Novice at worms

14 years ago

Yesterday I set up my vermicomposting system in our basement along with a good amount of food processor processed vegetable scraps. Today I went down to put more pureed scraps in the ben. To my surprise a couple hundred of our red wigglers were up to the top of the 18 inch-tall walls, and even on the lid. I think I have a moving problem. My worms want to move out.

Any ideas what is happening? I'm a novice at this and want this to be a good project.

Thanks,

Pat

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Comments (4)

colin3
14 years ago
1. How much bedding do you have, and what kind? Overall, what went into the bin to get it started?

2. This could be overfeeding. I'd start out with very little food and wait for it to be absorbed before adding more.

3. Keeping the light on will discourage the worms from leaving. Even with a totally well set-up bin, worms may not get the message that this is their new home for a few days.

And it will work out fine! Worms are tough little things. Happy composting.
VegasGardener
14 years ago
definitely using very little at first is good. I only had one banana's peel in there to start mine. When it was pretty much getting devoured I slowly ramped it up. Maybe by a month or 2 after starting I started putting in whatever scraps I had.
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sbryce_gw
14 years ago
It is hard to say what the problem might be, but worms can take a while to adjust to a new environment. Keep the light on for a few days. That will encourage them to stay down in the bedding. Don't feed for while, but if you can get your hands on some compost or horse manure, that will help get the bin established. Even digging down into an old pile of grass clippings to get to the black, crumbly stuff at the bottom will be good.
Celbrise
14 years ago
1. too moist?
2. too much food - i think this is your main problem
3. new bin - adventurous worms ( try keeping a light on them for a few days just a lamp or something not too close to the bin to dry it out though ) this will encourage them to stay in.

4. air circulation- is their holes in the bin?

if too moist add more bedding add it dry obviously.
if too much food which i think is your problem STOP FEEDING for 2 weeks. you just got the worm don't be so hasty they will not eat a lot at first. i got my worms about 1-2 weeks ago and just recently they started to eat more. also do not keep feeding until all food is gone or at least majority of it is gone. if their is no air circulation make some. my bins only have holes at the top not the bottoms so i need to make sure not to over feed so water doesn't build up at the bottom and also not to water as often as i would. at first when i got the worms i got 1 escapee rest stayed inside. had a couple problems the past week tried fixing it up and now they are doing great.

if all your worms are crawling out something is wrong. not even my worms all crawled out. least they did was hang out in the sides in the middle area half way up to the surface they didn't crawl out nor to the top though.

if you watch a couple vermicomposting vids on youtube you will get a decent knowledge of how to make the bedding i assume your problem is not the bedding itself but over feeding cut back on the food open the bin shine a light on it and they will crawl down leave it like this for about 2weeks check on moisture daily that is about it. atm you are probably overfeeding they do eat a lot just not at first