Tammy's Recipes

Linda wrote to me with this question:

I would like to ask you about your compost bin. I followed your idea in making one also, but I was wondering if you have problems with maggots in your compost? I feel like I am raising flies!

We do sometimes have maggots in our compost bin. I think they're pretty gross, but they're just a normal part of life. :) This article has more information about maggots in compost bins/piles.

From my understanding, there are two types of fly larvae that can be found in compost piles. If you don't compost meat, dairy, or oil, then the fly larvae you find would be from the soldier fly.

"Adults [of the soldier fly] feed and lay eggs on food waste (such as in a composter or uncovered compost pile), especially where conditions are moist.

"The adults will emerge, mate and die in two days. The adult flies are black and often are mistaken for black wasps, said Wise. They do not bite or carry disease, as they have no hair on their legs." (see article)

Birds and chickens love maggots, so if you find some in your compost, you can always leave the lid off for a bit and let some birds have a snack! :)

To avoid maggots in the compost, bury any nitrogen-rich materials (like kitchen scraps) under several inches of carbon (brown) materials in your pile or bin. Another suggestion I read was to cover your compost with a fine screen to keep flies from laying eggs on it.

I was told by the health department here that a properly done compost pile would have absolutely no insects on or near it, ever. I'm guessing that if I only used leaves and grass clippings in our pile, that might be the case. But putting banana peels (even under a pile of leaves!) out in the warm summer air is going to attract flies or gnats. 

I was also reading this interesting note about composting chicken bones:

"I compost chicken bones too, they get progressively weaker/thinner each time I screen out a batch of new compost. Usually I'll snap them in half a couple times before they disappear." (from this page)

Composting information usually tells us not to try to compost bones, but what are the alternatives? Burning them, or putting them in the landfill? Bones naturally break down over time (a long time, yes, but still!).

When we first started our compost pile (3+ years ago now) I put some chicken bones in, as well as some beef rib bones. When we re-worked our compost pile, taking the top off and mixing the remaining compost into our garden plot, we did find the beef rib bones (those things are huge and I just stuck them into our bin to see what happens) but no chicken bones.