban gardener/ novice composter in the PNW. I nearly let out a blood curdling scream when I found larvae all over my bin (which is very similar to yours) but I’ve learned from you and another gardener on here that all is not lost.
My only concern is that my maggots are from tiny white flies, not “regular” black flies, and I’m not 100% sure if that makes a difference.
It makes no difference. Maggots are maggots and do the job.
I think the main problem here is that the maggots are so efficient at eating the food scraps and storing it in their bodies for when they pupate, that when they emerge as adults they fly away taking your compost with them. That that would have been your compost is now a fly and it has flown away! Hence why maggots are not used as composters. I am still thinking of experimenting with this with a completely sealed container where the flies cannot escape but live their lives within the container. I feel I may end up with just dead flies rather than compost and if the flies died too soon before their natural lifespan, nah, ethically I think it would be cruel. Just my thoughts. Poo
Ewwww my 1st compost and I found maggots I will cry
But they're house fly larva for sure ewwwww
I'm trying to put enough brown in but it's hard to find enough compared to my my green waist. My compost smells like poop and has a lot of maggots in it. Should I be worried or will it be OK? Is it ok if I just mix this mushy moist mess into my raised garden soil?
You can buy a bag of straw to add in. Especially now, with all the fall decoration stuff, it should be pretty easy to find. Leaves are starting to come down too, in many places, so you can collect those.
@@katejones1585 and mix it in with my barrel full of mushy maggot infested stanky compost? Or is it ok to mix this liquidy mush into my raised garden that is nothing but dirt now?
I have the same tumbler and have the same black fly larvae. The leaking problem on the seams of this tumbler is a bit of a bummer.
Yeah, during the rains it's a bit annoying :(
I have a friend who puts a large plastic bin under the tumbler and catches the leaks. She uses this leaked compost water as a tea and waters her vegetable plants with it, this woman is a tomato master producer and she only has two tomato plants. I blame the "liquid gold" (What I call it but it's actually brown) water in that bin from the tumbler leaks. Maybe this will help someone idk how common it is.
I have a lot of them and I mean a lot! They break down my compost extraordinarily fast even when I add on brown material. But it makes me wonder how much organic material they are leaving afterwards. It seems like these things never die and I don't see very many flies. So far it's only the gross factor that bothers me. Also my compost smells bad. And I that's not good. They could be outperforming the worms. I'd rather have more worms because supposedly with vermicomposting there should not be an offputting smell as is the case with my maggot infested compost. It makes me suspect if the soil health of my compost is questionable. I buried a few a few dead animals in the compost earlier in the year and I think that's what brought the maggots in the first place, or at least caused them to multiply. For now they seem to be here to stay as if they are not even pupating into flies because I don't see any. I'm not sure if they will thrive in colder weather.
good day, Sir. I have a question, is it advisable or okay just to bury a sack or a bag of maggots?
Sorry, what do you mean?
HELP!!!! I gathered seaweed and put it into my compost bays. I was aware of some jumping flies which have obviously ended up in my compost. Oh my…. Today the bays are a writhing mass of seaweed fly maggots…. What do I do? I turned it all tonight but will they mature and go or stay and just repeat the cycle… what to do? HELP 🤮
I pay good money for those larva for my chickens! If I see them in my compost I smile! Good job maggots! We're getting.a lot of rain lately and its the first time my compost started stinking so looking for ways other than adding air to fix it.
Nice video quick and to point
Hi! Should I squeeze the juice of the lime or put lime halves in there?
Lime powder (I think a stone)
Neither. It's called limestone. I think calcium carbonate or something.
Would charcoal ash do anything against the maggots
Should I dump it and start over? And will they eat my worms or do they work together?
Been wondering about this too
I need help!!! blow fly lays it eggs in my compost and it hatched to maggots. My problem is that this blow fly is also exposed to animal poo and rotten food in the garbage. Is it still safe to use. Cause your compost is still safe to use since balck larvae lays the agg
If u still have maggots in your bin then just add saw dust or wood chips or dry leaves + turmeric powder and don't add any water and close lid.... within few mins it will try to come out and die ....in materr of mins it will be over....due to lack of air, moisture and turmeric it will die
Hai sir , in my compost so many maggots how to solve that problem plz share some tips
AH! Thank you! I even asked my Mom, and she didn't know if maggots were a problem. Sheesh. Thanks bud!
How about maggots that are not bfs? Is it bad or not? Its like maggots from a small normal flies, like really small like size of a mosquito. How can i send you the pics? Ty!
my worm bin has been turned into astinky maggot bin. they have eaten all my red wiggler household compost. I hate flys because of this.
question will hydrated lime used to kill maggots harm my red wigglers ?
It's hard to bring a bin back once it's gotten to this point, as adding a bunch of lime will likely cause similar problems. Your worms don't want large fluctuations in pH. Also, you do not want to use hydrated lime...you want to use 95%" CaC03.
can i mix the compost with maggots into the pot? or should i remove them first? idk if it's ok to mix them with the garden soil. i'm just worried that they might eat the plant :(
They will eat the plant roots. You can separate it & put them in separate bin for composting.
