Red Wiggler Composting Worms |
We hear so many questions about our gardening and worm composting businesses, that we thought we’d offer some insight from our many years of experience. The best way to absorb this information is by taking one of our workshops that we offer throughout the year. Review our Calendar of Workshops & Events, or contact us and we’d be happy to schedule an appointment with you.
Q. We have an old fish tank that we’ve used-covered it on all sides, had one side with a piece of cardboard that you could lift up so kids could see them. Do you think this is the proper system for us?
A. We are familiar with the “old fish tank” (aka Worm “Ant Farm”) display & from our experience it may not be the best. The problem is that composting worms do not tunnel like earthworms (& ants) do. They are surface dwellers so for this application the side view isn’t very satisfying. Even with our unique wooden worm bins, which feature a front wall that lifts up for easy castings removal without disturbing the worms’ work, there still isn’t much worm activity to see from a side view.
Q. Can you use pressure treated wood for the worm boxes?
A. I believe that “pressure treated “wood no longer contains arsenic, but simple exterior grade plywood is probably safer for the worms, as we have never had problems over 7 years & are still using the original boxes.
Q. If you don’t keep the worms in an area between 50-80 degrees F., what happens? Do they die? Or just stop eating?
A. We have never experienced 80 F.+ temps., as we are bermed in, so stay between 62 & 75 degrees, all year. We have had reports from customers whose worms have been quite successful, for periods in the 40’s, so we have been relating that info, though have no first hand experience. Basically, cold worms seem to slow down & eat much less, which makes over-feeding a possibility.
Q. Can you give me an example of a raw/whole food that takes a long time for the worms to digest? Are we talking about a slab of steak here, or maybe just a whole/raw carrot?
A. “Available food” is food which is mushy, slimy or somehow can be slurped by toothless worms. Old, soy milk or tofu, fat free cottage cheese, soup stock veggies, frosted lettuce are all examples of available foods. They should be soft, liquidy or have had the cell walls broken down by spoilage, cooking or freezing/thawing. The other “neighbors” (composting organisms, micro & macro creatures) which came in with the
As to raw meat, it is true that “The worms crawl in & the worms crawl out” & do help to decompose creatures which have died. The technical term, being used on farms, is “Mortality Composting” & is the recommended way of disposing of dead livestock. This involves completely covering the carcass with a natural material, like sawdust, allowing it to decompose naturally, with help from worms. This takes quite a while, but will leave only bones.
We have used worms to decompose small creatures (birds, rodents, etc.) which the cats have left us as presents. We have buries them in the worm bin, marked with a “flag”, so we can remove the bones, when harvesting castings. The bones, teeth, fangs, skulls, etc. , have been one of the most fascinating parts of our educational presentations, at schools. We know of several kennel owners who clean up their yards & runs, placing the dogs’ waste into a dedicated worm bin. Of course, it would be best to use these castings would be on non-edible plants.
Q. Our office manager was wondering why you can’t just get a plastic bin and poke holes in it-I started to answer him, but thought I’d ask the experts instead. Why isn’t this a good idea?
A. Plastic does not breath & causes condensation on all it’s surfaces! All excess moisture, from food & other compostables, pools at the bottom of the bin where the castings are building up, turning them to “mud” (Bad!) & forcing the oxygen out (Very Bad!), causing anaerobic (noxious & smelly) conditions, lethal to the “body-breathers”; worms & other beneficial organisms.
Living, beneficial microbes are the whole reason for producing your own castings to begin with! At our workshops, when we mention “sifting” our finished castings, we’ve been asked “How can you sift mud?” Our answer: “You’re using a plastic bin aren’t you?”
The moisture which oozes to the bottom, (the reason for the spigot on many commercially-available, plastic worm bins), is leachate (run-off) from the bedding & food, very different from the potential true castings tea, which is castings mixed with water. Freshly made or aerated true castings tea is teeming with life, which would be available if the castings never became soggy to begin with (as in a breathable wooden bin).
Q. How much ventilation do they need? Would they be OK in a closet that gets opened 3-4 times a week and isn’t airtight?
A. Closet sounds fine as long as it stays 55F or above. If you raise it up on a simple shelf, it might make it easier on your back & have some extra storage room under the shelf.
