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