What Animals Live in a Compost Heap

Open your compost bin and you're likely yous'll run across a variety of critters besprinkle every bit the light exposes their busy action.

Sow bugs scurrying under the debris, worms pulling their heads back into the soil, or a fruit fly aiming for your nose. Gross might be the word that comes to mind, but earlier y'all swat, crush, or blaspheme the residents, take another look. Certain, you expect to see worms transforming your kitchen scraps into healthy, rich soil, simply they're non the just ones doing the job. In fact, there are a plethora of organisms working together to achieve the aforementioned goal.

Static or Agile Compost?

The intensity of your composting practice is what will decide who you're likely see when you look inside your compost bin. A static compost (one that you lot add together to but don't turn) will accept more organisms than an active compost. That's because an active compost (1 that yous turn routinely) generates a lot of heat during the initial stages of breaking down. Estrus isn't conducive to larger decomposers, so their numbers generally don't become more than abundant until the pile begins to cool.

For the sake of covering all organisms, we'll be discussing who you would find in a static compost. From smallest to biggest, you'll exist surprised at who does the virtually work, and whose presence indicates when your pile needs aid.

Activity	Who'southward Involved
Chief Consumers	Organisms that eat organic residues Leaner, fungi, actinomycetes, soldier flies, nematodes, some types of mites, snails, slugs, earthworms, millipedes, sowbugs, whiteworms.
Secondary Consumers	Organisms that eat master consumers and organic balance Springtails, some types of mites, feather-winged beetles, nematodes, protozoa, rotifera, soil flatworms.
Tertiary Consumers	Organisms that eat secondary consumers Centipedes, predatory mites, rove beetles, fomicid ants, carabid beetles.

Micro Creatures Do Macro Work

The principal workhorses of the compost are the microorganisms that you lot can't run across with the naked middle. The first to arrive are the mesophilic leaner, who brainstorm to break down the soluble and readily degradable materials. The process of their work causes the temperature in your compost to rise rapidly. Once core temperatures reach in a higher place 105 degrees F (or 40 degrees C), populations of mesophilic bacteria recede and the thermophilic bacteria take over.

These thermophiles are fabricated up primarily of the genus Bacillus and will work until the compost reaches higher up 140 degrees F (60 degrees C). At this time the population of Bacillus declines and the thermus bacteria take over. These are the same bacteria that are found in the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park and the thermal vents deep in the sea. This flow tin final from only a few days to a few months, depending on the size and content of the pile.

As the pile begins to cool and enters the maturation stage, the Actinomycetes really get to work. These are the microorganisms that interruption downwards the tough, circuitous materials of lignin, chitin, cellulose and proteins. They are besides responsible for the sugariness smell of soil you lot enjoy when harvesting the finished product.

Compost Helpers

Fungi

The word 'fungi' might bring to mind the plump button mushrooms yous find at the market, and then it'due south no wonder you might not recognize fungus in your compost. A mushroom is only the fruiting torso of fungi, tasty for sure, just this organism is much more admirable for the work they do as mycellium in the compost or soil.

Mycellium are made up of strands and observed as an explosion of fine, white filaments reaching into the droppings to create a dense mat. Though delicate to the touch, mycellium have the strength that few others practise. They can break downwardly lignans, one of the toughest natural materials growing on earth. Ever and then slowly, mycellium reach out, pushing their tips into the dry stalks of a sunflower or co-operative where they will release enzymes that split up the cellulose bondage, converting them into soluble forms that are easier for organisms to ingest.

Nematodes and Mites

Nematodes are the most abundant of the concrete decomposers, feeding on fungi, bacteria, protozoa and other nematodes. If you had bionic vision, you would observe a hundred thousand nematodes in a handful of soil. The second virtually arable invertebrate establish in compost will be mites, and they too take a wide diet. Some mites feed on organic affair, while others will act as predators, feeding on other insects in the surround.

