Matted bedding, escaping worms-help with newish bin

18 years ago

I've have a homemade indoor bin for about six weeks. I'm using newspaper strips for bedding. Things seemed to be going OK to start, then I think I overfed; I removed excess food and tried to let worms adjust.

I checked them last week and they didn't seem to be eating as much as I thought they should (I've since learned to adjust my expectations), so I started poking around and noticed that the bedding was really matted and blocking the drainage holes on the bottom. I attempted to stir it up a bit to get some aeration going on, as I was also concerned they might not be getting enough air.

Now, worms seem to be unhappy and some are trying to escape. I understand this is a symptom of them not being happy with their environment. The only thing I can think of as problems are possibly not enough air (somewhat heavy condensation on the inside of the lid--is that normal? will drill more holes), too wet (added dry newspaper strips on top to absorb additional moisture), too much citrus in the food (made margaritas recently ;)), or too crowded (~2# in 6 gallon Rubbermaid bin).

Overall, however, the bin seems OK--it has a nice earthy smell, and other than a few rebels that are escaping, most seem OK.

I guess my questions are:

Should I be concerned about the matted bedding?

The worms aren't really coming up to get the food as I expected they would (I bury it some but not all the way). Am I just expecting them to eat too much too fast?

I can do pictures/video if it would help to see what's going on.

Thanks much for any pointers!

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Comments (5)

tclynx
18 years ago
You do need to be patient with the worms early on. They seem to take a couple of months to ramp up to proper feeding (the bin needs to mature enough to transform the food waste into what the worms actually eat.) See the worms don't actually eat your food scraps, they eat the microbes that are decomposing the food scraps.

Paper bedding does have the tendency to become matted. That is one reason I like shredded or ripped up corrugated cardboard as bedding, it tends not to matt or ball up the same way. Fluffing the bedding up occasionally is fine. Make sure bedding is only as moist as a wrung out sponge.
It is ok if the top layer of shredded paper drys out a bit so long as the bedding under stays moist. A large chunk of cardboard, newspaper, or paper bag layed over the top of the bedding is often done.

good luck and be patient.

Here is a link that might be useful: My bins
herwitsend
18 years ago
I agree,It is slow going at the beginning. It takes a while for the little ecosystem to start working. I didn't have my first "real" harvest for at least 4 months. After that, though I have been able to harvest a good amount of castings about every 6-8 weeks (until I nearly killed them all off, but that's another thread).
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growsveges
18 years ago
I just started my bin 2 weeks ago in an 18 gallon bin with 1# of worms and was wondering if that was enough room! I'm obviously no expert, but maybe some of your worms are looking for some extra space?
The dimensions of bedding in my bin(I'm using shredded paper and peat and a little soil) are 1.5x1x.5 feet. According to Worms Eat My Garbage, if I'm reading it right, I should have closer to 4 square feet of feeding space for 1 lb of worms eating 1/2 pound of food/day.
Looking forward to hearing more replies.
kelser01
18 years ago
I just wanted to bump this last post as Im wondering how may cubed feet of bedding per lb of worms too.
dontodd
Original Author
18 years ago
@tclynx and herwitsend, thanks for the feedback, I thought I would get an email when somebody posted a follow-up, I'm glad I checked back! I added some shredded cardboard and put a wet piece of cardboard on top and I'm just going to let them be.