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Soil, Compost & Mulch

how do I start a worm bin with only a cup of red wigglers?

last year

I have been composting for over 30 years using an outside compost pile. I would like to start a worm bin, but I don't have anywhere locally to get worms other than Walmart or the gas station by the reservoir. Both sell red wigglers and night crawlers in cups. Money is tight and would be able to purchase 1 or 2 cups of worms. Any suggestions on how to get started would help.

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Comments (7)

beesneeds
last year
Sure you can use a cup or two of store worms to start. What you you have set up for your worm bin so far?
HU-592738470
Original Author
last year
nothing. Trying to figure out how to get started. All the blogs / videos I have seen say to start your bin with at least 250 worms. So I wasn't even sure what size bin I would need for a much smaller quantity of worms. Didn't know if I could use a butter container or if I needed something bigger like an ice cream bucket?
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ok, i thought i would chime in a bit. i live on a little island and very rural. we had no rats until maybe 8 years ago and before rats we all had open compost piles, and plenty of worms would come by themselves. but of course now, that is nothing but a sign to the rats saying...please come here my rat friends....SO WHAT TO DO? i came up with a system for a composter/worm bin using an old bathtub (NOT the old, heavy cast iron ones, but rather the sheet metal type---cast iron give hernias), then i screw on and make a lid out of 2 x 4's and put hardware cloth over this making them unavailable for the rats to get in. i have two tubs setup and so when one is full, i add a bit of the old stuff from the first which will have worms for the new tub and also the proper biologic processes going on that worms require, then start adding food and cardboard to that tub. the worms need the food to break down before they start eating it, and thats why i add some of the previous batch so it gives them decayed food to eat while the new food becomes decayed and available to the worms. the first tub then finishes out while the other is my active tub or rather the one i add the new compost to. . in the spring i sift the finished product and have pure gold for my use in the garden.......i never stir or turn over the compost because worms don't like heat, and if your composter heats up, THEY WILL LEAVE!!!!! GOOD LUCK TO ALL YOU WORM FARMERS, I LOVE MAKING PURE GOLD the people who use the plastic composters or those made of wood, the rats just chew holes in them and you have a rat problem, and who wants that
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Just wanted to add that I've read all those mom and pop shop worm websites and they all repeat each other about temperature, but are all rather vague if they are honest. It's a general rule from some unmentioned scientific study testing the limits of the worms, but in my experience these worms are more resilient than are described. I'm no expert, just have had them for two years. If your livelihood depends on their health, do some rigorous research and your own study. If you are just trying to get nice compost, try it yourself. I live in zone 6, I have compost piles of leaves, yard waste, and kitchen wastes that are about 3 feet high and three feet wide during the winter, and the 'red wiggler' adults last winter were outdoors in compost. They survived. I bought them off eBay and was told these are red wigglers. Besides if they die completely or you feel the count is low, you can buy thousands for ten bucks or so. I've tried keeping them inside, it's not really worth it because they just sit there waiting for real work to do, and they reproduce like crazy, and you have to check on them to make sure they are not too dry, etc. Better to give them real compost and lots of room, that's when they become useful with no maintenance, in my opinion. Good luck.
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A Mat
last year
I used to toss unused bait worms into the mulch, occasionally I would work the soil and I would find hundreds of worms. I recommend 5 gal min for a bait container of worms.
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
last year
Reading this may help: https://compost.css.cornell.edu/worms/basics.html#:~:text=Worm%20bins-,What%20is%20worm%20composting%3F,worm%20through%20its%27%20tail%20end.

A cup of worms is fine to start. They will reproduce rapidly and as long as you offer the right living accommodations, you will have a bin full of compost producing worms in no time.

So don't make the mistake of starting with a bin or container that is too small - " A good size bin is a 5- to 10- gallon box or approximately 24" X 18" X 8". The box should be shallow rather than deep, as red wigglers are surface-dwellers and prefer to live in the top 6" of the soil."
beesneeds
last year
I think the 250 is more like a needed if you want to start fast churning right away rather than minimum population needed to start populating a bin. You do need a bin big enough for the scrapping to happen in. You can't put much food scrap into an ice cream bucket for long and keep the worms happy. So yeah, a five gallon bucket setup would probably be a good starter size. Some people use commercial systems, some do DIY buckets- if you use or know someone that uses the bigger kitty litter buckets those work well too. Totes are pretty popular to use. One of my fave DIYs is a guy on Youtube that has an old bathtub set up as a drip style worm bin.

You can start with less worms and a smaller setup at first to help you learn how to do it. If you screw up a cup of bait you can get another. If the weather is nice or getting that way by you, you can catch your worms for free if you put a worm trap out in your yard.
annpat
last year
You can start with a whole lot less worms than that. If you'd like to start with something small, the five-gallon container filled with dampened, shredded newspaper, some coffee grounds and some eggshells will work, but it won't be long before you're going to want something larger. I like a Rubbermaid tub. The biggest enemy to a worm bin is overwatering or overfeeding which also leads to too much moisture in the bin. I could probably stick a shovel in my frozen compost pile right now and find enough red wrigglers to start a bin.
old_dirt 6a
last year
If you were anywhere close to SW MI, come spring I could supply you with hundreds of little red wigglers. I compost fish scraps all winter and in the spring I have thousands of them in the pile.

I wouldn't advise the fish if your compost is anywhere close to a residence. With all the critters that dig it up, it gets pretty rank on a warm day.

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