Sorry, bad code for photo. Here it is:

Here is a link that might be useful: Worm bin photos

Hello matriarchy,

sorry to disappoint you. Those are mites. Stop feeding them for a while and wipe of the sides and whereever you can get to, and dispose of them.
You might want to read stuff people posted here but I think they are harmless, just a nuisance. I believe that happens if your bin is too wet and has too much food. For 100 worms that is way too much food what you have put in the bin.

"The volume of material in the bin had gone down by about a third as of last week" I suspect it appears that the volume went down because things have probably compacted.

I always freeze the scraps before I feed them to the worms because they cannot keep up with my kitchen waste (yet) and also to kill fruitfly eggs and whatever else that might come home with me when I bought the fruit and produce.

Otis.

Rats. I just added more food and more moist bedding. So, I basically just have a big box of rotting garbage, right?

I am thinking that I might make a second box, split this one between the two, and add more worms and less-moist bedding. Then, NOT feed them for a while. I will start an outdoor scrap bucket to freeze stuff for later. I am definitely producing more veg waste then this bin can handle. I can always just trench-compost it in the spring.

Yea my bin looked like yours for a while until the worms got established and began eating. I'm not sure if these are foolproof methods or whether they affected the bin or not, but I did a number of things. First I washed out the whole thing with fresh rainwater and dumped the drippings that came from the holes in the bottom on my plants. Second I added dry bedding, no added water (there was so much food that the moisture would be absorbed by the newspaper). Third, I took some black soldier fly larvae that I found in my hot compost pile in the back and dumped them in the bin. I left the bin there for about a month. The worm population exploded, and almost all the mites and gnats disappeared, and most importantly the bin began to smell sweet instead of sour.

Did I mention that these little white things don't move? I looked as closely as I could, and I don't see legs. They look like capsules or eggs.

The bin doesn't smell bad, and there is nothing drippy to dispose of. No gnats. There is mold here and there, on food scraps. I excavated to the bottom, and found lots of live worms.

I have gone back in and removed the new bedding and the new food. I'll let that freeze outside for later use. I wiped off all the little white things from the sides and top of the bin. I added a little dry shredded newspaper.

I found a local source for more worms, and I will pick some up to reinforce my bin population.

I don't have a hot compost pile to draw from (which is why I am worm composting). I have a very small yard, and no place to dump anything outdoors in the winter, aside from the trash barrel.

Anyone else have suggestions?

Might the chilly ambient temp in my house be keeping the worm activity at lower levels?

matriarchy,

the worms' comfortable temp. is 70F. 65F is not that much lower and I don't know how sensitive worms are w. temp. swings.
When you said you didn't see legs, did you look at them through a magnify glass? If you did, then I don't know what they are, I am not that knowledgeable.

About outdoor composting, what I have read here somewhere, in the soil,, composting section of GW, there are people with limited yard space who are composting in garbage cans. They just drilled some holes at the bottom and started pilling and layering their compostable w. junk mail, newspaper, cardboard etc. and get their compost that way. You might want to look into it. You can also use the "search" option for the forum and read what people wrote/commented about that.

Or you might just read the thread headers and click whatever seems to be associated with what you want to know.

Otis

matriarchy,
I think you are overfeeding. 100 worms (even if they have reproduced by now) will not be able to handle the amount of garbage you have put in there. The best thing you can do at the moment is to stop feeding for 2 to 4 weeks.

The white specks are probably not eggs, and if you are saying they don't move, I can only hazard a guess that you may have some other critter in your bin that is producing these things. They may be cocoons for flies or gnats or since you have quite a cold setup they may still be mites that are just too cold too move. Maybe try to look at some using a magnifying glass or microscope. And if possible post some pictures of the "specks".

Thanks
Alex

Yes, take out the large chunks of food and add dry bedding. Wait a few weeks and you may have to add more dry bedding. I started my brother out with 50-100 worms. He now has a bin full of worms and compost 9 months later because he fed them little shreds of fruit/vege and forgot about them in the closet for weeks at a time; not bothering or overfeeding.

It looks like fungus gnat/ fruit fly larvae to me.

Taking off from Otis11's suggestion, if you want to try a simple in-ground composter, here are instructions posted by Seattle Tilth.

http://www.seattletilth.org/resources/articles/HomemadeFoodDigester.pdf

It is similiar to the Green Cone system which I lust after
http://www.seattletilth.org/resources/articles/green_cone.pdf
-- but I don't have a yard.

Here is a link that might be useful: Homemade Food Scrap Digester

My primary purpose for having worms is to process my kitchen waste. If I am freezing all my waste, when will the worms catch up? How may worms SHOULD I have in order to have enough to eat about 5 pounds of vegetable waste per week?

