Maggots?

crawgarden said:Maggots?

Nope. These are black and very thin, and have legs and crawl all around. They look like tiny, tiny, miniature pinch bugs. But they don't have hard bodies.

Maybe centipedes?

crawgarden said:Maybe centipedes?

Oh, G-d! I hope not because they eat worms!

These things are about 1/8" to 1/4" long. Could that be a baby centipede?

Okay, I think I found out what they are. I was initially thrown because most sources say that they are any color except black, and my little buggies are definitely black.

One name for them is Snow Flea (although they're not fleas at all and do not bite), and another is Springtail. They have tails that are carried under their bodies and can be triggered to spring them up to 77 mm according to one source. This would explain why I've found a few on my walls!

They are more abundant when things are very moist in worm bins, and less so when they dry out a bit. I've never seen more than a few in mine, but as we all know, when you see a few of something, most likely, there are many more.

The biggest threat it seems is that they will eat the food meant for the wormies! They may also feed on very weak or dead worms, but that's a helpful thing, right?

Anyway, I'll keep my eyes open to be sure that things dry out a bit, but not too much so. Meanwhile, here are a couple of pictures I pulled off the Internet in case they might be helpful to anyone.

Okay, I think I need to go back on what I wrote about my little buggy fellas being Springtails. On closer inspection, they appear to be Scatopsidae. The stuff about them constantly mating is the giveaway.

Apparently, they are, 'Little black flies with clear wings that are no bigger than the tip of a pen. These guys are completely harmless and aid in decomposition. But their populations can explode quickly, so keeping them under control will be helpful for you. These guys do almost nothing but mate. Half of them are in the compost, but can hardly be seen since they blend in with the black compost. But many are on the walls and lid, and are linked tail to tail, makin’ babies. Since this is pretty much all they do, their populations grow extremely quickly. I have found the wetter the bin, the more of them there are."

Yes, they are currently crawling all over the area and most are, yes, linked tail to tail. Ugh.

There's a very good piece on worm bins (the above quoted material is from this) and the pests that can show up and how to control them here: https://r4wormcompost.wordpres...

Dang! Why can't there just be pooping worms?

Does anyone have any experience with these? They're supposed to be very effective in killing off fruit fly and other insect larvae in worm bins. They're also supposed to be okay for all things organic and supposedly, are completely harmless to our wormies. The small bits are the ones that were recommended for worm bins.

http://insectcop.net/what-are-...

We use the dunks here for mosquito control - throw them out in the wetlands and for making mosquito traps. Almost resorted to using them in the worm bins a month ago - horrible fruit fly invasion. Before resorting to that, we set up some wine traps in plastic bottles and I cleaned out any standing leachate in the bottom of the bins. Both actions worked pretty well. Only have a couple of fruit flies left. Thankfully, the bins are in the heated garage rather than the house.

Shadegardener said:We use the dunks here for mosquito control - throw them out in the wetlands and for making mosquito traps. Almost resorted to using them in the worm bins a month ago - horrible fruit fly invasion. Before resorting to that, we set up some wine traps in plastic bottles and I cleaned out any standing leachate in the bottom of the bins. Both actions worked pretty well. Only have a couple of fruit flies left. Thankfully, the bins are in the heated garage rather than the house.

Yup, that works great! I did that too, and put sticky traps nearby which also helped so the fruit fly thing abated, but now I've got these stupid Scatopsidae, and the traps don't work on them. I'm wondering if the dunks would, and of course, I want to be 200% sure that they won't harm the worms. Any thoughts?

Joanna - those critters are in the fly family, right? Bti should work on them. Make sure the dunks you buy do contain Bti - there is another type out there that doesn't contain Bti. I would make a solution from crumbled up dunks, strain it and put it in a sprayer. Spray the surface of your worm compost. Maybe open it up first and let the worms go hide out from the light before spraying just to make sure. I did read about using Bti for critter problems in the worm bins. You may have to spray a couple of times since the Bti works by inhibiting live offspring, NOT by outright killing off the mature flies.

@Shadegardener, I don't know what Bti is, but this picture shows the list of ingredients in Dunks. If Bti is Bacillus thuringiensis, then Dunks is it. I just hope that it will work on those little critters. The info I found online about them is, "The minute black scavenger flies or "dung midges", are a family, Scatopsidae, of nematoceran flies." Does that mean they're in the fly family, and that Dunks will work?

I did look up the Scatosidae and it does appear that they're in the fly family. Flies and mosquitoes are in the same family. Handy, huh?

Shadegardener said:I did look up the Scatosidae and it does appear that they're in the fly family. Flies and mosquitoes are in the same family. Handy, huh?

Ick to both of them.

So, is Bacillus thuringiensis the Bti you mentioned?

Bti: https://www.epa.gov/mosquitoco...

Edited to correct spelling of "Bti". Thank you spell checker for changing my typing without asking ("snarl" emoticon goes here).

Excellent @McCannon! Thank you for that!

McCannon said:Bti: https://www.epa.gov/mosquitoco...

Edited to correct spelling of "Bti". Thank you spell checker for changing my typing without asking ("snarl" emoticon goes here).

Just wanted to update--the mosquito bits I got appear to be pure Bti. Although the above link shows that it's approved for organic farming / gardening, the product I bought carries a strong risk warning stating that inhaling it or touching it in any way should not be done, and that if you do inhale or come into contact with it, you should get immediate medical attention. The rest of the warning is as strong as any poison warning I've ever seen. Frightening.

I don't know if the bits are a different product than the one listed on the EPA site, but I've decided not to use them since I will, eventually, be handling the "black gold" produced by my lovely worms. But this leaves me with a quandary since those damn bugs keep multiplying and are now all over the place! UGH! Any additional advice?

Have you considered harvesting your compost? I was thinking that, on a warm (not hot) sunny day, take your bin(s) outdoors and dump the contents on a sheet of plastic, let the worms dive for cover into the bottom of the pile and harvest as much compost as you can. It might not be at the composted stage that you want but it might help to start fresh. I would wash out the bins and check the remaining pile of worms for any of your critters before putting back into a clean bin.

Wow, so I've been doing pretty well with these little wiggly things and getting some good compost from them but when I went to feed them yesterday, the surface of the top bin was pretty moldy. Is this usual? It's not black mold (thank goodness) but the bluish-green type you find on old food.

I had a tiny bit of mold when I first started out and so I wrote to the company. They said mold is a natural part of decomposition but I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong? The worms do seem to be okay....

I should also mention that it's not overly moist in there. In fact, it can get pretty dry so I added almost no paper last time I fed them. Maybe this is why?

Thanks in advance for advice.

Just a guess, it might be too dry, mine was always damp, not wet but damp.

crawgarden said:Just a guess, it might be too dry, mine was always damp, not wet but damp.

Thanks Rj, but would being dry cause mold to grow? I always thought it was the other way around.