I have a home made compost bin filled with red-wigglers that I use to compost all my kitchen waste. I love raising red wigglers – they mean less waste destined for my garbage can and more high quality fertilizer to use in my garden.
But… Yesterday I was unpleasantly surprised to find hundreds of little larva wriggling around in there with the worms – things that very definitely are NOT red wigglers. I panicked and fired off emails to several people I know, including the support people at Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm. They said that these look like soldier fly larva, and sent me the link below as additional information. Other sources have since concurred – soldier fly larva.
https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/galveston/beneficials/beneficial-51_black_soldier_fly.htm
(Note: If you decide to head over to Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm and look around, please use this link. Its my first affiliate link ever, and I just signed up because I actually use their stuff and buy from them. Using this link doesn’t cost you anything extra, but I make a few pennies if you go there and decide to buy something. https://unclejimswormfarm.com/?affiliates=676 )
The verdict is that these little things are beneficial, extremely good at composting, and a great snack to feed to our bearded dragon. it seems they are one of the highest-in-calcium-things you can feed them, and chickens (don’t have any, sadly) supposed go crazy over them. They’re basically good to feed anything that eats insects. So good, in fact, that they have the nickname Calci-worms and are available for sale at various feed stores and at pet shops like petco.
So – my unpleasant surprise had a happy ending, and it turned out to be a win-win all around. They’re beneficial (and so are soldier flies, but that’s a post for another time) but they certainly gave me a bit of a fright when I first saw them.
