That's pretty cool. Do you put it under the container, or do you have to put it in the bin when you start it then plug it in when you are ready to harvest?

That's pretty cool. Do you put it under the container, or do you have to put it in the bin when you start it then plug it in when you are ready to harvest?

The cables are actually inside the bottom bin, not under. The worm castings are just shoveled atop the cables till it slightly heaps over the bin rim. This is to ensure the castings are in direct contact with the mesh bottom of the new bedding / food bin.

I am working on another design built around a heat mat instead of aquarium heating cables. The new design will a built-in part of the worm bin itself that can simply be plugged in when you want to drive all the worms out of the castings into new media.

Honestly, I am really surprised no one thought of this idea before. Once you incorporate sub-media heat to move the worms up, you really never need more than a 2-tiered bin.

Currently, the worm bin heating cables that exist seem geared to maintaining optimal temperatures for worms. The aquarium cables gradually rise to reach a temp range that safely makes the worms uncomfortable.

I won't be surprised to see a manufacturer tweak thermostats and come up with an incorporated worm bin design within a few months. When you see how thoroughly the bin is voided of worms in just a couple hours you'll be a convert. I lost ZERO worms left in the castings...even the tiny baby ones made their vertical escape.

On a larger scale it is easy to see how using sub-litter heat in this way could make a commercial vermicomposting operation more profitable.

Sounds like a great idea and I would love to try it out. What size mesh on top tray? I assume it is placed directly on the soil of lower bin... After they are separated and you remove the castings, do you just dump all the worms back to original bin? (Yes, I am a newbie :) although my worms are multiplying like crazy.) Any other suggestions & info would be a great help. Thanks from Mich

The top fresh bedding tray is really my compost sifter employed for this experiment. The bottom mesh is 1/4 inch.

The tub is filled with enough worm culture so it gets slightly above the rim. This ensures the mature culture stays in contact with the fresh material through the wire mesh.

Once it has all the worms, the contents become the base addition to a restarted worm bin culture.

Wow this is a fantastic idea!!! Thanks!!!

Just starting to explore this topic. What temperature are you getting the soil up to? I'm wondering if the thermostatically controlled germinating mats will get hot enough to do the trick?

Great idea! Do you think I could place a heat pad under the sterilite bin? How warm does it need to get? How warm do your aquarium cables get?

Great idea. I use a seed starting mat to keep my worms warm when in the cool basement during the winter months. Since it is thermostatically controlled it didn't drive the worms out.

But I would think that anything above 80-85* will move the worms up. A heating pad will likely get too warm if it doesn't auto shut off but then you could put it on a timer to shut it off.

IF you don't have the hardware cloth you could drill some 1/4" holes in the bottom of a bin that will fit inside your worm bin. But I would expect you may have some climb the sides of both bins to escape the heat, so a watchful eye would be best.

Thank, gumby_CT

I'll have to try the seed starting mat. Is there one you would recommend? Do you just place your bin on top? This winter was just so cold, that many worms didn't make it. I hope there are enough to keep the bin going.

I bought the seed starting mat off Amazon. I only had a few requirements. It had to be temp controlled and fit my bin size (meaning bottom dimensions). I ended up with this one - Hydrofarm MT10006 9-by-19-1/2-Inch Seedling Heat Mat

I should mention that I keep my worm bin inside another bin instead of a tray. I also use empty pill/vitamin bottles in the bottom of the tray bin to keep the two from getting airlocked (stuck together). Meaning there is an air gap between the two on the bottom.

This works great - you can also use empty soda bottles or blocks of wood. The empty bottles don't add much to the weight.

Before I got the seed mat I used a heating pad but it would shut off after about 30 min. or so. So a heating pad may be also be useful if you have some space between the pad and bin.

HTH

Thank you so much for all the advice. I'm going to go with the heat mat and two bins next winter.

I made one of these a couple weeks ago and placed it in my bin tonite. Within an hour or so I had worms climbing in.

Thank You Boukmn for the idea and concept.

I put the worms that were in the harvester into another bucket today then added more food and returned the harvester. Using this method saved me from drilling holes in a perfectly good bin which I also thought about trying.

I guess if you don't have the hardware cloth that would be another way. But I did have some hardware cloth from a sifter I made several years ago. I also did think about cutting the bottom out of a bin and gluing or screwing some hardware cloth to the bottom.

Since I made this harvester rather small - it fits into the bottom of an empty bin - I might just make a larger one at some future time.