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Vermicomposting

left my bin dormant, now lots of bugs

14 years ago

I'm sure this question has been answered, but I can't seem to find it in the forum.

I started my bin last December 08. I started a second tray sometime in late spring, and I harvested for the first time this summer, I think sometime in June or early July. I am now back to one tray, and kinda *forgot* about the worms this summer due to traveling and other things. I'm thinking that I didn't feed them for at least a month, maybe more. A few weeks ago, I went to check on them, and noticed tons of little bugs in the tray. Mostly tiny white bugs, but also a few tiny black (hopping?) bugs. They move (jump? hop?) very quickly when I pull aside the compost.

My bin is in the basement, by the way, which keeps good temps and is dry.

So, I guess my question is what should I do about this? How can I get rid of them? Obviously they hatched while the worms were NOT being fed, and thrived on the lack of food. I'm wondering if I didn't have enough bedding in my tray to begin with, and maybe that was/is the problem. My worms seem okay, although they aren't reproducing like they were in the late spring/early summer.

Thanks for any help or links you can provide!

~ Gina

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Comments (6)

gmt903
Original Author
14 years ago
I guess maybe a follow up question is: What was the harm (if any) of leaving the bin alone for a month or two without food?
Thanks!
sbryce_gw
14 years ago
The white bugs are probably mites. I don't know what the black bugs might be.

We seem to have a misconception about "food" in a worm bin. Anything that is decomposing is food for the worms. That includes their bedding. If you had a healthy micro herd in the bin, then neglecting to feed the worms for a month probably did them no harm at all. They simply ate the bedding.

For any composting operation, you need a balance of nitrogen and carbon. In a conventional compost pile, high-nitrogen and high-carbon materials are mixed at optimum ratios, and bacteria bloom fast enough to generate heat. In a worm composting bin, the worms are bedded in high-carbon materials and high-nitrogen materials are added gradually, over time. It all decomposes, and it is all food for the worms.

Your worms probably enjoyed the neglect. What do you think? How do your worms seem to be doing after a month with no food?
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11otis
14 years ago
Maybe bait the mites with melon rinds, pumpkin or dry bread soaked in milk?
gmt903
Original Author
14 years ago
@sbryce: I'm really not sure how my worms are doing. There are definitely less of them, and they aren't reproducing (not as many eggs) as they were in the early summer.

And the neglect caused the mites (?) to show up.... which is usually not the case. Why did all these additional bugs show up when I left the bin without food (scraps of human food) for a couple months.

I'm not sure that I have enough in the bedding to begin with. And one thing I started to do was add shredded paper that was left to soak in water for days/weeks. (I would just leave some water in the bin of my shredder.) Is that a problem at all? Maybe the paper soaked too long and caused some chemical reaction? The only thing I noticed about the excessively soaked paper was that it was filmy and clumpy. I made sure I squeezed it good though before I broke it up and put it in the bin.

@otis11 - Thanks. I think I'll try that. I'm still not exactly sure what these tiny bugs are... if they are mites (b/c I've had those in small quantities in my bin before). I'll try and take a picture and post it.
jonas302
14 years ago
one thing that I quickly became aware of is don't drive yourself crazy keeping certain bugs out of your bin they all paticipate in the process hang some fly tape over the bin so fruit flies are only inside and have fun(:

By the way bins can get forgot about a lot I haven't done much with mine for a while you will have eggs that hatch and the worms will get going again soon
fosteem1
14 years ago
I know this is not your question gmt903 but you don't have to go to all the trouble of keeping water in your shredder. The only time you need to add wet paper is when you are setting the bin up. After that the moisture in the food keeps the bin wet. Most of the time too wet. So adding dry paper helps keep the moisture under control.

As for the bugs it sounds like you had a little worm die off and the mites showed up to clean the mess up.

Mites like it wet. Is your bin on the wet side?
If so adding the dry paper and crushed egg shells for PH buffering can help. Not over night, mites can live almost two weeks. You want to change the conditions in the bin so that things aren't right for the next generation to hatch out in mass. If you are successful there will be less mites. They will never be completely gone.

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