Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
When the bedding mixture is thoroughly moistened, you can add your red wiggler
worms,
Eisenia fetida
. These are small worms that excel at living in this kind of environ-
ment. The red earthworm,
Lumbricus rubellus
will also work, but they're not ideal and are
now causing problems in North American forests. Other earthworms won't work. I start
with the most common recommendation of one cubic foot of bedding and one pound of
worms. I have even used half a pound when worms were expensive.
After the worms have settled in for a couple of days, you can begin to add food scraps.
Do this once or twice a week, burying them in a different spot in the bedding each time. I
gave them 1.5 pounds of food scraps per week at the beginning. When the worm and mi-
crobe populations have multiplied, I give them four to five pounds per week. I like to
work my way across the bedding every couple of weeks burying the food, and then when I
start back at the beginning, the original food scraps are mostly decayed. Every month or
so, I'll add more bedding to get some more carbon back in there.
After three to six months, you'll want to stop adding food scraps for a couple of weeks
to let the worms really break down what's already there. Then, to use the finished com-
post, you need to separate it from the worms. There are several methods of harvesting the
worms, two of which I've used. The first is to move everything into one half of the bin
and start new bedding and food scraps in the other half of the bin. After two to four
weeks, most of the worms will have migrated to the new side of the bin to get at the new
food. You can then harvest the finished compost from the other half and use it in house-
plants and the garden the same as you would use other compost.
The second method of harvesting is to empty the entire contents of the bin onto a tarp
or garbage bag under a bright light. Worms don't like light, so they'll try to stay buried at
the bottom of the pile. You can separate the compost into several small piles and harvest
most of it from the top of these piles, occasionally waiting a few minutes while the worms
delve deeper into the pile. In the end you'll be left with mostly just the worms, which you
can return to new bedding in the bin. Make sure to do this quickly because they'll die if
left in the light for long. Wear moist gloves because the oils on your hands can hurt them.
Their eggs will be killed in this process.
Once in awhile, a worm will exit the bin. You don't have to worry about it setting up
residence in your home, because it will generally die from dehydration and exposure to
light right beside the bin. If many worms are exiting the bin, something is wrong. It may
be too moist or not moist enough, or there may not be enough air. It may be that the com-
post is done. The worm castings are slightly toxic to them, so they don't want to stay
around long when the food has run out and it's mostly just castings left. In rare cases, you
may find the worms aren't eating the food or are rolling up together in a ball. It usually
comes back to a problem with the oxygen, moisture, temperature, or carbon to nitrogen ra-
tio.
