Composting can be wildly frustrating. Maggots to the rescue

tomwt — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 22:19:07 +0000

Composting can be wildly frustrating. Maggots to the rescue tomwt Tue, 03/10/2026 - 15:19 More CNAS in the Media Jacob Margolis | LAist March 09, 2026

LAIST - Do you hate composting as much as I do?

Even though I know it has benefits for both my garden and the environment, I hate turning the pile and worrying about the right ratio of greens to browns and whether it’s too wet or too dry. And it’s always dispiriting to check for loamy, wonderful compost at the bottom only to pull up chunks of vegetables from two months ago.

And before you ask about worm farms, I’ve tried them too. Let’s just say that at some point, I expect to be held accountable for my crimes against worm-kind.

But for the compost- and time-challenged like me, I think I may have found a solution that allows me to simply toss my kitchen scraps into a bin and have it turned into fertilizer in about a month.

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“Unlike earthworms, [they’re] much more tolerant of a wider range of conditions and food sources. It will eat any organic waste in the larval form,” said Kerry Mauck, associate professor of entomology at UC Riverside.

She and her colleagues recently wrote a paper that describes a food waste processing system driven by black soldier fly larvae that was largely self-sustaining for about two years. Similar systems have been used to process food waste around the world.

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Plant pandemic looms as pathogens move from wild plants to crops

tomwt — Fri, 12 Jul 2024 23:04:42 +0000

Plant pandemic looms as pathogens move from wild plants to crops tomwt Fri, 07/12/2024 - 16:04 More CNAS in the Media Sanjana Gajbhiye | Earth.com July 12, 2024

EARTH.COM - Did you know that plants, just like humans, can fall ill, too? And much like our world, theirs is not immune to disease outbreaks and pandemics. As nature-lovers and responsible stewards of the earth, it’s vital we understand how we are unintentionally facilitating the spread of pathogens that cause “plant pandemics.”

Two recent studies from UC Riverside have revealed that native plants and non-native crops don’t play well when they’re neighbors. Both being attractive hangouts for pests, they’re unwittingly spreading diseases to each other.

Pathogen and plant health
“We have changed the landscape, and it’s created opportunities for pathogens to thrive,” said UCR entomologist Kerry Mauck, who co-authored the studies. “We have introduced pathogens that damage native plants, and on the other side of the coin we have endemic pathogens that mutate to infect crops.”

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