I had to laugh at your "f-ing mite" comment. That is exactly the way I feel!

I have had a couple of mite infestations recently--and I THINK my problem is because of the coffee grounds.

After my last infestation, as a test I didn't add any coffee grounds. The mites seemed to disappear fairly quickly.

I added coffee grounds again, and they came back in full force.

I am guessing it has something to do with the coffee grounds being acidic. I'm not putting any more coffee grounds in the bin. And the lid is off to help dry it out--but it doesn't seem like moisture is the problem--it's noat that wet.

I hope someone has a solution for us.

I have red mites (I think? tiny red round things) too but not really in a quantity I'm worried about and the wrigglers are doing fine.

I have coffee grounds and egg crates too in my bin.

Oh boy! This is so near to my heart. Well, not my heart....my anger. I've been fighting on ongoing battle with the little bast...s forever it seems. My bins aren't wet, I never feed the worms till the previous food is gone, I don't put liquid, blended food in, yet I get mites.

I just harvested my bins, WASHED all my worms and put them in new bedding/bins. I'm watching very carefully for mites.
When I noticed mites the very first time, they were crawling on my cardboard. I've since stopped using cardboard in my bins.

I've had people tell me not to freeze my food, (which is my preference to aid in breaking it down, and to prevent a fruit-fly infestation. But when I thaw it out, the food is dry and crumbly (I use the processor so the food is in small pieces).

I'm not going to add coffee grounds any more either to see if it helps not get such a mite bloom. Some mites are okay, but they were on the food, and the worms weren't.

I've used coffee grounds and cardboard and never had a mite problem. Mites live in the ground and on plants so you may have them migrating into your bins from the locale. My bins are in the back of the garage, about 25 feet from the driveway. I still get the BSFs in summertime, but no mites. Cheryl

Seamommy...I live in Alaska. I don't see how those frigging mites can be migrating into my bin from the ground. My bin is in my garage, and the ground is frozen solid and covered with snow.

Jasdip...Now that you mention it, I have been using some corregated cardboard in the bin. I will stop using it and see if that also makes a difference.

What really, really annoys me about the whole thing is...WHERE to the mites (and other critters) come from?

I'm starting to think they either come off the worms or from some of the foods I feed them.

I don't see how they can come from the foods, though, because I freeze the food for several weeks before thawing and adding to the worm bin.

What are BSFs?

Thanks,
Gina

Hi gmt,
BSF = black soldier flies

Are these mites detrimental to your worms?

The mites normally aren't detrimental to the worms at all....they help compost the food, and they can live together quite comfortably. But in large quantities, the worms will shy away from the food because there are so many mites.

I've had mites pretty much steady, but this last bout was the most. The worms were actually down underneath and the mites were all over the food. Poor worms!

My bins are all inside my apartment, so they didn't come from outside. There are lots of microscopic critters all helping the worms turn the food into gold, but the mites are the most common aggravation, I find. We won't have Black Soldier Fly Larvae indoors, but they are ravenous eaters.

UPDATE:
Since I've started taking the moist egg crate cardboard out and there is no food (except coffee grounds) and I've let the newspaper and some of the bedding dry out, guess where the mites are now???? They are swarming all over the worms they can find that are still near the top of the bin. Most of the worms have fled underneath.

It sounds like no one has an answer and there seems to be no set rule since everyone is having a different outcome. I'm taking all the worms out, rinsing them and putting them in a fresh tray. I'll leave the mites and compost to see if any babies hatch. I can't take any more of this.

I've been putting fruit peels in to try to lure the mites and pull them out but the problem is just way too big.

Thanks for all your help!

remarkikkin,
The only time I have large numbers of mites in my bin is when I have too much food in there. I'm not saying that's what your problem is, though. When I have had that problem, I found that taking a 2 sheets of paper towel, one on top of the other, moistening them (not dripping wet, but quite moist) and then laying them on the top of the VC attracted lots of the little buggers. Then I'd take the paper towel outside, snap it, and bye-bye mites. (You might have to leave the paper towel outside to dry off first and then snap). Repeat the process. This isn't something you'd want to do on an ongoing basis, but it might work to help control a spike in their numbers. Good luck!

When i had my big mite problem i had so many mites that my compost felt like it was full of sand. I found a avocado shell that was full of them and nothing else.

I tried all kinds of methods to get rid of them without much success. Then one day i stumbled onto a method that worked for me. I had overfed watermelon and wanted to "save" the food value in the lecheat (the drippings from the bin). I poured the leachet into a coffee filter let it filter through and placed it inside the bin. In the morning the filter was full of mites. I had discovered my mite trap. At first i got over half a cup of mites at a time.

I would take the filters outside and dumped them out. Let the filter dry out killing the remaining mites. Re-wet it and reuse the filter again. I used a couple filters trading them around every other night.

