Maggots in Worm Farm

[Elaine de Saxe]

Lyn ... those are the larvae of the soldier fly or compost fly and not the house fly. Opinions differ whether it's a native Australian beast or not. Regardless ... they flit about are are dark coloured, slimmer and longer than house flies. They lay their eggs in rotting vegetable matter where the house flies lay their eggs in a higher-protein source like meat. On that score, you needn't worry that you are breeding "flies".

Dealing with them is another question. Their eggs are quite tiny, yellowish and are laid in clusters. On the lids of my Reln worm bins, there are ventilation holes. The buggers lay their eggs down into those holes, the eggs stick to the sides of the holes. Every day I take the lids off the bins and with a fine skewer, I push the eggs out onto the ground.

Speaking with a worm guy (who is now out of the industry so I cannot get any more info) they were particularly bad this summer just past. I can attest to that!

That muddy slush they prefer to live in is really disgusting. I doubt the worms are thrilled, either. The worms can cope with a few of these larvae but not with droves and especially when the larvae make that muddy mess.

If at all possible, tip out the bins and rescue as many worms as you can. Put the rest in the rubbish bin or take it to the tip. But don't put it into the compost or you'll just be encouraging them!

Make up some new bedding - soaked coconut coir is good but then so are a lot of other bedding materials. Put in some fresh food and put your worms back.

Daily check the ventilation holes and when you see those tiny egg clusters, push them out and all should be well. I don't know of any other method of controlling them and will be pleased to hear other's experiences.

And btw, I could not see any other way of responding to Lyn's post except to make a new discussion.

[Addy]

Hubby puts a ventilation mat on top of the food in the top bin, and he says there are larvae wriggling on it! He's going to throw it away and replace the mat...

[Elaine de Saxe]

That's a neat idea, to catch the larvae before they get into the wormery proper. Or poke the eggs out which means you need to look every day.

Mick ... taking the discussion from the blog section back to the general forum. Those compost/soldier flies are attracted to any kind of rotting vegetation so whether you have fruit or not doesn't matter.

I wonder if an increase in these visitors is an un-intended consequence of so many more people composting! I know I am the only serious vege gardener in my street but how many people are composting around here that I don't know about?

[Vanessa Thompson (pomare)]

Im sure that many people are just dumping stuff into the hide away gardens but not actual composting. I know just about every neigbour ive had just chucks just about anything and everthing into the back corner garden beds and into my garden beds??? Can smell all sorts comming from next door.....Ive always had over growing garden beds. (land lord not interested in clearing them out, even tho the realstates say, oh yes someone will be around to do the gardens...bla bla bla..., so i start too and try to get back some sort of order in a garden) My last neighbours was very checky and putting his grass and rubbish into our back jungle of a garden until a cleared it back from a 6-7 meter garden to a 1 meter garden and caught him one day ready to chuck his rubbish over the fence.......I yelled out the window....i can see you now and he quickly pulled back his drum of rubbish. The yard had over a 100 trees and palms and all in between had shrubs and weeds......Glad to move from that jungle......we didnt even know the garden was hideing a garden shed down the back, until i cleared it all back and out......even the realestate didnt even know it was there????.

Im now in a house that has only one tree and two small fruit trees and now the little garden that ive started.

[Mick Porter]

When we bought this house it had a "compost heap" which was really just a big pile of the lawnmowing clippings and old pinebark chips - along with an oil-change container and all kinds of other rubbish. Fortunately it's become fairly acidic stuff quite useful to plant blueberries in :)

Elaine, you may be right about the increase of flies due to increased composting. I'm using a compost tumbler which seems to keep pest levels pretty low.

[Lyn H]

Excuse my ignorance, but what is a ventilation mat? Is it something like a fly screen covering?

[Addy]

Here's a pic of hubby peeling the mat to check the worms...it's some porous material we got from a worm farm place.

[Addy]

Bob Lewis' "Landsborough Earth Worms" sells these mats...

[Elaine de Saxe]

Thank you for the photo and explanation, Addy. Landsborough Earthworms don't have a website, much to my surprise. Can you guess what the mat's material is? Plastic, rubber, flyscreen for example? I have Reln bins which are a metre-odd in diameter. How much are the mats that you use?

[Addy]

It looks like some sort of aged carpet stuff. We actually got it free from a worm farm business in Nerangba when it was closing down and we bought our first lot of worms.
On Gardening Australia, Josh recommends a piece of old carpet - http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s1074679.htm
Bob the worm man in Landsborough is worth a visit if you ever go that way, he is very generous with his help and advice. I'll find his tel no. and post it here.

[Addy]

Here's the address and tel no. -
Landsborough Earthworms
38 Maleny Rd
Landsborough
ph: 07 54941512

[Vanessa Thompson (pomare)]

Hi all, thought i would let you know that crazy clarks and overflow places, sell the small square carpet about the size of a back seat car mats. (used for what ever, toilet, door way entrance, back door, bathroom's,) lots of different colors. BUT the best thing is the price........ $2.00 or $3.00 each.
If you cant get your hands on the stuff that addy has mention, just use a carpet mat, like what Hap did and i know other's do too. (Soak well and keep wet)
Im still useing the same paper, that i brought my worms home with, and its still holding the wet and hasnt broken up yet. (just the corner, where i keep looking and feeding the worms)

[Lyn H]

Thanks for info on ventilation mat. At the mome, I'm just using an old tea towel. Hope it works :)