Feather-winged beetles feed on fungal spores, while the larger rove and ground beetles prey on other insects, snails, slugs and other small animals. Ants feed on aphid honey-dew, fungi, seeds, sweets, scraps, other insects and sometimes other ants. Compost provides some of these foods and it also provides shelter for nests and hills. Ants may benefit the compost heap by moving minerals especially phosphorus and potassium around by bringing fungi and other organisms into their nests. Flies spend their larval phase in compost as maggots, which do not survive thermophilic temperatures.
Adults feed upon organic vegetation.
Spiders feed on insects and other small invertebrates. Prey include minute nematode worms, mites, larvae, and small earthworms. Earwigs are large predators, easily seen with the naked eye. They move about quickly. Some are predators.