Good? Bad? or just Ugly? Compost Critters

[jinman]

Don, I'm surprised that nobody has said grubworm yet. That sure looks like what you have to me and grubworms do turn into junebugs. Here's a link. As someone stated, grubworms eat your grass from the roots up. They are particularly bad on St. Augustine grass. I'm surprised also that you don't have a friendly armadillo digging into your compost pile. They love to eat grub worms and that's what they are searching for when they destroy lawns.

The other worms sure look like maggots to me, and they are surely some type of fly. All their presence means is that your compost is very "rich" and fresh, but probably not generating too much heat in the area where the larvae are. I don't think either of those can take temps above 150 F. The flys and junebugs are visiting your pile and laying lots of eggs.They are probably on the edges of your compost pile.

Do you have any earthworms in your finished compost?

 

[txdon]

Thanks for the link Jim. It says grubs (June bug larvae) they can grow up to an inch. These are 4"-5" long so that rules them out! The others are not maggots. They are different than the maggots seen in dead animals or rotting meat. Charlz nailed it with the Black Soldier Fly larvae. This fly looks like a wasp.

I keep changing my mind on the large type of beetle larvae it is because we have so many different kinds of beetles. These large beetle Larvae were in the compost pile consisting of chipped wood.

The soil on the hill is very sandy and dry and we have no earth worms in the compost.