Flies and maggots in compost.

[Brom]

At the moment I'm busy preparing ground in the polytunnel for next years crop. Anyway, to get to the point I was about to use some of the compost from my DIY rotating composter. The compost looks good, except for the abundance of little white flies and larvae. All that's been composted, to my knowledge, is garden and kitchen waste, some cardboard and shredded paper...definitely no meat type products.

I've tried to identify them with no success, so I've posted some pictures in the hope that someone will know what they are and what I should do about them. The first one shows a few of the flies with a penny to help gauge the size. The second picture shows some of the larvae and a couple of flies.

In the meantime I've decided not to use the compost.

[bearded bloke]

They look like whitefly to me (but could well be wrong),if it were my compost I would be tempted to spread it out thinly on a tarpaulin (or similar sheet material) & let the frost kill all the bugs off,then use as normal

[Brom]

Thanks BB,
sounds like a good plan to me, I'll get on to that t'morrow. As a bonus, a few feathered friends around the garden can have bit of a feast on the larvae.

[bearded bloke]

Good plan Brom,what your feathered friends miss a couple of good frosts will kill

[Two_Sheds]

I thought whitefly too. Is this what you think they are?



and this is their larvae:





So I don't think your larvae are the same beastie as your white flies. Fly larvae per se aren't harmful to your compost. However, they do indicate that your compost is probably too wet and sludgy. Are you sure to put about 50% browns (newspaper, straw, etc) in the mix?

[Bill HH]

I was going to say I thought it was too wet, the spreading out idea seems a good one, on a nice dry day.

[Brom]

Two Sheds,
that's the little beasties for sure, I've spread the compost out on a tarpaulin to dry out and let the birds finish of the larvae...there were quite a few round there yesterday afternoon having an early xmas lunch.

I put quite a lot of browns in the mix, but it was a little wet so probably not enough. I didn't realise that flies would find it so attractive.

I should be able to get the compost on the ground early next week to give the worms a chance to 'dig it in' ready for next season.

Thanks to all for your help, much appreciated.