In the winter, we eat a lot of apples, pears, squash, cabbage, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, carrots, and parsnips - all of which produce peels. In the spring we will move to more greens, asparagus, strawberries... and then the canning season will start again.

So, how can I figure out what my "worm build out" should look like to really process all that waste into compost?

They eat their own weight in food everyday, double in population every 2-3 months if comfortable, and there are about 1000 wigglers in a pound. You're looking at close to a year to get enough to handle 5 pounds of scraps per week. Better start a compost pile to get rid of the excess for now and be patient.

... or buy another pound of worms ;-)

I think that is going to be my plan, pyropunk. I just found someone locally with worms to share. I will get a pound, and start a clean new bin for them. I will fish the old worm out of the old bin and add them to the new, then put the old bin outside to freeze hard for a few weeks, hopefully killing the mites. I will just bury that stuff later.

Thanks for the calculations, eric30. If I get a pound of worms, they should eat 3-5 pounds of waste each week after they get settled in. I will start grinding the waste, too.

If they reproduce in 2-3 months, I can just start another bin, or help someone else get started. I had to look hard for local worms, so I bet I wouldn't have trouble Freecycling or craigslisting them.

Thanks for helping me with this, everyone!

They will eat 3 to 5 pounds of food per week AFTER they get settled in, which can take 3 to 6 months.

You don't want to start giving away your worms too soon. Wait about 6 months, or maybe a year. Then your breeding stock will be large enough that you can give away about a pound per month without significantly thinning your herd.

Thank you, sbryce. I didn't realize the settling in would take so long. I will plan to trench compost most of my waste for a longer period of time.

Does this make me a "worm herder"?

It really varies. Just don't feed your worms more than they are eating. As time goes on, the food will get eaten faster.

I jump started my bin by tossing in some partially finished non-vermi compost. It still took a month to get things moving. (My worms preferred the compost to the kitchen scraps.) Now, three months later, I can feed them fairly heavily. But there is still room for the worms to spread out. I don't expect the bin to be at its full capacity for at least another 3 months.

I think your plan to trench compost is good. Feed your worms what they will eat, and trench compost the rest.

though @ times I may cut up the food scraps. I don't recommend doing that all the time as that just makes it break down too quick and heat up. I do feed my worms quite a lot of food but don't take much time in preparing the food as when your bin is fully operational they just plow through the food quickly. the bigger pieces of food create more air flow and a less moist of an environment. if you do cut up or process the food scraps then sprinkle lots of egg shells on the food to provide the alkalinity in case the food heats up and throws off the balance of the bin.

Matriarachy:
I don't think you need to start a new bin - I've had mite eggs before (the brown ones), wiped them off with a paper towel and that was it for many weeks.
How many in your household? For me it is just me and hubby and our kitchen waste fills a half-gallon milk container (we leave in the sink) weekly. As I dump stuff in there, I have a kitchen scissors handy and I cut things up - banana peels, veggie peelings, tea bags - I used to grind everything up nice but I'm not that OCD (compulsive) anymore!

My worms seem to keep up - and in my 100 gallon cooler (with holes & pvc pipe with holes) I dump/share the black gold every 3 months. I started my first little bin/bucket in August 2007. There was a population explosion and I graduated to a rubbermaid container (18 gallon?) and then one of hubby's fishing coolers started to go junk so I salvaged it, with his help and have a huge bin on our lanai/balcony (apartment living).

On top of our veggie waste (yes and eggshells and once a week coffee grounds) I shred all our paper towel tubes, weekly (junk mail) newspaper tabloids and paperboard that makes it to our door.

Eventually you'll keep up with your worms. . . or is it they will keep up with you!

Good luck and have lots & lots of fun!!

My bin has similar looking things in it,but when I mashed them with a knife they were gritty like little pieces of sand. Not eggs or cocoons, just little gritty stuff in that bin. Go figure.

I thought I should post an update about my worm progress. There are still some white egg-looking things, but many seem to have dried up. I got a magnifying glass and looked at them for a while. A few of them started moving after a while, so I think they ARE mites of some kind. I wiped most of them off the sides with a damp paper towel, and now there are fewer of them each time I wipe.

We did get fruit flies, but not from the worm bin. I brought home a pineapple that was infested, and they just love my fruit-filled house. A few of them found the worm bin, but it has not been the major problem. I changed our routine so that fruit gets processed (into applesauce, or per butter, or jam etc) as soon as it is brought home. Fruit for eating goes in the fridge. Dried fruit is in sealed mason jars. No more ripening fruit sitting around. I also set out some cider-vinegar fruit fly traps, which are slowly helping. All my produce scraps now go outside in a bucket on the porch. I will bury them when the ground is workable.

