Like you, we have a lot of fruit - mostly orange, lemon, lime peelings. I found adding sawdust on top of the pile, helps to keep things from becoming too wet - the dry stuff also adds the necessary green/brown material, to keep the pile heating up. This winter it was extremely cold, and had a short spell of invasion by rats/coons, so was necessary to cover the adds better. This type of composting - with lots of citrus stuff, isn't quite the same as composting most kitchen-type bits and pieces, and coffee grounds. As a result, I am hesitant to put the finished material directly in my garden. Sometimes I also put in the fallen citrus as well - and it may be a bit moldy. So - have been taking out a bucket after it breaks down, adding it to my hotter decomposing compost piles to finish up. Just my 2 c's. Bejay

I am also a newbie at worm composting and have some questions... Just reading through here had given me so much information and so many ideas! Thank you everyone. I am having some concerns about my worm bin. I have the Rubbermaid style bin with holes in bottom and on sides. It is inside my house and no one even notices it until I point it out. It doesn't smell at all unless I open it, and then it smells like old moldy food. The food scraps I have put in there do not seem to be getting eaten and are getting moldy, I know worms like the decomposing, are they okay with mold? I've stopped adding food, but am hoping to add it soon!! I also have a fly infestation, they are small brownish flies and seem to mostly stay in and around the bin. I would really like to get rid of them, but don't know if they are a menace or harmless. I also don't know how the best way to get rid of them is. I have torn paper and some torn cardboard pieces (all moistened) for bedding, I didn't have much soil to add, but just realized I have a bag of commercial compost I can add some of it if needed. Would that be helpful? I have about 200 worms (according to the container they arrived in) and know we will need more, but am hesitant to order them... I would like to find some in the yard, but am concerned about the how to and about getting the wrong ones... I stopped adding food after the first batch just sat there, but hate throwing away good worm food/compost material. Any suggestions? I have tried local cooperative extension offices and waste management sources, but no help there. My husband is tolerant at this point, but if it begins to smell worse or if flies get bad, he won't be happy for long! I guess I have more questions than I realized! Thank you all for the help!

I just sent the following email t the manufacturers of the Worm Factory. Following is their not very satisfactory response: I am a fairly new user of a Worm Factory (the real one, I think), but not new to worm composting. I am now on my third tray, and here are the issues I am experiencing: The lid, which sits inside the working bin allows rain water to get into the the bins. The bottom two layers are getting very compacted - about 50% and The finished compost is very wet, almost a clay consistency due to the heavy infiltration of rain. It is very annoying that I need to invent a lid to prevent these issues - I bought a factory made system so that it would not look slap-dash! Question: Is there a good way to dry the mucky bottom layers out? Is there any value in putting some sort of spacer, or stop between the trays to limit the compression? I am only on my third tray but see an awful lot of compression in the lower levels. (some of it due to the weight of the saturate top two trays...) Is there an aesthetically pleasing way to keep the rain out? For the price I did not expect to have this problem. ------------------ And the company's response: "Thanks for the email. I apologize for the issues you've been having. The standard Worm Factory is not meant to sit outside in the rain and if kept outside it needs to be placed somewhere will it not be soaked, like under an overhang or shed. It seems all your issues may be stemming from this. Moisture is an important aspect to be controlled in worm composting, and having your bin soaking wet is no good. The compost should be moist to the touch, but not dripping wet. The best way to dry out the bin is to put some dry sheets of paper down to soak up some of that excess moisture. You do not want to put spacers between the trays as they should be resting directly on top of each other. The reason for this is that the worms can't jump between the top level of compost on the tray below to the tray above, the holes on the bottom of the top tray need to be physically touching the top layer of compost on the bottom tray for the worms to climb through. Unfortunately, the standard Worm Factory was not meant to sit outside in the rain. We did release a newer model, the Worm Factory 360, which comes with a moderately weather proof lid that hangs over the edge of the top tray, and a redesigned base. However, we do not sell the individual components of our models."

How many levels do you have? Maybe it's not a different food but rather an amount all at once? I find worms attempting escape after the addition of too much broccoli stalk unless it's well rotted. I think it has to do with gases released, but I don't know for sure. I just notice that as long as there is the strong smell, the worms are trying to leave, but once the smell subsides the worms seem content to stay down and resume eating, pooping, making more worms. Maybe it's a combo of food or maybe you have peels that have soap of some kind or another chemical on them. Unfortunately, there have been times when a bin suddenly seems inhospitable to worms for a short time and while I try to figure out what went wrong the worms become content again. So, the problem often gets fixed before I even get the opportunity to pinpoint the cause. It often seems aeration is the key. I leave the top off with an LED light on when worms seem unhappy. If it smells bad, I cover it with some leaves. In a worm factory, it's not a bad idea to keep an extra level handy. If the worms seem dissatisfied you can just add bedding to the extra level and put it on top. I use half finished compost since if there is a smell the compost tends to filter it out fairly well and gives the worms something to eat. Shredded phone book works well, too. After a day or two you can then dump the contents into the previous level as the previous level will likely have settled as the water from the food drains down leaving room for the addition. That way the extra level stays an extra level in case you need it again later. Does that make sense? The couple of days (or longer if it that's what it takes) will likely lead to enough rotting and ph balancing to make things hospitable again. I've never noticed worms to be bothered by fruit flies. My outdoor summer bins get them real bad since I top feed those.