So you open up your compost bin and you see some maggots crawling around down there. Gross! But is this a good thing, or a bad thing?
Turns out that maggots in compost is a good thing.
When you’re adding a lot of nitrogen rich materials to your compost bin like coffee grounds and vegetable scraps, they can attract various insects. When those insects are busy eating the scraps and helping break down your compost, they sometimes lay eggs. And when those eggs hatch, you have larvae.
Although it seems gross, it’s nothing to worry about. Just ignore them. They are helping speed up the composting process.
If you have a tumbling composter, just give it a turn and you won’t have to look at them! If you have a standard bin or a compost pile, just use your compost turning tool to mix things up so you don’t have to see them there either.
Read more at the San Francisco Gate.