Tina..Stay calm, everything is fine. Drainage is important. If you have the environment to the worms liking,(air, temperature, moisture, feed), they have no place they would rather be. If the environment is not to their liking, they will leave, and they can fit through screening if they want to. So just concentrate on making their environment one that meets their needs.

Mine do not leave thru the 1/4 inch holes in mine, Unless there is something wrong (too wet, large food spot overheats)

And, if something is bad, they survive in the catch bin until I fix it.

Drainage holes arent mandatory, but without them, youll have to check up on your worms more often. Screen will make it slower for them to leave, but they can pass through it. If you use screen, make sure you fasten the edges well- its no fun getting the little wires poking your fingers all the time. good luck!

As everyone has said, they ain't going anywhere if you keep em happy. Feed them veggie scraps, paper, cardboard...anything except meat and fat. Keep them a little moist...not enough for water to run out of the bin. Most people put in way more holes than are necessary...actually, only one hole is necessary...if you give em food and water, just leave the top off.

You're doing what everyone does at first...worrying way more than you have to. If some of them explore the bin, and climb the walls and "roof", they aren't trying to leave. If they want to go, you will know it.

Chuckiebtoo

Be cool, and keep the vermi cool. They want shade, at least, and air conditioning, if given the choice.

Oh crap, I'm sorry to alarm you. I didn't get my thought across very well did I! I'm the one who wrote:

"Also I didn't hear mention of a catch basin or collection tray. I think with 1/4 in . holes, lots of worms will be getting out."

What I meant to convey was more about if you had a collection bin, and if not to consider one. The 1/4 in holes are fine, but from my experience worms will get out of them, and if you don't have a collection bin, and have the bin elevated for the ants, they may end up as floor crispies.

The reason I brought this up is that I'm new at this too (only 6 month in), and still can not stand to see even 1 dried up on the floor. Kelly had a good point, they're not pets, however I still consider them pets! Also, you had mentioned about watering them. You recall my reply on how I was told to add a cup of water a day, which didn't work? I think this may have flushed worms into the collection tray, or maybe sent them hiking down there, but I had a good amount in my collection tray, and escaping through the spigot. Luckilly I caught it in time, and have a cup under the spigot, so I only lost 2 that day. Their poor little marks are still on the garage floor, and it still upsets me.

So I appologize on freaking you out. I am also new at this, so I'll be more careful on my future posts. I really should just be listening and talking to chuckieboo about aliens and beer in his bins, not giving advice.

::sorry!::

Swamp

Hi Swamp,

You are cool! I totally forgive you!

I wasn't really freaked out just like "grrrr...I have to make another trip to Walmart for a new hole-less bin!" With two kids, 4 yo and almost 2 yo, trips to Walmart aren't quite as easy as they used to be (esp when your husband is on travel)! But it gives me a great opportunity to work on my parenting so if I had to go, it would have been fine!

Thanks for all the help. This is a great forum.

The worms should be here today and we're all thrilled - can't wait to see my 2 yo with them. He loves to handle the little guys! This is a great opportunity to work on "g e n t l e"! I'll fill you in on how many worms go to worm heaven in the process of learning this (hopefully not many, when he handled my friend's worms, he was tickled and was very gentle).
:)
Have a great week,
Tina

Hi Tina,

I'm a mom of a 2-year old and 5-year-old also, and my 2-year-old actually got so disgusted by the smell that he puked all over me! Unfortunately the puke didn't go into the bin, so I had to clean it up instead of letting the worms do it. ;-)

Lynnette

Hey gals,
I have 10yo, 6yo, and 2yo! I know exactly what you're talking about--leaving the house is like a hour long battle! My 10yo daughter loves worming. That's how we got into it. We were at a garden show, and she just went bizzerk over all the worm stuff.

I love hearing you guys have kids too! Glad I'm not the only 'weird mom'. I'm thinking about doing mini worm bins for a Girl Scout project...any ideas on what to use as the 'mini bin'?

I'll jump in! I've got at 5yo and 2yo and they both love the worms. My daughter got a "worm theme" 4th birthday and we did a MOMS club vermicomposting workshop this year. You're definitely not the only 'wierd mom'.

You might try a plastic bottle or something for the mini bin. It could have a cover around it and they could take it off periodically to see what's going on inside. I feel like I read somewhere about how to do that for kids, but I don't remember where the site is now. Something about layering the soil, bedding, and food kind of like one of those sand sculptures and eventually the worms mix it all up.

Take care,
Mariann

I'm going to start a new post 'moms and worms!'

I have 1/4-inch holes all over my tote bin, including along the bottom for drainage, and have never seen an escapee (or slimy-trail evidence of one). You'll be fine!

Sue

swampboogiequeen..(love the name).. I did a presentation to a cub scout day camp this summer. Although I do many classroom presentations around our county, I forgot to ask an important question when asked to do this. The question: How many? It ended up there were at least 200 per 45 minute presentation..eek! The first presentation was wild but ened up well. I went home and put my one little brain cell to work on the next 2 presentations. I came up with mini bins..made out of quart Gladware containers. Now, they were for observation that day, but could be wrapped in dark paper, or put inside a shoebox or something to keep them dark. I am sending a slideshow of one of the presentations.

Here is a link that might be useful: Presentation with Cub Scouts

Excellent pics! Thanks for the info. I am not near as cool as you, because having 200+ kids would = me taking a lot of xanax. I'm stressed out about just 10. The pictures were great though, a good starting point for me may be the kids just digging in and getting a feel for it. I also am secretly hoping the other parents will be so freaked out about the kids bringing home worms, they won't have me do meetings anymore.

With that said, please tell me you're not the gent in the pictures wearing the blue flower-print short that ride up the ho-haa!

SQH1,

A stupid question: how do you fluff the paper strips to end up like the ones on the slide? When I tried it, I didn't get that nice result.

Sylvie

swampboogiequeen...LOL, no that's not me in the shorts. I am a mom of 3 girls,(17,14,and 11)(There is MY reason for the Xanax!)
Sylvie..Strip cut newspaper is easy to fluff up, if it is not overly wet. Just take a handful of dampened paper and shake it out, gently pulling the strips apart.

Thanks SQH1. I guess my paper was too wet.

Sylvie