"Max Krippler" wrote in message
...
H E L P ! ! !
When I opened the hatch on my above-ground compost tumbler the entire
bottom of the thing was squirming and writhing with what I first took
to be worms. But on closer inspection I believe that these are mostly
some kind of an insect larvae-- possibly cockroaches-- and there are
thousands of them. I really don't want the composter to become the
breeding ground for a pest infestation. Is there anything I can do to
kill the buggars without ruining the compost?

I've used mostly vegetable scraps, rotten fruit and coffee grounds in
this batch...

Might be the coffee grounds. We had one of those plastic ice cream tubs next
to the kitchen sink and put the daily coffee grounds in there til it got
full then we dumped them in the compost, and one time after leaving it for
way too long, there were maggots.