Q. How do you know when it’s time to harvest castings?
A. With your Down To Earth Worm Farm’s Wooden Worm Bin you can always lift the front sliding wall to check on how castings are piling up. You should be able to harvest after 3-4 months, for small amounts, such as for houseplant watering or repotting. After 6 months you may have enough to do a “big” harvest. We waited over a year to do our initial harvests. They were very full of wonderful worm castings!
Q. I noticed that your worm boxes don’t seem to have air holes when I view your website. Can you tell me how your boxes work?
A. I’m glad you asked this question! Our entire system/way of doing worm “composting”, is a big change, though much more natural from the “plastic bin & newspaper bedding” method that has been passed along since the 1970s.
Before we started vermicomposting, we visited a number of larger, commercial worm operations & every one of them used long plywood boxes to house their worms. So, being total novices we built our “Wall of Worms” with 24 of our “large” worm bins, (6 rows of 4 bins each) on kitchen drawer slides, on a dimly lit basement wall, in my husbands large, heated woodworking shop. It must have been “beginner’s luck”, because after some trial & many errors, we seemed to have avoided many of the discouraging & even disastrous consequences we hear so much about from people we meet with plastic bins.
WOOD BREATHES!!! Wood vents excess moisture through the walls of our bins & also out the broad top surface, which we only cover loosely with a sheet of black plastic, which keeps the light out & the necessary amount of moisture in. Plastic bins need to do a lot of modifying; vent-holes for air, spigots to drain all the sogginess that condenses & rolls down the inside walls to collect at the bottom, causing stagnant, dangerously anaerobic conditions. This alleged “Castings Tea” is anything but! It’s the leachate from all the moisture leaching out of the food scraps & newspaper bedding!
We only using beddings which carry living, composting organisms, mostly maple leaves, but also, coir (coconut fiber), horse, cow, rabbit or sheep manure. The important thing is to have enough bedding to ALWAYS have a supply on hand to be able to thoroughly cover any food scraps (esp. fruits), so that vinegar flies (commonly called “fruit flies’) aren’t attracted to your bin. Some of the natural organisms carried on the leaves are deodorizers, which keep the forest smelling so good. Newspaper is sterile & lacking in any nutritive substance & having none of the wonderful natural properties of leaves. (Like feeding your kids Cotton Candy!)
I could go on, but I would image if you are researching worm bins you will recognize that ours are a very different way of looking at the whole subject. Our end product, the worm castings, are moist & fluffy, sweet-smelling & alive, not muddy & stagnant & drowned!
I hope this has given you a new view on indoor worm composting & will keep you from choosing a system which may give you less than optimal results.
Q. I seem to be having a terrible time with fruit flies! This is a REAL problem! Can you please help me?
A. Whenever fruit (vinegar) flies become a problem, the first things we ask are;
1) Are you always covering the food scraps you put into the worm bin with at least 3″ of leaf bedding to hide the food & odor from the pests? The leaves have deodorizing microbes which should keep the bugs from knowing that the food is there. Uncovered food is most often the problem. If you don’t have a good supply of leaves to use to replace your bedding as it breaks down, fall is the ideal time to gather a year’s supply.
We collect dry (less heavy), fallen maple leaves, which we run over once with the lawnmower & then bag-up into large trash bags to store till needed. Most hardwood leaves, except oak, may be used. Oak leaves are acidic & full of woody fibers, which make them resistant to breaking down & being used as the worms’ secondary food source. It is very important to remember that before adding these dry leaves to the worm bin they need to be soaked till soggy (24 hours), to maintain the moisture in the bin. Lift leaves, in handfuls, from the soaking tub, allowing excess water to drain off, then add to the top of worm bin. This should be done anytime that there are not 3″ (or more) of leaf bedding to cover food scraps.
2) Vinegar flies, (commonly referred to as fruit flies) are attracted to fermenting fruit or anything with sugars that can eventually become vinegar, (ie. tomatoes, winter squash, etc) if not quickly eaten by the worms. Often, the fruit peels, etc., already have fruit fly eggs on them when they are fed to the worms. You can avoid this by freezing the bag of worm food (& thawing) before putting it in the bin or by pouring boiling water over fruit/peels & draining water down the sink.
To assess the situation, ask yourself these questions:
a. Do you see a good amount of happy, healthy worms at the surface when you lift the black plastic sheet covering? Besides the leaves, the plastic is a secondary barrier against pests. Healthy worms will disappear within a few moments when light hits them. If not, this could be an indication of a struggling population.
b. Are your worms keeping up with the amount of food you are feeding them weekly?
