Worming 101

[Treetroit City]

Hey all. So my wife has turned over the responsibility of the bin to me. I think she has been overfeeding.
She thinks when the worms are all over the lid and sides of the tote that they are hungry looking for food.
What are they doing when they are all up on the lid and sides?

 

[Harry Hoosier]

Hey all. So my wife has turned over the responsibility of the bin to me. I think she has been overfeeding.
She thinks when the worms are all over the lid and sides of the tote that they are hungry looking for food.
What are they doing when they are all up on the lid and sides?

They are attempting to escape an environment that is not hospitable to them.

Overfeeding

Poor aeration

Off gassing

Moisture content

Could be any or all of the above.

Give us the particulars on your bin and perhaps we can get your worms off the wall.

 

[Treetroit City]

Okay, here are some pics of what I got going on. Bought 2 pounds of red wrigglers in spring and they have been living in this rubbermaid tote.

Here are what we have inside. When I opened the lid there was only about 6 worms on the side of the bin and none on top. Maybe it's not as bad as I thought.
My wife asked me to feed them last night cause she thought they were hungry(I didn't).

Edit: had to remove pic for security purposes.

Under the cardboard is a layer of moistened newspaper.

And under the paper is the funk. She been feeding veggie scraps, bread, egg shells, and I'm not really sure what else.

The other side. It seems very moist(wet) although it doesn't appear that there is liquid at the bottom so not real soggy.

So, as you can see there seems(to me)to be plenty of food in there.
I was thinking about just leaving them alone for a few weeks or until the veggies are gone.

Anyone care to chime in?

 

[Harry Hoosier]

Leave em alone for a few weeks and give em some more air.
Drill a few holes in the bin and leave the lid off.

If you have the capability to pre-compost all of your foodstock the worms will be able to process it much quicker and consequently you will have castings sooner.

 

[Treetroit City]

Thanks, I will try that. So just feed them compost instead of kitchen scrap? We do have a compost bin out back so I could see doing this.

Kinda funny, all this to try to make some tea. Oh well, it's good to have hobbies.

 

[JoeDudeGuy]

Thanks, I will try that. So just feed them compost instead of kitchen scrap?

Yes! Exactly what you want to feed worms. And like Harry said, give them air. .

 

[organic_fanatic]

I mix perlite in with my food to aerate it.

 

[Harry Hoosier]

Third Coast, layer about an inch or two of compost over half of your bin and check on it in 2-3 days.
You will like what you see!

My worms get nothing from the table and nothing fresh. They are fed only compost.
A couple times a month I toss in some rock dust for grit. Also, I put a cup or two of equal parts, neem meal, crab shell meal, and kelp meal.

Get your bin environment established and stabilized first. You have plenty of foodstock to work with from the looks of your heaps.

Hope this has helped,

Harry

 

[Aeroguerilla]

Im looking for a commercial sized worming bin that will give me at least 1 ton of castings a year. can anyone point me in the right direction?

 

[Harry Hoosier]

Im looking for a commercial sized worming bin that will give me at least 1 ton of castings a year. can anyone point me in the right direction?

You might check into this http://www.interwrap.com/IFD/rhinovermi.html

 

[vonforne]

I like using paper (old coffee filters-the brown paper ones)-3 or 4 inches of composted steer manure or fresh compost-a small food source in the corner after a couple of weeks like coffee ground etc. I like to smash up and then freeze what ever goes into the bin. They love black and mushie left over salad mixed with banana peels. And then I cover it with some paper sheets.

V

 

[hope2toke]

will any one be rescuing worms from outdoor soils before the heavy frosts set in? I have around 1.5 yards in various 15-50 gallon containers outside and now the plants are done, I am thinking about creating some type of Luring container full of compostey sugary rank corn filled goodness to lure them out and start a indoor worm bin. I just don't want to bring 1.5 yards of gnatty soil into the house.

 

[W89]

My worm bin is getting real hot in the middle it is only about 6 inches deep does anyone else have this? and is it a problem? non of the worms go in the hot spots they are all around the edges i got like a key and a half of worms in my bin they are producing lots of cocoons which is good i keep collecting them and putting them into a separate tub. I have a based of 3 inches of coco coir they couple inches of root balls from my just harvested plants and i add my fruit veg scraps every few days when most of the old stuff is gone, i got couple of patches of white fur on some bread crumbs i added too is that a problem?

 

[W89]

how do you edit posts? I also rip up all my brown envelopes that I get in the post and add those and I got a layer of cardboard over the top of everything, I just have a towel over the top of the tub as when I had the plastic lid on the worms where suffering from loss of air and were trying to escape so I took it off and just lay a towel over the top now and that problems gone away

 

[h.h.]

As they said above, "more air". Mix in some lose brown material. Stacking small twigs and branches will help keep it aloft. They can be sorted out later and used as mulch. Don't let it get hot.
The edit button is next to the quote and quick reply button in your own threads.

 

[W89]

Its cooled now, I'm really happy how fast my worms are composting everything lots of castings in the tub.. I'm also finding lots of cocoons every day between 10 and 30 a day I move them to a separate tub so I can tell when they hatch

 

[Rednick]

Anyone know of a good local worm distributor in Colorado? I can always buy them from Yelm, WA. But been having trouble buying Colorado, ABC (Always Buy Colorado)

 

[W89]

Hey peeps! My Worm Bin has become over-run with mites, My Worm Bin is indoors and I don't like the fact Mites are crawling all around the area I got the Bin in, I've ordered some Neem Meal to sprinkle in there and hopefully it will get rid of them, as I wanna start a grow in my room too I'm putting it off untill the mites are gone otherwise it will be pointless...

This is what i ordered http://www.thenaturalgardener.co.uk/...fertilizer.php I also ordered this http://thenaturalgardener.co.uk/seaweed_granules.php from the same site just to save on postage as it really adds up if ya keep buying from diff sites.

Does anyone else know of any products I can use to get rid of my mite problem without fucking with my worms and good bacteria/fungi?

 

[W89]

I can't edit my posts so here is the link to the Neem product got. http://www.thenaturalgardener.co.uk/neem_natural_fertilizer.php

 

[W89]

I've also now got over 2000+ worm cocoons,it's amazing how fast these fuckers fuck! lol I've been moving them to another tub so when I harvest my castings in the next couple of weeks it will be easier than picking out lots of tiny worms!