I did need to wet the area around and under the filter. It sort of made a highway leading the mites to the filter. If you don't have any lecheat in your dry bin try a little juice and say a apple core. Or something you have found that the mites really like.

In 10 days i got almost a quart of mites out of a 18 gallon bin. After that i never got as many in my filters and the mites didn't seem to come back in such high numbers. I believe it was just a matter of less mites so the worms had a chance to get to the food first.

I read in one of them school papers (maybe NC State) that mites can be stopped by adding lime to the bin. I've done that with mine and it seems to work.

steamyb...what kind of lime did you add?

FURTHER UPDATE:

Over the weekend, I moved as many worms as I could save into a new bin with nothing in it but newspaper and some old compost from a harvesting I did a while back. I'm not going to feed them for awhile but I find I need to spritz the newspaper with water every couple of days or it gets all dried out. I'm finding some dead worms inside now, with a little blood around the newspaper they're on. Maybe they were injured in the transfer? Maybe something else I'm doing is killing them? Could the particular newspaper I'm using be toxic? It's a legal publication so maybe that's what's killing them!!! LOL. Actually, it's not funny at all - I'm running a death camp here. I'm afraid to feed the poor things because I don't want the mites back but now I feel like they're just dying of drought. Anyone?

I kept my mite compost in a separate bin because I imagine it has lots of eggs in it and I'm hoping those worms will hatch and have a fighting chance against the mites.

Who knew this could be such a nightmare!! I think I need a mentor. Anyone in SF? I'll feed you dinner if you come over and help me!

FINAL FOLLOW-UP:

Great news! Checked on the worms today and they seem so much better! They're crawling all around their new home and I didn't see any dead ones lying around. I'm guessing the dead ones i saw yesterday were injured in the transfer.

I gave the worms a tiny piece of pear today to see if they swarmed to it. We'll see in the next couple of days. All seems normal now though. Two things I'm going to stay completely away from for awhile: coffee grounds and cardboard egg cartons - those seemed to be the culprits!

Thanks for all your help!!

I think some one asked about BSF and if they are bad for the worms. No, Black Solder Fly larva and worms can exist quite happily in the same bin. True, BSF larva prefer a warmer, wetter, stinkier environment than worms might want but their comfort zones do overlap enough for them to co-exist just fine. I usually have more BSF Larva in my bins in summer (outdoor bins in complete shade, Florida climate.)

I've never noticed mites as being a problem in my bin (I'm sure there are mites in our bins but I don't think they are bothering the worms) but our worms seem to thrive on a bit of neglect so long as the bins don't dry out too much in the heat of summer. Corrugated cardboard is our primary bedding. I do have the feet of our bins in containers of mineral oil to keep ants (and probably other crawling insects) from climbing up the bins. Ants love worm castings and a liquid barrier is the only way I know to keep them out.

Good Luck

It helped when I started covering new food with old vericompost, or moistened coconut coir.
Coconut coir is not that expensive, and is a renewable resource. It is worth it. Uncovered rotting food attracts unwanted pests.

The mites are after the acidic stuff in the bin. And my bin is in my kitchen so coming up from the ground isn't a possibility. I think mites in different areas are a little different in behavior. And the mites that infested my bin cut my worm population in half as well. I haven't purchased any sand to substitute for grit just yet but plan to. I don't like buying stuff for the bin, but the mites are not allowed to come back, so acidic stuff doesn't go in the bin. My worms were very stressed and weak from the whole mite/gnat infestation and they're just beginning to thrive again. But they're being spoiled because I've purchased the end of the season melons for them to chow on to get their strength back up. Soon they'll be back on their regular eat anything diets.

I hate to say this but I think mites are inevitable, no matter what you feed or what bedding you use. You get a few eggs somehow and they will eventually multiply into numbers you cringe to look at.

Those of you who think you have licked them will probably find them if you look close. I have a couple flowthru's. Generally I do not see mites when I look into my bins, but I harvest frequently and as I begin to collect the cocoons from the castings, I see the mites. Not at first..they tend to dive down and concentrate at the bottom. But as I pull castings and remove the eggs, it seems to drive the mites until they are in numbers that are hard to avoid.

If there is a real cure, I will be happy to embrace it, but I am not going to change my way of raising worms for their sake. I have to admit, I do not let my wife look at the worms/castings closely (not that she would want to). She would freak if she saw those 'other than worm critters".

diatomaceous earth (DE) will kill the mites, just sprinkle it in with your compost can mix it or leave it on the top, probably most effective to have it on the top but doing some of both should help. ive had worm bins and chickens for a long time in hawaii and sometimes the red mites attack the chickens and sometimes the worm bins, DE is an easy cheap solution, good luck.

ps DE will not harm the worms reference: http://www.wormfarmingrevealed.com/diatomaceous-earth.html