• Insects help break down your compostables.nicht recycelbar image by Bizarr from Fotolia.com
  
  By setting up a compost pile at home, you reduce the amount of garbage bags set out on the curb side and the quantity of waste that ends up in the landfill. You can even use this beneficial fertilizer on your garden. Insects work in concert with microorganisms to create compost. They are the physical decomposers that munch, chew and grind down food (both animal and plant form) and lawn scraps, transforming them into smaller pieces for bacteria and fungi to break down. Without insects, your compost heap would remain a mass of pungent discards.
  
  

Ants

• AntsAnt image by Mladenov from Fotolia.com
  
  Ants are beneficial composters as they carry fungi into the heap and move phosphorous and potassium minerals around the pile while forming their extensive tunnel network. Their diet is extensive and includes fungi, seeds, food scraps and other insects.
  
  

Centipedes

• Centipedemille pattes image by djul from Fotolia.com
  
  Centipedes are long arthropods with one pair of legs per body segment. They have claws at the head of their body, which they use to poison their choice of diet, such as spiders and other insects. You will usually see centipedes at the top of the compost pile.
  
  

Beetles

• Ground beetlebeetle. image by mdb from Fotolia.com
  
  Three types of beetles are frequent composters: the feather-winged beetle, rove beetle and ground beetle. Feather-winged beetles are secondary consumers as they feed on fungi, and their larvae are primary consumers that snack on vegetable scraps. The other two types of beetles are tertiary consumers since they eat snails, slugs and other insects.
  
  

Springtails

• If you see an abundance of small jumping insects in your compost pile, they are probably springtails. They eat plants, grains, vegetables and insect excrement.
  
  

Millipedes

• Millipedestausendf????ler image by Bine from Fotolia.com
  
  Millipedes can be distinguished from centipedes as they move more slowly, their bodies are more tube-shaped, they have two pairs of legs per body segment and they are lower on the food chain. Rather than catching insect and spider prey, although they sometimes eat their remains, they generally eat and break down plant material. Centipedes and millipedes are not technically insects, as they have more than three pairs of legs, but they all belong to the phylum Arthropoda.
  
  

Flies

• Flygad-fly isect fly image by Pali A from Fotolia.com
  
  Although flies may seem like a nuisance around your compost, they are actually doing you a favor. They transport bacteria, essential for chemical decomposition, to the heap. They also eat and break down plant and vegetable scraps.