@@joanelim1872 how can i seperate the maggots from the compost? i mean, there are lots of them.
Just start another compost bin, more dry leaves & brown papers, less fresh veg. Or fruit scraps...if you have chikens, then you can feed them the maggots.. :)
@@joanelim1872 thank you :)
Maybe you could try to air-dry the compost (under the hot sun shine) to see if the maggots will die before using it in the garden soil...I tried this and it worked well. Had no problems
Thank you for your informative video. I haven’t got a rotating bin and the maggots have all congregated at the top like a sea of them ugh, I don’t want to waste all my good organic stuff. I’ll try the lime if I can get some. Once again thank you
You're welcome, good luck with it!
Can one use charcoal ash instead of lime? Will that help with reducing the maggots?
Hi!! I need advice please since I am new to house poop as compost! I got a bag of manure last week and I used a part of it for my garden. Today I discovered larves in the bag.
Q1: Can I keep horse poop in the bag and use it anytime I need or better a different location? I live in a tiny house a in caravan park area, so no chance to get open space and work with it. What do you reckon about it?
Q2: how much horse poop ca n I use as a compost for my plants in order not to damage them?
Thanks for sharing your video, was a good relief for me to know that it isn't a huge problem having larves around it! Cheese
Hey I have a lemon tree in a pot and I put some fish composite there is to many in the after 4 days. moggets are they can harm my lemon tree
Are millipedes good in the compost?
Mine smells and full of maggots. Sometimes the black one likes to get in the house which is disgusting.. any advice?
Common house fly spread diseases
But black soldier fly is completed harmless so they are really helpful for the compost and they also add citin in the compost which also great
So we should remove them or not?
Is this flies cause damage to plants
Nope
I don’t have normal flies, I have gnats and their larva..... and I have WAAAYYY too many
But I also have isopods and springtails and I don’t wanna kill them off
I have house fly larvae on my compost should I get rid of them??
Usually you want to block the entrances of those flies to your compost so you don't get TOO many
The bummer is that then there a millions of flys all in your house.
Would u suggest using an essential oils in the compost to rid them away?
That's why I'm afraid to compost because of THEM.
I hate that when I accidentally touch a maggot I freak the hell out but grew up actively chasing after polka dot wasp moth caterpillars. 😂 Like. Why do we like some crawly insects but not others? Lol (mostly rhetorical but still. I like to think I’m “enlightened” enough to say I like bugs but then still freak out over some even when they’re harmless 🤷♀️)
Will the lime destroy the compost?
Don't put too much in and you should be OK
Hgggggh
I Have A German Shepherd And A Carolina Dog, I Use Their Fur To Create A Protective Layer
Creative!
super smart
Really? I have so much dog hair! Is it good to add to my maggot filled compost tumbler?
smells like sulfur too.
Having too many larvae doesn't mean that the process is becoming anaerobic ? Which is not a good compost. Compost with 80-90% aerobic + 10-20% anaerobic is considered good compost. Am I wrong here ?
If I put cow manure does flies lay their egg
I got maggots and I actually left them in there. I laid a layer of cedar chips in on top and left the lid open. The flies left and my compost looks great.
Yeah, they can make short work of compost for sure! Glad it worked out.
cedar will murder your compost by shutting down the biological activity.
What about slugs in the composter??
They would have had to crawl in somehow, so I'd prevent that
Maggots are good but not too many as it's a sign yu will see too many flying guests around in your home shortly, I have 3 units and one was exposed to rain and got gooye later that week i cud see 100s of maggots it was creepy but I mixed sm cocopeat and neem compost they cleared in just 2 days.
My compost is full of cream-colored maggots, not the BSF ones.
The maggots dont look growse when you have chicken in your back yard.
if u have bsf u can add any food including meats as they eat literaly anything. they will break it down quickly. u should look into making a self harvisting barrel and they will self harvest and u can feed to fish or chikens. just a thougt
I've heard the same thing Zac. I would love to do a BSF harvesting system once I get my aquaponics setup going, because that's free food for tilapia. Unfortunately no space for chickens in my place though. But aquaponics soon!
Epic Gardening You can do it in a 55 gallon barrel, standing up, look up Black Warrior Lures set up. He keeps it simple
I have them in my under the kitchen sink compost. What do I do? Yuck!
empty the compost more often, rinse the bin, and keep composting! Good work decomposing matter before it goes to your garden.
@@theresascott988 I will try it again!
Thank you!!!
The maggots turn into flies. Will my home full of flies ?
No, soldier flies are different from house flies.
Soldier Fly look more like dirt dobers
that weed u got there?
I have housefly maggots in mine. Then the flies proliferate. Annoyance.
Title needs tospecify "soldier fly larvae". They aren't nasty houseflies.
I'm not a fan of the tumblers. I prefer worm bins, bokashi, and traditional hot pike composting.
I've done bokashi and worm bins, but yet to do hot pile