What causes excess moisture

19 years ago

I am new to this. I was away and left my bin alone for three weeks. I came back to a very wet (puddles in the bottom collection tray, very wet compost in upper trays) and tiny grey bugs on the top layer , not to mention a million fruit flies in my kitchen. I have read all the posts and see how to reduce the moisture, and how important it is to reduce moisture (add cardboard, leave things open, aerate)...but what I don't know is what caused this excessive moisture when I don't think I did anything different than usual - same foods, same bedding.

And - do I need to do anything about these little grey/brown bugs that look like a layer of dust in my leachate?

Thanks so much. I do enjoy my worms, and generally find this "relaxing" but I am very concerned.

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Comments (4)

carmellia
19 years ago
I have just had something similar happen to me. In fact, my worms tried to kill themselves. I don't think Ive got many live ones left, and I wasn't gone all that long.

My best guess is that I put in too much fruit instead of balancing fruit (banana, peach, apple, tomato) with stuff that has a lower moisture content (carrots, orange peel, celery.

The only bright spot is that I poured off a very nice amount of casting tea. But I think it killed my worms. Carmania
chuckiebtoo
19 years ago
The moisture had to come from the food you put in. If you were planning to not look in on them for 3 weeks, did you feed too much?

The bugs shouldn't be in your leachate...mainly because you really shouldn't have leachate. It's just excess moisture.

"The only bright spot is that I poured off a very nice amount of casting tea."

Again, all that is is leachate, and all leachate is is too much water. Brown because it's leached through unprocessed worm compost, but water. It has no redeeming qualities other than as a drink for your plants.

Chuckiebtoo
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albany
Original Author
19 years ago
So, excess moisture is just due to the food I put in; perhaps they need more fiber.

I do have a brown/grey "dust cover" (of tiny bugs) in what is draining out, and a cover of what looks like sawdust in the top layer of the bin. Do I need to get rid of these? What is it?

What are the "beneficial" bugs and what do they look like?

Thanks.
squeeze
19 years ago
all bugs are "beneficial" - there are dozens of organisms that are a normal part of the decomposition process and avoidance of most requires maintaining certain conditions - drier is better, especially right at the surface, within the limits of what the worms need

food waste of any kind [including carrots, orange peel, celery, Carmania] has a very high water content and needs to be combined with absorbant carbon, especially some that will keep the structure open to air circulation .... if you add a 'large amount' of food waste at once then leave it, the mass will quickly become anaerobic and soon be a liquid mess to cause the problems seen

the best bet for leaving a worm bin unattended for long periods is to leave only scattered small amounts of feedstock and put the bin in the coolest location you can with a cover to slow evaporation, the worms can do fine re-processing the bedding material for a long time

Bill