Sure, what would you like to know?

I'm not going to claim to be an expert, I stumbled upon the burlap completely by chance and I am learning as I go.

I had the walls and lid of my bin always coated in mites and none of the recommendations (keeping dry, using melon rinds as a "trap") seemed to work for more than a day or two and then they were back as thick as ever. Now, I tuck a sheet of burlap over the top of the bedding and there are no mites in the bin or on the sides or lid.

The burlap seems breathable enough to allow air down to the bedding. I haven't heard of any detrimental effects of burlap on the worms but the first time I used it I was worried if burlap had any chemicals on it straight out of the package so I soaked the burlap in a bucket of water and rinsed it out a few times before I used it. Since then, I have been lazy and just put it straight on to the bedding. There doesn't seem to be ill effects to the worms though, they are as happy and thriving as ever.

When it's time to harvest, I lay out that sheet of burlap and dump the bin contents on top. I pick out any large pieces of uncomposted material (paper, food scraps) and throw them in the bottom of the empty bin. If I feel ambitious and I have the time, I will pick out the small pieces too.I fill the bin up with new bedding (I use shredded office paper), mist it all down until it's damp, put in new food, and place the burlap bundle of composted material in the top. I leave it there a few weeks and all the worms move downward into the bedding. Then I dump the contents of the burlap into a bin that holds finished compost and start over again.

I'll try to take some pictures for you. All I have is a cellphone camera so I'll see how well the pictures come out.

I'm no good with pictures, so I hope this works...

Here's the bundle of burlap with finished compost with worms inside that I place on top of the bedding. You can see my "finished compost without worms" bin in behind.

Here's the bulap square inside the bin. The worms are in the process of migrating down to the new bedding. If I want to speed up the process, I will open the burlap square and expose the finished compost to the light.

Here's my bin of finished compost. I could say "without worms" but as it turns out, the egs in the finished compost hatched and now there are a bunch of worms in my "finished" bin! I think you can see one of the worms laying on the ledge in the bin.

And here's a close-up of my finished compost. It's actually more of a dark color than these pictures look, almost black. The white bits are crushed eggshells mostly and some are little bits of uncomposted paper.

Thanks Hamilton!
You harvest the same way I do, except I use a plastic bag punched full of holes. I do expose it to a bright light, so the worms migrate down and my bin is harvested in a few hours though.

So you keep your bin uncovered, with just the burlap on top as the cover...
Where do you think the mites go that are already IN the bin? I catch the mites with bread, hold off feeding for a few weeks, my bins are not dripping wet, I feed when there's no sign of leftover food.....and I still get mites, and they don't want to leave. In fact, they call all their friends to come over. I have mites on the underside of the lid now when I lift if off. I'm so frustrated with these things. I'm sure my worms are stressed with them (in one bin, especially)

I keep the bin covered with the lid, just put the burlap on top of the bedding before I close the bin.

I'm not sure where they go, I assume they just died off. My bins are fairly damp, you can see that the worms like crawling on the sides (and leave their poop all over the sides) and the lid has moisture on it.

Maybe the mites don't like crawling through the burlap to get to the food source? I don't know why it's worked for me. I've just noticed it works.

Thanks for clarifying that you still put your lid on.
I have a very curious kitty and she loves being with me when I'm working with my worms. She often sits on the bin beside the one I'm working in. So I really don't want to leave them uncovered.

I'll definitely be searching for some burlap.

Get it at Canadian Tire in the gardening section.

HG,

Wanting to be sure I understand this...after harvesting the compost, when you put the worms back in the new bedding they are "flowing through" back down to the new bedding?

If that assumption is correct, I wonder if one could make a variation of a flow through bin with layers of burlap/bedding/food so you just had to lift out the top layer when it was time to harvest worms/compost, with the worms being on the top layer of burlap..Sort of like building "worm lasagne"?

Hello pennymca:

The finish compost is at the bottom and with time, burlap will break down.

Your idea is good, although not in the sense you intended. You will have to use plastic netting and with this idea you won't have to dump your bin's contents, simply lift the layers by the netting to get to the bottom layer which is the finished compost. I suggest you should still leave it for a month or so as the top layer to let all worms (incl. babies) migrate downwards.

On a second thought, my worm bin is supposed to be an easy thing where I just put my kitchen scrap, newspaper and junkmail in to turn to compost. Having to do the layering w. netting is too cumbersome for me, IMHO.

Otis

Wanting to be sure I understand this...after harvesting the compost, when you put the worms back in the new bedding they are "flowing through" back down to the new bedding?

BEFORE harvesting the compost. I just put the bin's contents, worms and all, into the burlap. Then I put in fresh bedding and food into the bin and place the burlap and it's contents on top. The worms move from the finished compost, through the burlap, into the new bedding below.

I'm not sure how your idea would work but I have found that the worms have processed the layers on the bottom FIRST, meaning by lifting the top you will be lifting the unfinished stuff.

Just for information: I found the material you refer to to as "Burlap" in my hardware store (in Johannesburg, South Africa), but hey called it "Hessian".

Hi Hamiltongardener,
Just as an update, last Sunday I sorted all my worms and WASHED them. The castings are loaded with mites. I laid burlap (got it at TSC cheap) on top of my new bin/bedding. Just for extra measure, I laid the worms out on it after their bath and they crawled through.

The burlap is on top of the bedding, and lid on. For a few days, it smelled like garlic in here, if you can imagine. Not sure why garlic and burlap go hand in hand, but that's where the smell was eminating from.

My castings are in a 5-gallon pail on the balcony, hoping to freeze the b.....s to death. I had so many mites, my worms were stressed. This bin is in another room from the usual "worm room."

I have 3 more bins to harvest and wash the worms. I'm baiting the mites in these bins with cantaloupe and bread prior to harvesting.