Our compost pile has a constant cloud of flies above it, which is not ideal, but is also not terrible.  Our pit is more of a cool-composting operation than a hot pile that kills off the larvae of insects.  We find Chinese beetle grubs and we feed them to the chickens or wild birds.

Yesterday, however, I witnessed something wholly new to me in the compost pit… and I’m pretty sure it’s terrible.  Just under the top layer of foods and soil in our pit is a writhing mass of large maggots- they are similar-looking to mealworms, except they have a more elliptical body shape than the usual worm.  Once brought up into the sunlight, they move like maggots, their little searching ends wriggling themselves back into the earth, shoving dirt to either side.

I’m pretty sure the thousands (yes, thousands) that are in our pile are the harbinger of a major flying insect explosion in a matter of days or weeks.  HELP!  We stuck a chicken on them yesterday, and I went out to find her HIDING in the house part of the chicken tractor, rather than eating them.  I think THEY would eat HER if she were standing in the compost pit.

Can anyone identify what type of larvae this is?

What will these guys become? A type of fly? Beetle?