This spring I got a rodent-proof tumbler composter as recommended by my city, and at first I was pretty careful about balancing my greens and browns (fortunately lots of leftover leaves from last fall) but then I ran out of leaves, and I don't get that much junk mail, but nevertheless, the compost smelled fine and seemed to be cooking down even faster. After three months of kitchen waste and as much yard waste as I could find (we have a small yard) the composter is still less than a quarter full (it reached its peak at not-quite-half-full back around the middle of July).
And then a week or two ago I noticed that the compost was... moving. Uggggghhh. So of course I tossed in some shredded newspaper and pretended like I had not seen anything. But I was worried! It seemed like... maggots. Maggots in compost is bad, right? But the compost smelled completely neutral and everything was breaking down so fast...
Well, I kept seeing the grubs but nothing bad seemed to be happening, and little internet research suggests I've acquired an extended family of
Black Soldier Flies - indeed a couple of adults flew out of my bin last time I opened it up. They are gross, but wow! They can really break down some food scraps!
Apparently they will eat damn near anything, including meat and even poultry and fish bones. I threw in five ancient bananas that I found encrusted in frost at the back of the freezer this morning and I can't wait to see what my grub pals do with them. Since I live in Massachusetts (zone 6b) I'm doubtful these guys will make it through the winter (maybe not even the whole summer) unless I can keep the compost pretty hot, and I'm wary of putting animal products in the compost lest I attract rats (NO THANKS), so I'm probably not realizing the full potential of BSF. But I am a big fan!
