My plastic bins show the same thing, "stuff" on the sides whenever I check on them. Indeed the worms are crawling up on the sides of your bin and dragging stuff with them. Not so much stuck to them as inside them. What you are looking at is worm poop, or pure castings. I use a squirt bottle to wash them down into the bin but the worms promptly deposit more. No worries.

The little white things are mites and are a normal part of a worm bin. They won't hurt anything, especially you.

Dick

Thanks Dick! That's what I figured but still being a relatively new worm mommy, I just needed some reassurance!

Um, those mites will stay in the bin, won't they? I guess since they're almost exclusively indoor worms, I never really expected to get any intruders. Feeling a little itchy now...

Off to shred more newspaper for the kids. Their bedding is also a bit low I noticed.

I agree with Dick, except I don't wash the stuff off the sides. When it, and the bin sides, dry a little, it will fall off anyway. One of these days, you'll welcome all God's little critters in there...except ants, and roaches, and housefly's. When that happens, you are a worm addict.
There is no cure.

Chuckiebtoo

What about SLUGS? I thought I was addicted. Does this mean I don't qualify because I HATE slugs?

Cath. Actually ants are the biggest pain in the bin.

Cath,

For the ant issue, I tried chili powder and other things around the perimeter with no luck. I got a small container 6 inches high (14cm) high, put a few bricks in it, put the bin on top of the bricks then filled it with water to form a moat. I have had some issues with mosquitos and I thought about using some used or fresh cooking oil instead, but I feared it would attract the insects. I'm using mosquito dunks right now.

Charles

I find more mites when the bin needs bedding. I bet you don't see as many of them after you add more shredded paper.

Mariann

Yeah, I realize now that it was pretty desperate in there for bedding. It was only about 1.5-2" thick at the bottom of the bin I didn't moisten the new bedding as much as the first batch since it's already pretty moist in there, but I'll keep an eye on it. No escapees last night so I guess they're relatively unphased by it.

Ok, I'm going to split hairs with Dick just a bit; it is unlikely that the little white critters are mites, but rather are springtails, an insect common in large numbers in HEALTHY worm bins (mites are not insects but are arachnids). The difference is not really all that important as both mites and springtails are common in healthy systems, but I'm avoiding work and needed a reason to post.

Kelly S

Oh "Springtails" sounds much better than "mites". Semantics really if they're both good for the bin, but I'm a little bit of a bug phobe (okay HUGE bug phobe). Hey, this means I have a healthy bin! Woohoo! *pats self on back*

OK, I thought they were mites too. That's what I would have told you, anyway. Aren't springtails supposed to spring around? Mine don't really jump around. But maybe springing to them looks smaller to me than what I think it should be.

Check out my pics at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/63927549@N00/sets/1137595/

Especially look at the Mite "dust" picture.

Worried about mites/springtails coming out of the bin? I had an experience.

I let the bin alone for a weekend (and I think I had overfed it) and when I came back, there were rings of "dust" around the 6 holes drilled into the top of the rubbermaid bin, and there was ring of "dust" on the kitchen floor around the entire bin. Explosion! Also, there is a "catch" bin beneath the first bin, not designed for critters but just to catch water if needed. The bottom bin was thick with "dust". Upon closer examination, the dust moved. GROSS. I understand your itchy reaction. I mean, I'm ok with the worms, but the little critters just made me feel itchy all over!

That helped my hubby decide that the worms should live in the garage, not the kitchen.

I cannot seem to keep that population under control, no matter what I do. Am I fighting nature to do so? How do I keep them from coming out of the bin?

I just had to laugh (GROSS!). My sentiments exactly but I thought I was the only one on this forum that was grossed-out by these tiny moving critters. I itch all over each time I feed my cute little worms and sometimes when I am reading these posts!
:)
Tina

My springtails seem to like to congregate on the lid. Thus, I take the lid out, and hose it off. Everything gone. No itchy feeling needed. :)

Right now my bin is VERY moist, but no liquid is coming out yet. I have put the last feeding in a mesh bag, and plan to lift out whatever I get in there in the next couple of days, to start a new bin.

The old one will be filled with shreded paper, and just left for a while.

In about a month I will feed again in a mesh bag, hoping a lot of the eggs have hatched and I can transfer them to the new bin too.

Moni

PS, yes, I have stuff all over the sides too, but just ignore it.

Springtails are in the order colembolans, in which there are hundreds of different species, all with similar characteristics, but some differences as well. One of the differences is that some springtails have a hooked apendage, called a furcula, that is attached at the back end of the insect, laying flat along the belly, and is propelled forcefully downward to enable the insect to spring, but many do not. In fact, the majority of springtails common to worm bins lack this furcula, thus, depsite their common name, "springtail", they lack the ability to spring.

Backyard compost piles usually host many of the springing springtails, which are brownish in color, while worm bins tend to be home to the white or grey-ish, non-springing species.

Make sense?

As to the castings on the sides of the bin, they are normal and expected in a healthy system. I will sometimes scrape them off for application to special plants, though I have no data suggesting they are any better than the vermicompost produced in the working zones of the bin. Still, I do it because, data or no, it makes ME feel good, and really, it IS all about me... isn't it?

Kelly S

The most interesting point of Kelly's post with reference to the lack of furcula attached to the "back end" of the springtail encountered in the worm bin environment making them springless in most cases, is, in fact, the unanswered cry-in-the-wilderness question, why.

The second most interesting point is why Kelly left the participle dangling out there for all of us to speculate about. I, for one, with covert operatives, be they native or alien, keeping my worms totally in a state of unease, would like answers....Agent Slocum.

