maggots in compost?

[ladyinfidel]

mistakenly, cheese ended up in one of my compost balls and it has maggots.  the other two are clean.  Should I be afraid to use that compost in my food beds?  I have been and have only used it as ground cover for non-food beds.  How long, once i spread it out, will the maggots live?  this is grossing me out, even though it probably shouldn't.  

Comments

[wobblerlorri]

All that's going to happen is you'll get a bumper crop of flies. They aren't bothering the compost itself, they're eating the cheese. Spreading it out in the sun will kill the maggots pretty quickly (like in a day or so), those the birds and other critters don't get.

Just think of how much of the soil is composed of dead critters anyway.

[ladyinfidel]

fair. i'm still too grossed out to use them on food but i have a tree that needs "fill dirt" around it, before i plant some ground cover. I used some to fill in another spot and covered it with colored red wood chips. i think the birds and other critters got in there though, and moved all the chips around.

[fiddlingfrog]

Our compost bin digests meat and cheese quite well and we've never had any problems using that compost in our vegetable garden.

[ladyinfidel]

there really is no reason i'm fine with wormies and not maggots!

[survivinglove]

If its not a HUGE amount of cheese I think it will only make a difference in the number of flies around. I'd just leave it be.

Random aside: I have an exotic roach colony for composting my discarded animal products.

A fun write up on the bugs involved in composting:)
http://www.oregonlive.com/hg/index.ssf/2009/05/inside_a_compost_pile_worker_b.html