I don't go through a great deal of effort to remove the worms, but this is how I harvest my vermicompost without losing too many worms:
Get one of those plastic dough-scrapers. It's a semi-stiff piece of plastic about 6-inches long, 4-inches tall, and 1/8-inch thick or so (Maybe $2 in the cooking section of a department store, or use any stiff-but-flexible piece of plastic). Place your worm bin somewhere with good light. Take the lid off and expose the bin to the light for 5-10 minutes, and all the worms will start to move down into the bin to hide. Scrape off the top 1/4 or 1/2 inch layer, and then walk away for 5-10 minutes. Any exposed worms will crawl down lower. Scrape off another 1/2-inch layer and walk away.

When I do this, it takes a couple of hours to clean out one tray of my can-o-worms, but my actual work-time is maybe 10 minutes. 15 minutes if you count washing my hands after each scrape. I get a minimum number of worms in my finished compost and a maximum number of worms left in the bin.

Emily in snowy Fairbanks

That sounds doable, Emily. Thanks.

I was at a lecture about worm composting and the "Worm Ladies of Charlestown, RI" suggested putting the food scraps in one of those mesh bags that oranges come in -- all of the worms go into the bag and you can just lift it up and clear out the castings. Also, they said that if you put a half a canteloupe in the bin they will all gather in the "bowl."

Great harvesting advice! I too shine a simple shoplight over my bins (two with several thousand happy workers in each) and harvest with my hands. Easy, effective and not messy. I have not found the need to use a scraper of sorts but this sounds like a good idea if needed.

I also like the idea of using the mesh bag. I will try it and see how it works.

BTW, anyone have pictures to share of commercial separating techniques or at least involving high volume? Inexpensive and effective storage techniques?

Wormly,

CD