Maggot INFESTATION

by Antony
(Somerset West, RSA)

Hi there

My worm farm is infested, as in INFESTED, with big fat maggots. Besides the fact that there are far too may of them, there is no way I'm taking them out by hand.

I have only used vegetables and fruit. The information I found out your site dealt more how to prevent the maggot infestation but nothing about what to do once it happens. For what is worth I did have newspaper and plastic as barrier but that didn't help at all.


The idea that I have a maggot farm is grossing me out totally.


Is there anything I can do?

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Feb 18, 2015
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starstarstarstarstar 		Black soldier fly maggots in a worm farm
by: Stephan

Hello Antony,

sorry to hear about your problem. It would would be best if you could send us a picture of those maggots that you have found in your worm farm to clarify what kind of maggots we are talking about.

Having said that I suspect that it might be soldier fly maggots.
Soldier flies get attracted by decomposing fruit and vegetables and they lay their eggs occasionally in worm farms and compost heaps. The soldier fly larva are actually recycling organic waste as well but worms don't like to mingle with them and in most cases flee to the lower parts of their worm bin to avoid contact with the soldier fly maggots.

If left undisturbed the maggots will turn the contents of the worm farm into a soggy mess which will start to smell bad after a while.

When we find soldier fly maggots in one of our numerous worm bins we do the following:

1. Using dish washing gloves we remove the maggots which are usually close to the surface and place them in a shallow bucket or tray that is exposed to the sun.

2. Once the maggots have died we add them as worm food back to the worm farm.

This method is usually a simple way to sort out an infestation of black soldier fly maggots in worm bins.

I hope this will sort out your problem Antony! If there are further problems please feel free to contact me.

Kind regards

Stephan
Editor
www.worm-composting-help.com

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