Compost pile in garden doing well, but---?

Normal. Maggots are part of the compost "team", albeit it a more disgusting one. A really fast pile is usually a little too hot for them, and it's also less common if you avoid animal products...but it's not going to harm anything except your sensibilities. You'll still get nice rich earth when it's all done.

The answers above tell about maintaining a compost more than starting one. To start one you need a pile of organic material, leaves, grass clippings and kitchen vegetable waste perhaps. Since a compost is really just a pile of decomposing plant matter you can help it along by gathering up some rotting leaves and some dirt from near the surface of the ground and mixing this in with the pile you have made. It will rot by it's self with out this, but this will speed it along to start. If you can't find any, a lot of the bigger plant stores have compost starting mixes that include many of the common microbes that are in good compost. Remember, a compost pile is really alive, in that there are hundreds of millions bacteria, fungi and even small animals living in it, doing their thing and in turn making compost. Be careful not to put things into it that may kill things, like grass clippings from a lawn that has just been sprayed etc. Good luck. Once the pile is working, use a shovel or pitch fork to turn it, once every few weeks if you are adding things regularly.

I wouldn't worry too much about it too much-

Try adding some powdered lime (garden lime) and a nitrogen fertiliser or generous handfuls of clover (to balance out the lime). This may make it too hospitable for the maggots to keep living there.

How often do you turn the pile?

Our pile is in a stack of tyres, and I've noticed if I don't turn it enough or keep a layer of wet newspaper/straw on top then it attracts fruit flies. So annoying! If you turn it so the fresh material is towards the bottom it is hotter there and decomposition occurs faster than it does near the top.

We use a pitchfork to try and turn ours but I wish I had one of these garden spirals!!

http://www.galway.ie/en/Services/Environment/Waste...

They sell them at our local hardware store, I think they are fairly common now...

if it is accessible to flies ,then there will be maggots. the only problem i ever have with maggots is not emptying the can from the kitchen often enough. after things get in the pile i don't see any. ants will eat them so will wasps and hornets. i suggest you turn new stuff under pile then the moisture will get drawn out (maggots need moisture ,so possibly too wet) they won't hurt your pile but your going to get a bumper crop of flies.

Ants mean it's not getting enough water. Other creatures mean it's composting. I put a PVC pipe down the center of mine with holes drilled all around to put hose in to water so I don't hae to turn it (bad back). Works fine. Put a stick into the center and leave for a while. If it's hot when you pull it out, you're doing well.

There shouldn't be maggots with raw food. Do you have composting worms in your compost? Compost worms live where compost has the correct amount of moisture. Label the compost jar with a list of what can go in the jar.

As a vegetarian I have never seen maggots in the compost pile. I would suspect meat or fish or poultry in there.

I would add more dirt and leaves and grass clippings just keep turning the area. It should be fine, if its too much you can spread lime on the compost pile and turn it in.