I just dumped the whole bin (that had turned liquid) onto the compost. I don't know if they helped it or not. Kind of grossed me out, if you want to know the truth. I wasn't expecting them.

LOL - I jumped back 10 feet when I first saw them... like maggots from Mars or something. The site of maggots used to make me strongly contemplate adding vomit to the compost bin... guess I've gotten over it because when I see soldier flies buzzing around the bin my first thought is to go to the fridge and find them some 'biology project' leftovers to munch on. Composters are a sick bunch.

...with a teenaged daughter though it is nice to walk out to the bin and lift the lid for her dates... conversation goes like:

Teen: "WHOA! What the heck are those?
Mean Dad: "Soldier Flies"
Teen: "WOW - those are gross!"
Me: "Yep"
Teen: "What are they eating?"
Me: "Some dumb kid who couldn't tell time and got my daughter home late, now let's go look at the chipper/shredder".


Shotgun, Shmotgun - monster maggots get a much more visceral response.

Adding a comment to this:
If it is organic, it composts. I started composting because I had a business that had roughly 30-50 carboard boxes coming to my house every week. I had no easy way to recycle them so I started tearing them up, spraying with a little molasses and putting them into the bin. that, yard waste, food scraps, sawdust, coffee grounds and yes, dead animals. I get rats in my garden and the chain of events is: Rats eat my garden, trap catches rat, rat goes in compost bin, compost goes into ground, ground feeds tomatoes next year. Hey, we're all compostable

Makes ya wanna start a chorus of akuna-matata don't it?[/quote]


TO KEEP OUT RATS AND ROOTS: I made a frame to sit my compost pile on (made it out of 2x4 wood)....then stapled hardware cloth onto the frame, then built my compost pile on top of that OR in a second application, I sat my black pyramid composter (from Garden Supply) on top of the frame. THIS KEEPS: rats and moles out, also keeps roots out! and it lasts long time......with extra benefit of airflow under the pile and you can take a trowel and shovel out stuff to put around your plants.

I made myself a sieve with leftover 2x4s and hardware cloth (1/2 in). It's a great mesh for catching the big chunks and sticks. And I can see it being sturdy enough to support the contents and made it difficult for rats to get through. I put it inside of louvered ends of my attic to keep the squirrels out.

In regards to meat in compost piles I have started to using the Bokashi composting system & I am amazed @ the amount of time it takes to ferminate all my kitchen waste ...including meats & fishes & their bones

Here is a recent observation. At times when I'm too busy to manage the coffee grounds I get every week, I dump them usually three 5 gallon buckets into the compost pile. I was turning part of my compost pile and found that clumps of coffee grounds that were in the pile were completely covered with Trichoderma fungus which is beneficial. I think a little coffee grounds should be added to compost piles to improve the microbial diversity and help stimulate beneficial fungus. By the way, I only turn my pile every couple of months to get a good blend of fungal and bacterial breakdown of my compost.
thx for reading, tarheel

Hey tarheel, many years ago the mushroom forums were abuzz about the problem with using coffee grounds in their growing medium. Apparently the blue-green fungus is Trichoderma which kills mushrooms.

Wow, I just wanted to say that I love these forums! I drink a lot of coffee and don't know why it never occurred to me to use the coffee grounds in a compost pile or my yard. Thanks a lot for the information! There is a thick layer of crushed acorns and leaves in the parking lot where I work. I think I'll go over there this weekend to scoop them up in some bags, take them home and put them in my compost pile!

Last year (2010) I picked up approx. 65 5gal. buckets of coffee grounds from a local diner, I kept track of how many buckets full I received on a sheet of paper. Anyway, I put most of the coffee grounds on both gardens which are very large and some I put in my (8) compost bins. We have now cleaned all bins out and the compost looks great and started all over again. Our local village street crew brought us 3 loads of leaves, huge piles. My question is reference the coffee grounds, what would happen if I made a single bin and just put coffee grounds in there and left all grounds piled up now through winter? Would I get worms/worm castings or just a stinky mess? I will put some of the coffee grounds in my compost bins but would like to use the grounds for something other than composting. Any ideas of what coffee grounds are good for plant wise. Can the grounds be mixed with potting soil?

I would go ahead and start a new big compost pile with the leaves and coffee grounds mixed together or layered. This way by next spring you will have ready to use compost for spring planting. There my be some odor problems if you have too many coffee grounds piled up, since the bottom of that pile will probably go anerobic if it's more than a couple of yards worth. Hope this helps.
Tar.

Tar, Thanks for your response. I'll go ahead and try the coffee grounds/leaves mixture and see what results I get, grass mowing is just about over here in Ohio as far as mixing grass clippings in the pile. I have tons of leaves to use up anyway. Thanks.