Chuckiebtoo

Sorry Chuckie, but if I told you I'd have to kill you...

Kelly S

P.S. I suppose one could speculate that I simply don't know why some springtails develop furcula while others do not, and that I don't know why the non-springing springtails tend to populate worm bins while springing varieties tend to prefer compost piles, but, really,who would believe that?!?

Moni,

Questions, questions - I'm a newbie so I have a bazillion!

Why a mesh bag (to keep the worms relatively in one clump)? How big of a bag? What and how much do you think you will obtain in a few days? Why only use what is in the mesh bag for the new bin?

Today, i started moving some of my worms to a bigger bin. I started thinking with as many plants as I have to fertilize, I am going to need way more castings than my little bin. It was pretty fun but your post got me to thinking I may have not set it up right. I used some leaves, newspaper, brown paper bags, grass clippings, coffee and a few kitchen scraps to get them started.

How long will you leave the old bin with the shredded paper? Will you put in any foodstock (I'm assuming there are still a lot of worms in there)?

In a month, you will feed again with the mesh bag (old bin?). Where were the eggs that you think may have hatched (old bin?)?

If my brain is dead, please forgive me, it is late here and now I'm going to bed!!!

Have a great weekend everybody.

Tina

Tina,

I believe Moni is using the mesh bag of food as bait to trap her worms and make it easy to move them to the new bin. Instead of feeding her old bin, she'll probably continue to put the mesh bag of food in and use it to attract all the worms that are left in there -- or at least enough to get her new bin fully populated.

Mariann

It is a lazy way to harvest the worms. I don't go through the castings, I let the worms crawl in the mesh bag to get to their feed. Then, when it looks populated I transfer it to the new bin.

As I really don't want to loose any worms, and I really want them to consume EVERYTHING I give them a long time (the ones in the old bin) before I feed again.

Again, to get the worms out of the vermicompost without any work, I transfer to the new bin.

After several times, I have a nice new bin, and a nice amount of castings in the old bin.

You know, those zippered mesh bags you can buy for washing delicates in the washing machine? They work GREAT for this. For a long time I used a mesh bag that oranges came in, but somehow it got lost during the last move.

I add shredded paper as I know, the worms will consume this as well, and it will help dry out the bin somewhat. Later I will transfer the damp partially consumed paper to the newer bin.

The eggs are in the vermicompost. Letting them hatch and then crawl in one of my food bags saves me from looking through the compost to collect them.

Does this answer your questions?

Mariann you got it! :)

Moni

A quick note about the ants.. if you take the mote idea above and replace the water with coffee grounds, keeping the top layer fresh, you will not have any ants, slugs or snails.

The problem with this method is that the worms sometimes like their catch basin better than their bin and move there. :-)

Jim

Holy Goodness, OkliMoni, thats brilliant!

I ended up refilling the bag with more food right away. When I opened the box today I had the new bin ready right next to it. Pulled the bag of foodstuff and worms out, they were hanging all over it. :)

Dumped it in the new bin and layed the mesh bag on top, as there were worms like woven through it. In the bright light they decided to wander off really fast, and I refilled the bag and replaced it in the old bin.

I think, I have a lot more worms than I imagined.

Moni

Well congratulations! I'll definitely have to think about using that strategy when it's time to harvest next year.

Hey, there!
Just so that ALL opinions would be represented, and the newbies thoroughly confused ... :-)

First, I just wanted to point out that I have several types of mites and one of them is definitely white. (And definitely a mite.) It is very round, and slow-moving. I think they are called beetle mites.

When my worms have the right amount of moisture, a good temperature, plenty of good food, and comfy, well-aged bedding, they don't crawl up the sides much. If it gets too wet, too warm from some compost heating up, or there's not enough food for the number of worms in the bin, there is debris all over the inner sides and cover from restless worms, and I'm likely to find worms under the edges of the lid. For me, it seems like high activity of worms leaving the bedding for the sides and top means they are less than happy with conditions. Also, mite blooms often mean excessive wetness, maybe anaerobic conditions developing.

If you had very little bedding, that may have made your worms look around for someplace better. It is also harder to maintain proper moisture levels in only a couple of inches of bedding. Also, if there was very little food, the worms may have been hungry and out searching for more food.

Do other folks here commonly experience major worm-wanderings when you're pretty sure the conditions in the bin are good?
Jill

Yeah, I definitely let the bedding get too low. I'd thrown in a few fern sprigs and they added visible bulk but not any really value as bedding, so I think my eye was deceived a bit. Things seems happy happy now that I've added a bunch of new bedding. Still have the little white things. I don't much care what they are as long as they stay in the bin and help out in there. ;-)

I just wanted to say thanks for all the advice, not just on this thread but all of them here. What a terrific resource you all are. My bin is doing fantastically and I'm sure I owe a lot of that to the expertise I've witnessed here. It can be kind of lonely in worm-fascination-land. I was telling my boss (who is in another city) about how sad I was at having to throw away bag after bag of worm food from our freezer when we evacuated for Hurrican Rita a few weeks ago and explaining to him about the worm bin. I got nothing but stone cold silence on the line and then he immediately changed the subject. It was like I'd just told him I microwave kittens and make kitten pie out of them! So, my point is, it's so nice to have a place where people get, support, encourage, etc. this practice of keeping a big box of worms in my house! :-)

Amen hgalindo!

This forum has wonderful members who are very helpful and friendly. I try to keep spreading the virtues of vermicomposting to others in my life in the hopes of getting them to try it out.

I just happened to find a reference in a gardening book while perusing through a bookstore and that started my journey. I'm glad I picked up that book :)