The amount of worms needs to be in balance with the available food; if there is more food than the worms can handle, the old food will build up & problems, such as excess moisture, fungus gnats, bad odors, may occur. Also, low temperatures can cause worms to get sluggish & slow down the amount they can eat.
There are several ways of dealing with vinegar flies;
>Trapping those that are already there in small bottles of apple cider vinegar, with a few drops of dish soap, which have a small hole punched in the cover with a nail. The flies can get in but not back out & they will drown. Place the trap away from the bin to draw flies away. Replace vinegar/soap mixture as needed. If this does not attract the flies, it is likely you are dealing with Fungus Gnats (See next question, below), which look like wispy, fragile, black versions of vinegar flies. As their name implies, they are attracted to & eat the fungus that forms when excess old food builds up & thrive in overly moist-soggy conditions.
>Freezing your compostables*, before placing into the worm bin, will not only kill any vinegar flies present, but also break down the cell walls of the scraps, making them more immediately available to the worms. *( I know it would seem unnecessary to mention, but you’d be surprised! Please thaw the scraps, to room temperature, before feeding to the worms.)
> If it is necessary to Start Over & get rid of the contents of a bin that is out of control, it would be best to bait out as many worms as possible. Start with 1/2 a cantaloupe (or cucumber in the case of vinegar fly infestation) or large boiled onion or whatever favorite, very easily eaten food you want. Place in the center of the bin & cover with leaves. Once or twice a day, (morning & evening), uncover & lift the “bait food” & remove the worms that have collected under the food. Place them in a holding bin, (this can be plastic, as they will only be in it for a short time), with clean, damp, leaf bedding & a small amount of non-fruit food. When the amount of worms under the bait has dwindled, you can lift the front wall off & start removing the contents of bin onto a tarp or sheet of cardboard & picking out stray worms. Any bin contents that are compromised can be put in to an outdoor compost pile or spread on garden beds & will continue to breakdown & compost, without harmful effects.
Now, you can scrub the bin with soapy water, rinse, allow to dry & start over with the collected worms & leaf bedding, adding more, if necessary, to fill the bin about halfway.
The amount of surviving worms you were able to save will determine the amount of food they can be fed weekly. As when initially starting your bin, monitor every few days to see how much of the food has been eaten & adjust the amount you feed, to what your worms can successfully eat/week. If only a small amount of worms were collected, more worms may need to be ordered for optimal processing of weekly compostables.
Q. I think I don’t quite have the feeding schedule correct. We’re starting to see some little flying critters. Not fruit flies, the other ones. I believe Fungus Gnats. Should we go for some yellow sticky traps? I just put some cardboard on top-should it go on top or on the bottom of the black plastic sheet?
A. Fungus gnats are the little “garbage men” of wet, rotting food situations, as fungus is their food. Make sure of 3 things:
1. You should be observant as to how long it takes your worms to eat about 90-95% of their “available food” (soft & “slurp”able), before feeding again. If this takes more than a week, you may need more worms or less food. Also note, that if all of your worms are going on classroom visits & are being played with (tossed & turned) a lot, this could effect their eating habits. We always have a rotating batch of worms for events we go to, that will be on display for several days, because they take a beating with all the “show & tell” that takes place.
2. Make sure that the food is being buried well under the bedding.
3. Since the worms need their environment to be quite moist, it is also one that fungus gnats could thrive in. Therefore 2 & 3 are very important! The cardboard over the bedding is good for maintaining the moisture in the bed & would go below the plastic, but you might want to refrain from using any until you solve the gnat problem.
Fungus gnats were my biggest nightmare when I was doing interior plant care, esp. at holiday time when poinsettias were brought in from a warm, wet greenhouse. Of all the major pests of interior plants, fungus gnats (& adult aphids) can fly to happy, healthy plants (the ones I maintained) from over-watered personal/gift plants elsewhere in the offices & lay their eggs in the soil. It didn’t happen often, but when it did it was not fun. There is a biological drench, “Knocks-Out Gnats” which effects only the gnats, might be used on them without harming the worms if it gets really bad, but hopefully environmental fixes to the problem will take care of things. (Also see the preceding question, above)