Escaping worms and feeding question

14 years ago

It is hard to get a bright light over my bin where it's in the basement so can I just pick up the couple escaping worms and put them on the paper? I have around 5 that are crawling around near the top of my rubbermaid container near the air holes.

Also, I know overfeeding is a big problem with a new bin but how do you know when it's time to feed. All my food got mixed together in the bin when I had to add cardboard due to bad matting before adding my worms. I did put a small amount of food in the corner the first day I got them. Do I add food when I see worms crawling in that area or does a significant amount of food have to be gone?

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Comments (6)

sbryce_gw
14 years ago
You can put the worms back in the bin, but keep in mind that escapees will dry out and die rather quickly. If they are just crawling up the sides of the bin, they are probably OK.

When to feed again depends a lot on how much you are feeding them. I generally feed when the last food I gave them is pretty much unidentifiable. If you are feeding small amounts, or you are feeding foods that decompose slowly, you can feed more often. Timing your feedings really is as much an art as it is a science. You will get a good feel for it soon enough.

I feed large amounts of mostly ground up kitchen scraps about once a week. When they are mostly black, and the bedding they are in is decomposing, I feed again.
organicislandfarmer
14 years ago
I was gonna use my food processor to finely chop the food for them, is this overkill? I know the chunkier the food the longer it takes for them to process it.
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I never lose worms out of the Worm Factory composter, unless I drop them off of the lid. But, some do crawl down into the tray below the bottom bin, especially when they are hungry. The only other time I had marauding worms was during my first castings harvest. The worms were in piles on a plastic bag on the cellar floor, when my husband inadvertantly turned off the cellar light. That night there were baseball sized mounds of worms about a foot away from the plastic bag. A few stragglers were dehydrated like canned onion rings. But, the live mounds of worms behaved like a school of fish does when avoiding a predator, sharing the exposure to an unfriendly environment by moving away from it. In any case, back to escapee problems. Besides an unfriendly environment such as too dry or too wet, I have seen migrations when worms are hungry. I look at the behavior as a possible time-to feed cue and assess whether all of the garbage has been eaten, prior to adding more . Today, I saw a video produced at the University of Maine. It was very informative and provides a good example of a homemade composting bin and it looks like the worms would probably fall or crawl into the tray rather than the floor. Here is a link that might be useful: University of Maine Cooperative Extension
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It is a good idea to fluff up the bedding on occasion. I've usually just done it with my hands, if this is too gross for you perhaps wear rubber gloves. The bottom layers of most bedding can become quite compacted and it is a good idea to see how the lower areas of your bin are fairing on moisture, worm population etc. We do the frozen water bottles for our worms as we are in hot FL too. We haven't even bee bothering to wrap them in paper or anything. We just bury them in the middle of the bin so when things are too hot they can cool off. This might not be strictly necessary as the moist bin is much cooler than the air and the worms did survive us going on vacation so we were not here to bring them ice every other day. However, the cooler temperatures will probably make conditions much better for breeding.
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As for the project, I sit and watch, and watch some more, then mess with it a bit and watch even more. Still simple. I've moved to a two flow through system for larger and then smaller particulates since I do not pre chop food nor bedding of papergoods. I'll have to check in at pjames. If a process is familiar that is comforting because maybe I'm not on a useless track. I'm leaning towards not even sides. Or what many would consider sides. Like why do we need sides to bar air? Something like the orange snow fence would be good but not strong enough, plus the dealing with a tiny bit of fall out. But worms need air. And only on top is not enough. More air = more womrs. Maybe just adding air at the bottom is not enough. Why not 360 degrees? Some systems add air with tubes through the vermicompost. I'm not into tubes. Structual strength is again the issue with sides less than 100%. Some systems pump air into the vermicompost. I prefer less work. I have not yet been super sucessfull at convincing my vermicompost to fall out of the open bottom of the bin. I spend a lot of time poking at it and then putting it back on top of the same bin. Nor are my worms "friendly" with each other. No eggs or small worms since spring. Hard to be fruitful and multiply that way. I have a very small system. Are we bad for hijacking the thread? Some vermicomposters bury food in a circle and the worms travel around are capitalizing on the hurd thing? This would mean they are right. I am still surprised. I do know that when worms want to crawl out of the bottom of a flow through they seem to all want to do it like it is a thing to do. Jump into the abysis. They freely drop into nothingness. I'm pretty much a systems guy, with vermicomposting as part of the system of future rabbits, chickens... Aquaponics too. I walked into a pet store, have not been in one of them in 15 years due to raising human youngens, and get offered a free crayfish so it would not die in the feeder tank it came in with. Crayfish are possibly part of an aquaponics system that is not warm. Maybe they eat worms. It may be better accepted into my family than BSFL. I am working on the foundation of a system.
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There are some types of composting worms that are more prone to escaping than others. I think the african nightcrawlers are one of em, they are also often knows as red wrigglers and are the ones that may bounce around like crazy when disturbed. Some people have to use very bright lights to keep them in the bin. Anyway, most worms will stick around once they get used to their new home. I've found it often helps (if your bin has the space for it) to put the new worms into the new bin by simply opening up the box and laying it into a hole in the bedding in the new bin. That way the worms can move out of the bedding they are used to at their own pace. This only really worms if they came in paper/cardboard packaging along with bedding. I've heard a few horror stories about people shipping the poor worms in a plastic bag or container with almost no bedding. Not a good way to arrive alive. Here is a link that might be useful: My bin
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sbryce_gw
14 years ago
Some people will say it is overkill. It isn't necessary. I have an old hand-cranked meat grinder that I use. Once a neighbor gave me a few rotten potatoes. I didn't want to deal with the smell of grinding them up, so I put them in the bin whole. The worms loved them, and they broke down fast enough.

It is really a matter of personal reference. Some people prefer not to spend the time grinding up food that will beak down in the bin anyway. I don't mind sending the time, and it gives me more consistent results in the bin.
fam62cc
14 years ago
Personally, I don't think overfeeding is a problem. The worms will only eat what they need and the rest will just decompose and become very good bedding. If it starts to smell a thin layer of shredded cardboard or newsprint will suppress the odor. Again, just my personal opinion.

Dave Nelson
steamyb
14 years ago
Overfeeding is the absolute number one problem for "new" vermicomposters. The expectations which are placed on such a small number of worms are incredible. One such "newbie" was referring to the consumption of his "one hundred worms", give me a break!
IMHO the best worm diet is shredded cardboard to food (table scraps) in a 3/1 or 4/1 ratio. Avoid protein poisoning /sour crop and eliminate smelly totes by not using your worm bins as garbage dumps. This is real simple, kids, worms have been here a long time without our help. Why do we think worms can save a world that we trashed? And then we turn their habitat into a garbage can!
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equinoxequinox
14 years ago
"the best worm diet is shredded cardboard to food (table scraps) in a 3/1 or 4/1 ratio." I agree.

The literature seems to suggest bedding is only needed at the start and then only food needs to be added from then on.

I have never seen it stated you way. The correct way.

Escaping worms and feeding question

Comments (6)

sbryce_gw

organicislandfarmer

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