The presence of maggots would indicate a pile of material too wet since they need a quite moist environment to live in, too wet for the aerobic bacteria that will be digesting that material find they can work in so that process will go anaerobic. Earthworms are not a significant part of the digestions process, unless the pile of material is too moist for the thermophilic bacteria that would to work in.

Moist as a wrung out sponge, is moist enough for larvae (maggosts, BSF etc) and its NOT an indication that your compost is "too" wet.

Maggots/larvae won't live in anaerobic conditions either and they are veracious eaters, helping to break things down quickly. If you don't mind their presence, they are beneficial to the compost process.

In one paragraph the OP asks if he needs less browns or more browns. Think about the "pile" rather than ingredients. Is the entire pile composting as quickly as you would like? If not, then perhaps you could cut back on the browns, to increase the N proportion. Does it smell bad? If so, then you could increase the browns.

All maggots are not created equal. Black Soldier Fly (BSF) maggots are nice to see. The link below explains why, but basically

--adults have no mouthparts and do not feed!!!
--rarely enter houses anyway, weak fliers (I'd feel weak too, if I never ate...)
--larvae discourage/prevent housefly maggots
--larvae eat decaying organic matter and manures
--they eat so much, so fast that odors are reduced/non-exsistant

BSF are also a nice brown color, which I find aesthetically more pleasing than the startling white housefly maggot. :))

Houseflies, as you may know, spit on their food and suck up the liquid, pooping at the same time. They're eager to come inside my house, since a dirty dish is heaven for them. Houseflies, with all this flying, puking/eating/pooping everywhere pick up and spread bacteria and disease.

Other questions you had --

Constant urine as moisture certainly will cause a pile to use more browns than if water were used.

A cardboard box, yes, is a poor choice for composting on a balcony. I wonder if you are in an apartment complex, where balconies typically overhang the balcony/porch of the downstairs neighbors. I have a frightening mental picture of what might be dripping down there...along with the occassional falling maggots.

By all means, get yourself a big gray plastic garbage can or some other container with a good drip pan under it.

I applaud your efforts, BTW. I just want you to avoid any hassles with an apartment management team that may be quick to say "Stop that!" at the first complaint.

Here is a link that might be useful: Beneficials in the Garden--Black Soldier Fly

thanks all for the comments

joepyeweed, cheers for the vote of confidence in the maggots, i don't mind them at all, not many of them either, nice to think they they helping my pile along, i live along a river so very healthy populations of flies & mosquitoes & these lil' guys we call 'hamoosh' locally, can't imagine the couple of maggots in my pile will add much to the insects already around

petalpatsy, thanks for your warnings, but the balcony isn't an overhang and i do have a plastic bag under the pile, think your concern is kinda funny but interestingly i don't get any drippings or outflows from the pile, its just slowly eating its way thru my cardboard box container, think its cause of the warm dry weather where i live (and now in mid-july the crazy hot weather) but its not stinky at all, even with the urine i use for moisture, little ammonia sometimes but nothing strong or offensive even, i'll still think of you if i ever have neighbor/landlord issues:)

i think i have it a little easier than most other composters on this forum just cause of the local climate, i'd be interested to compare notes with someone with a pile in the south usa, especially somewhere with low humidity

composting is great fun, still can't get my head round how i have a month worth of 'garbage' and piss on my balcony and it just take care of itself, happily decomposing in the sunshine, not bothering me with its odors or pests, giving me a much cleaner kitchen, everyone should start composting

One of the common reasons for encouraging the Black Soldier Fly was because they were predators of some insect pests, but if they adult flies have no mouth parts they cannot predate and therefor have little real use and so there is no need to allow the larva to grow on your compost pile. Since the larva will only be on the surface of the compost that the interior is entering anaerobic digestion is of little concern to those larve, they are where the air is. A well rung out sponge will have too little moisture for these larva to exist, it will be too dry for them.

BSF larvae emit a pheromone that keeps other flies away.

And when I find BSF larvae in my DRY compost pile, they are usually on the inside eating away at the food scraps that I bury deep in the middle of the pile.

Sorry to rain on this party, but my experience with maggots was terrible. I had way too much greens, from a donation of my neighbor's lush, damp, fertilized grass clippings. It got very wet and slimy and full of maggots and later house flies. what a disaster. Disclaimer: I am not a maggot, nor a fly, expert, so you might have the nice maggots. Mine were nasty.
Laurie

Ok, i've learned from this thread that my pile is way too wet. Of course, there's large maggots, rollie pollies, worms, etc. in it. I guess i'll cut back on the source of most of my moisture (UCG) Thanks