Sowbugs and Pill Bugs

Although y'all might call this animal a diverseness of different names (sometimes preceded past an expletive) when y'all find them munching on your seedlings, they take an important job to do in your compost pile. Equipped with the right enzymes, pill bugs tin can feed on the very tough walls of plants rich in cellulose, like twigs or brownish leaves. The waste matter they produce, or poop, becomes a food for the microbes. Being a member of sea-loving crustacean family, these bugs love water. That ways they can too exist a very good indicator of too much moisture in your compost pile. If y'all are seeing an abundance of pill bugs when you pull off the chapeau, it's likely time to turn your pile. This volition help reduce moisture and ameliorate the airflow.

Millipedes

The vegetarian millipede has a one thousand legs to move it in and out of your compost. Burrowing and consuming very quickly, the millipede is a highly effective decomposer. But don't confuse them with the highly predaceous centipede, who moves across the planet on a hundred legs eating earthworms and benign insects in your compost. To tell the departure, look at the shape of the body and how many legs per body segment. Two sets of legs per segment is a millipede, while the centipede merely has one set. Fortunately, centipedes are quite territorial, and so y'all shouldn't meet many in one place. When you practise, be quick! With a gloved mitt pinch them betwixt your fingers and put them in a place where their work will exist appreciated.

Blackness Soldier Flies

While many people confuse these creatures with the reviled maggot, black soldier flies are the next all-time composters to scarlet wrigglers. In fact, some composting enthusiasts will gear up upward a compost specifically for soldier flies. Efficiently converting food waste into rich biomass, the soldier fly will stop feeding and climb to college ground before entering its pupal stage. Yous may have observed these pupae collecting on the sides of your compost bin. If yous heighten chickens, these pupae are a dandy treat for your feathered friends.

Criminals of the Compost

Rove Beetles

Non every problems in your compost is a good one. Even those that we would consider beneficial in the garden tin do swell harm in your bin. Predators like the rove beetle are a nifty example of this. Although we encourage them in our crops to eat root maggots, cutworms and aphids, in our compost bin they will eat the processors that are doing the work. This doesn't mean you take to squish the ones yous detect, just just ship them with your gloved manus to an area where they can prey on those we want them to.

Ants

Ants in the compost bespeak that your pile is too dry. An undisturbed, static compost that does not have enough wet becomes the ideal identify for an pismire nest. Unfortunately, this nest will displace decomposers and put them under threat of the defensive ants. The best mode to manage ants in the compost pile is to continue it nice and moist—all the way through.

Earthworm Mites

Though the bulk of mites in your compost bin are probably beneficial, the earthworm mite is not. These reddish brown mites will encompass decaying fruit and waste, depriving worms of their much-needed nutrients. Their presence volition exist obvious on decaying material and is something every composter should watch for. The red mite is i of the nigh destructive, since it preys upon worms themselves. Their piercing, sucking mouth-parts are a mortiferous weapon against ruddy wrigglers and their eggs. A little harder to distinguish, the reddish mite first appears as white or greyness clusters resembling mold, just when observed under magnification you will meet the various stages of mites clamouring around.

To reduce the presence of both of these mites in your compost:

Expose the pile or bin to sunlight for a few hours each solar day.
Place slices of sweet fruits on tiptop of the bed and allow the mites to collect on them. They particularly like sweets. Dispose of these slices in a bucket of soapy h2o.
Heavily water the compost bed but exercise not flood. While worms enjoy the high moisture and will move into the bed, the mites will scurry to the top. Using a propane torch, scorch the top of the pile to impale the mites. Echo this method a few times.

Keeping Your Compost Healthy

A healthy compost is a various ecosystem of insects and organisms working together. When in process, your compost should smell sweetness and non rotten. The cloth should be moist enough that your hand would exist wet if you squeezed it. A foul smell suggests as well much moisture causing anaerobic weather condition. Additionally, the colour should exist similar dark cocoa.

Your compost is a live organism made upward of millions of other organisms doing a job. Get to know your buddies and practice what you tin can to assistance them work efficiently.

About the Author

Jessica Dawe
Jessica Dawe owns a garden center and has been practicing integrated pest direction and permaculture since graduating in 1995 with a degree in horticulture.