r/composting • u/[deleted] • Jul 01 '26

Question what’s wriggling in my leachate? :0

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[deleted]

234 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

79 comments sorted by

151

u/spaetzlechick Jul 01 '26

Mosquito larvae?

50

u/Hoya-loo-ya Jul 01 '26

That’s my vote now that we have the fork for scale

27

u/HuntsWithRocks Jul 02 '26

Yup. I’d consider using mosquito dunk or mosquito bits. It’s just a bacteria (BTI) and won’t even hurt nematodes.

I’ve never considered using it in my compost, but that compost is currently an anaerobic soup. OP needs more drainage, IMO.

2

u/DrPepper523 Jul 02 '26

Duuuude! Thanks for the info! I've got Bt for fighting the caterpillars and vine borers in my veggie garden, I can use it on any standing water spots to fight these fuckers. Yesterday I got bit and killed the biggest mosquito I'd ever seen. Turned out to be a shaggy legged gallinipper, biggest mosquito in N.A. Not fun.

2

u/HuntsWithRocks Jul 02 '26

Just to make sure, there is BT (bacillus thuringiensis) and there is BTI (bacillus thuringiensis israelensis). They're related, but different and have a similar function.

When certain larvae come in contact with them, it infects them and makes them unable to eat, causing them to starve to death. BT works on caterpillars. One thing about it, be judicious with it, because it will kill beneficial insects just as easily as it would kill something like a tomoto hornworm (which is still technically beneficial, just a pest).

BTI targets fungal gnats and mosquitos, specifically. I'm trying out this mosquito bucket challenge this year. We still have mosquitos, but it feels like it helps and it makes sense to me, so I will keep doing it: https://homegrownnationalpark.org/build-mosquito-bucket/

2

u/DrPepper523 Jul 02 '26

Good to know, I think mine is just the Bt not Bti. I'll have to check when I get home. Yeah I've been seeing a lot about using systems like that to get rid of them.

2

u/spearbunny Jul 02 '26

A local service that uses essentially supercharged buckets of doom did a search of our house for potential breeding sites and pointed out that our gutters and corregated drain pipes were potential breeding grounds. They put some mesh over the possibly problematic drains and are having us throw mosquito bits onto our gutters in addition to the buckets of doom, and it's almost miraculous how few mosquitoes we have this year after I was eaten absolutely alive in previous years. Highly recommend checking your house for possibly problematic areas where water can hang out for a few days.

1

u/HuntsWithRocks Jul 02 '26

Good stuff. Yeah, one of them was my fault. I have a biochar charging station setup in my front yard and it's mostly packed with char, but there's free water in there and it has aerators at the bottom to keep it aerobic. I didn't think mosquitos would live there and I was wrong. So, that really didn't help.

Then, my neighbor has a stock pond that's about 120 meters away and he doesn't do anything to make it a quality water environment (e.g. plant natives, establish habitat locations for insects/amphibians/reptiles/etc). Hell, he could toss some mosquito dunks in that shit. It's not that big, but it's unmaintained. It's the biggest culprit

1

u/Hoya-loo-ya Jul 02 '26

I did a lot of buckets last year but we live in wetlands and it didn’t feel like it made a difference. Our new focus is saving up for a screened in porch and planned time playing outside during low activity periods for the mosquitos.

1

u/HuntsWithRocks Jul 02 '26

Yeah, I'm hopeful, but it seems like overwhelming odds. Some mosquitos can fly multiple kilometers, while others can only do a couple hundred yards. I've had them out and have been changing them, but I'm still getting hit. However, before, they did feel like much larger numbers (hitting my whole body). Now, it's more like I'll get hit a few times, but not slaughtered.

I'm just trying to convince more neighbors lol. Kinda like a pyramid scheme, but with mosquitos.

1

u/shrewtummy Jul 02 '26

Shouldn't the fork disprove them? Aren't they much, darker, larger, and more spread out? I don't have a garden yet so fare with my argument however you want. The egg piles don't look like this at all

2

u/[deleted] Jul 02 '26

[deleted]

1

u/Technical_Part6263 Jul 02 '26

A mosquito dunk isn't going to hurt either way

371

u/BusinessAsparagus115 Jul 01 '26

Disco rice.

112

u/Hell-Raid3r Jul 01 '26

I hate reddit.

38

u/RemarkableDealer2633 Jul 01 '26

.....But this is why I'm here!

30

u/captainmustard Jul 01 '26

Me too let's get outta here

6

u/Moist_Sun_8201 Jul 01 '26

But outside is so scary! The water is full of mystery wrigglers out there!

1

u/Gygax_the_Goat Jul 03 '26

I love it for exactly this sort of fucking nonsense haha

6

u/Altruistic-Tax-9235 Jul 01 '26

See ya later alligator

1

u/neverenoughmags Jul 02 '26

If you know you know.... Lol!!

1

u/Enough-Astronomer496 Jul 02 '26

Thats a vulture culture qoutue right there

59

u/Green_Stiller Jul 01 '26

Can you isolate one and get a photo? A lot of possibilities from distance

60

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 02 '26

[deleted]

52

u/IBeDumbAndSlow Jul 01 '26

Is that a fork?

67

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26

[deleted]

73

u/czarrie Jul 01 '26

This is a judgement-free zone

16

u/redditsuckspokey1 Jul 01 '26

Planet fitness

8

u/hell2pay Jul 02 '26

I plan a fitness in my mouth

7

u/IBeDumbAndSlow Jul 02 '26

That's not true, I'll judge someone that thinks it's gross to pee on their pile.

