My compost is full of fat curly maggots??

[monroele]

I have a compost heap in my front and one in my backyard. The one in the frontyard is under a pine tree and when I turn it , it is full of fat curly maggots. Is this good or bad? The one in the backyard has only ants. As I am in the desert they are both heating up very well and I get compost in a very short time.
By the way, those of you who remember, I was the one with the accidental cantaloupe plant. It ended rather sad. The one cantaloupe which developed got big but never completely ripe and then it looked like the plant died. I took it off and ate it, but it was not really sweet yet. It just grew in a bad location where it would not get enough sun, it was partly under a tree.Maybe I give it another try next year in a better location.

 

[wifezilla]

Maggots or grubs?

(grubs are bigger)

 

[monroele]

You are right. I looked at the pictures on the Internet they are grubs. Are they bad? I have no lawn.

 

[i_am2bz]

Got chickens?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Grubs generally make beetles. Whether they are good or bad depends on which beetles they make. I don't know what type of grub would be in a compost heap. Japanese beetle grubs are usually in a grassy area, so maybe it is not them? I'm not real good on identifying grubs though.

 

[monroele]

no, unfortunately I have no chicken. I would love to ,but the property is too small.
I looked grubs up on the internet but it always talks about grass, and the only grass nearby is across the street. We are encouraged not to grow grass in the desert.
I have flowers in the front yard and of course I do not want them to be eaten. But so far it does not look like the grubs are hurting them. In summer I have plenty of roaches in my yard, as I have to water twice a day and the roaches seem to live in the compost heap in the back, but not in the front.

 

[Smiles Jr.]

I never worry about bugs in my compost piles. They won't hurt anything. In fact they will help break down some of the organic materials and their droppings are good fertilizer. The bugs aren't going to steal anything.

 

[Wisher1000]

I see those all the time, some as big as my thumb! The chickens and guineas make short work of them and they always come back.

 

[Smiles Jr.]

Oh yeah. Our chickens visit our compost piles for hours every day. Every week I have to push many shovel-fulls back up onto the piles. They see my compost piles as snack bars I guess.

 

[gypsyfarm123]

I had a MAJOR problem with grubs (which turned out to be japanese beetle grubs. Don't know if that's what you have for sure (because,I am NO expert and a grub is a grub to me) all I know is when mine hatched they were japanese beetle's. when they did hatch..they absolutely DEMOLISHED EVERYTHING in sight..ALL h*ll broke loose..They were EVeRYwHERe, chewing on EVERYTHING! I tried everything you could imagine to get rid of them (organically) as I try my best to do so) for the first two seasons to no avail..then I found out about "Milky spore" I actually called the # on the can ~to make sure it was organic~ and the gentleman said "you can sprinkle it on your eggs breakfast and it won't harm you". I'm not sure if it is japanese beetle grubs you have, but if it is..trust me, 'Milky spore'is the way to go. I haven't seen a grub or beetle since I started using it. The DOWN side is it is VERY expensive for the coverage you get from it. And you MUST follow directions to the Tee. I hope that this is NOT your problem, but if it is..I stand by 'milky spore'. Good luck,wish you well<<craig