The worm bin itself seems healthy. The oldest bedding, food, and cardboard seems to be compost now. The new bedding I added is decomposing. When I stir it up, I find lots of healthy-looking worms in action. There are also other teeny organisms that look interesting. but nothing in over-supply. No bad smells, not too much mold, no leakage from the drain holes.

I plan to get more worms, add a few to this first box, and start a second (maybe third) bin. We do produce a lot of veg scraps. Just today, we produced four banana skins, a winter squash rind, two pear peels, pepper trimmings, leftover rice, three tea bags, and some carrot peels. And I didn't even can anything!

Tracy Brant, I have recently started my own worm farm and after about a month I found the same white little egg looking things all over the sides of the bowel the worms were kept in. They are definitely not crawling around, they just look like eggs. I have not seen any fruit flies or other bugs around. I will be curious to know if yours develop into anything. I have just moved my worms to their permanent home outside in a box I made for them. I will let you know if mine develop into anything as well. I really can't imagine what else would have laid so many eggs without there being any bugs seen. But you are right, they don't look anything like the little red cocoons that are said to be worm eggs.

Allison I don't know if you will get a reply from Tracy. The OP was January 21, 2009. And the last, right above yours Feb 25, 2009.

I didn't read the whole thread but you may want to.

Allison... white mites move very slowly, really slowly... only slightly faster than the minute hand on your kitchen clock. Brown mites move much faster. The white specks in the OP's picture are white mites. They proliferate when the moisture levels are very high in the bin and especially when there is a lot of sweet fruit in the bin. Just wipe them up with a paper towel every time you see a bunch on the sides of the bin... leave the lid off and add a ton of paper/cardboard shreds and fluff the bin contents daily and do not feed again until the mite population explosion has subsided. The good news is they don't harm your worms... apparently they help decompose/digest the wet , sweet foods and thus help your worms keep up... and if you currently aren't seeing many worms I suggest that your worms are likely just below the surface trying to avoid the multitude of mites on the surface... my guess is the worms probably find it irritating to have white mites walking all over their body. If you don't have a drain in the bottom of your bin, put one in and let any leachate drain out. Don't forget: leave the lid off, do not feed and fluff the bin daily.

For those that dont know cocoons are small round and gel like. But not so small that you cant see them especially if you have a lot of them. If your herd is small you may have a lot of them but if you have thousands you may not see them. Its been said worms regulate themselves. Also even though you may not see cocoons you may see tiny red worms which lets you know they are there. Anymore at harvest time unless I see lots of cocoons I dont even look for them and the vc gets moved on to the storage container . There were times in the early days where I might separate 50-60 eggs from the mix but I dont see that now. My bins are tier style so the eggs have time to hatch as the trays move from top to bottom naturally in the rotation so its not surprising that Im now not seeing eggs .

To me, worm cocoons look like teensy-tiny footballs! :-) Do a Google image search for red wiggler worm cocoons for a plethora of good photos, including size examples..

Even with 2 Rubbermaid bins, my hubby & I generate more veggie scraps than the worms can handle, plus my herd does not do well with potato peelings at all, and I make coffee daily, which is more grounds than they want, too. So I have a nice stainless-steel gallon pail with firmly-fitting lid that lives under the kitchen sink and collects surplus peelings and other stuff the worms shouldn't have but is OK for the outside bins where earthworms and more micro-fauna abound. From the under-the-sink area, if the weather is not conducive (i.e., too freakin' cold for me to bother!), instead of lugging it out to the Earth Machine bin, I will empty the gallon bucket into a 5-gallon plastic bucket out on the screened porch where varmints cannot get at it and where it pretty much stays frozen & smell-free until I feel like going outdoors when the weather moderates.

When I dump a pail full of rotten stuff into the Earth Machine, I stir it about a bit and top it off with handfuls of shredded leaves mixed with grass clippings that I piled up nearby in the fall in order to add some brown matter. I just keep layering stuff in there all winter and let it take its time breaking down. I also have a separate compost pile that is more of a working pile into which I shred garden debris and do turn periodically.

I had them as well. Slow down the feeding and put a corn cob or melon rhine on the surface of the worm's bedding. the mites will gravitate to it so let them cover it then simply remove it. There will still be some mites throughout the bin but you can remove large quantities of them at once doing that. There will be a massive amount of worms under the corncob (they just love cobs) but only a few actually inside it - look for those guys before throwing the cob in the trash. This has worked really well for me after my first infestation. Good luck.

ah, the bait and switch. Good strategy.