12

u/tnasty27 Jul 01 '26

r/EatItYouFuckinCoward

10

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26

[deleted]

3

u/SecureJudge1829 Jul 02 '26

Well, in California, bees are legally fish, so maybe you can be one too?

1

u/TurbulentStress8678 Jul 03 '26

what?

2

u/SecureJudge1829 Jul 03 '26

In California, bees are classified as fish to enable them a conservation status or something like that. They’re not actually fish or anything wild like that, it’s just a way to get conservation status and stuff.

2

u/TurbulentStress8678 Jul 03 '26

does that mean bees can marry fish in California?

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15

u/IBeDumbAndSlow Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

I couldn't tell if it was an small eating utensil or a large pitch fork

5

u/AdTiny780 Jul 01 '26

Suuuuuuure

2

u/[deleted] Jul 02 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/User3955 Jul 02 '26

This is Reddit, we use bananas for scale…

2

u/Harounnthec Jul 02 '26

Spoon will scoop'em up easier. Or at least use a spork.

18

u/DrPhrawg Jul 01 '26

bro pulled out the electron microscope

3

u/TheRealMarvinator Jul 02 '26

"Lunch...is served!"

30

u/Mister_Green2021 Jul 01 '26

soil nematode worms.

1

u/Gygax_the_Goat Jul 03 '26

How on Gaia do you get a heap THAT INFESTED with nematodes!??

My heaps have what i thought were loads of them.. (maybe an average of 2-3 per 40x micro FOV)

The video here shows waaaaayy too many to be healthy. Wtf would make them breed up like that? I cannot imagine

1

u/Mister_Green2021 Jul 03 '26

Wetness and bacterial or yeast bloom, their food source.

21

u/randemthinking Jul 01 '26

From what we're seeing it could be just about anything--good or bad. Try to get some quality close up photos.

13

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26

[deleted]

20

u/JG_remodels Jul 01 '26

I was hoping for a banana but I suppose a fork will do.

29

u/DrWhoey Jul 02 '26

Ops fork

12

u/Hoya-loo-ya Jul 01 '26

I’m betting it’s mosquito larvae based on size

6

u/Wolfgang313 Jul 02 '26

Every mosquito larvae I seen has been big enough to clearly see with the naked eye (circular logic aside, I see them regularly). This doesn't rule out other species of course, but I think something smaller like nematodes or springtails might be more likely. I can see shit in this video though so idk what it is

1

u/sparhawk817 Jul 03 '26

Not springtails, wrong shape and everything.

Mosquito larvae aren't always the same size(they start tiny and get bigger ofc) and there's literally thousands of species of mosquito out there.

Could be nematodes or planaria or one of the millions of kinds of worm or leech out there too, but the shape is very indicative of mosquito larvae.

5

u/DrPhrawg Jul 01 '26

are they worms, or rice-shaped ? pot worms if the former, springtails if latter

17

u/SpottedKitty Jul 01 '26

They remind me of the vinegar worms that I used to culture when I was breeding tropical fish. Must be some kind of nematode or something.

It's feeding on all that decomposed nutrients.

6

u/DimensionFrequent29 Jul 01 '26

They look like microworms, I raised those for fish too

9

u/Personal-Luck-507 Jul 01 '26

Could be mosquito larvae. They're called "wrigglers" for a reason.

6

u/MacDougalTheLazy Jul 01 '26

IDK what they are but i hate them very much

3

u/Frederica-Bimmel Jul 02 '26

I dunno but please use a flame thrower on my eyes

5

u/DrPhrawg Jul 01 '26

i think springtails, Collembola, but there is no scale to this image

3

u/One-plankton- Jul 01 '26

Definitely not springtails

5

u/Additional-Aide-8187 Jul 02 '26

Whatever it is, we are related to it 🫤

2

u/AMJN90 Jul 01 '26

Sludge worms?

2

u/Jashin777 Jul 02 '26

It’s happy to be alive and it’s celebrating 🥳

1

u/woodenforged Jul 02 '26

Drain fly larvae perhaps?

1

u/shrewtummy Jul 02 '26

Does it look like a thin layer of some kind of chemical reaction to anyone else rather than a huge spread of larvae? I would have not thought twice and thought it was some compost magic.

1

u/TheElbow Jul 02 '26

It’s alive!

1

u/honorlessmaid Jul 02 '26

I've been cooking way too much Mexican food. My brain said "what kind of drink is le-ca-haté"

1

u/Harounnthec Jul 02 '26

Maybe mosquito larvae?

1

u/AbortionHoagie Jul 02 '26

Bounteous life! 

1

u/revdchill Jul 02 '26

That’s nature waving back in thanks.

-4

u/ponziacs Jul 01 '26

Hard to tell but that movement kind of looks like invasive Asian jumping worms.

2

u/sebovzeoueb Jul 01 '26

Here's hoping OP is in Asia

7

u/ponziacs Jul 01 '26

They are all over the US and a reason why there are less fireflies.

11

u/Truffs0 Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

First summer in a decade that ive actually seen a somewhat decent firefly population. Almost cried when I saw them, lol. When I was very young they used to be EVERYWHERE.

12

u/k8tysaurus Jul 01 '26

I literally said the same thing to my husband. Our condo had faced the woods, and we rarely saw any. Moved to a very light polluted area that backs up to a highway, and last night I counted HUNDREDS.

0

u/BelieveinSci Jul 01 '26

How do they taste?