Where to Set Up a Worm Bin And What to Consider

Where to Set Up a Worm Bin

 And What to Consider

Location:

Temperature – 68F ideal but worms will survive at 40F and 85F.  In the winter I keep mine in a minimally heated shop at 50F and in the cellar at 60F. In the summer I keep them in a garage out of the sun.  I may leave them down cellar this summer because it is a little cooler and more convenient.

The colder the worms are the slower they eat the garbage.  Over 85F they may die from the heat.  Don’t leave them out in the hot sun in direct sunlight in summer.  Don’t freeze them in the winter.

My daughter keeps two bins in a cabinet under a bathroom sink.  My niece keeps hers just out of the kitchen behind a door to the cellar.

Convenience – I collect my scraps from the kitchen over two or three days in a half gallon container lined with a plastic shopping bag and a tight fitting lid.  I keep this by the sink.  I then carry this bag to the worm bin and bury the garbage all in one location.

Floor Space – The bins do take up space.  Look around to make sure you have enough space.  I have four bins which I keep on metal shelves in the shop or stack in the cellar or garage three high. 

Fruit Flies – I believe that I have solved this problem – details later -- however, it can be a knock out if your domestic partner is skeptical and intolerant.  Either you or your worm bin may be hitting the road.

Smell – A well maintained worm bin does not smell bad. 

Escaping worms – A well maintained bin doesn’t have escaping worms. If conditions are right, they are content to stay put. 

Worms, Red Wrigglers, Eisenia fetida:

Buy them $20 to $25 a pound; get them from me (no charge) so long as the demand doesn’t exceed my supply.  Find them in the wild.  These are not earthworms or night crawlers.  Best place to find them is around the edge of a compost pile but don’t dig for them as those will be earthworms.

How Many Worms, How Many Bins:

Each of my bins contain after a year or more about two pounds of worms, estimate 3400 worms in all sizes imaginable.  They eat about 1.5 pounds of garbage per week per bin.  My wife and I generate about 4 to 5 pounds of garbage a week (vegetable matter – no fish, meat, dairy products) which is why I have four bins.  I started with one bin three years ago and about 50 to 100 worms.  It took me two years to have enough worms and bins to be “in balance.”  If you need quicker gratification start with at least one bin and two pounds of worms and keep adding bins and splitting your vermiculture until you and your worms are “in balance” too.

If you want to go straight to the balance point, then average the garbage you generate per week and divide that number by 1.5(the square feet in the top of a ten gallon worm bin).  (6 pounds of garbage per week divided by 1.5 equals 4 bins.) Then buy 2 pounds of worms for each bin at $20 dollars per pound.  That is 8 pounds times $20 or $160 worth of worms.  Instant gratification comes at a price.

I started with 50 to 100 worms three years ago that weighed 58 grams  -- yes I weighed them –  and now have four bins plus seven more that I have populated with worms and given away.  That is 22 pounds of worms.   In three more years …. Well you do the math.  It’ll blow your mind.

Set Up and Maintenance of the Worm Bin

Set Up and Maintenance of the Worm Bin

Bedding: Lots of possibilities but I use strips of torn newspaper about one inch wide.  But before I start putting the bedding into the bin I put in several layers of folded DRY newspaper on the base.  This is to act as a sponge to absorb the excess moisture that ends up at the bottom of the bin.  If I suspect that the moisture level is getting too high in the bottom of the bin I will dump the whole bin into a larger container and replace these folded newspapers with dry ones.  The wet ones that I remove can be torn into strips to make more worm bedding.  After the layer of dry newspaper I put in 6 to 8 inches of newspaper strips that are damp.  The worms or vermiculture from another bin are then added to the bedding.

Top Dress this with dry newspaper strips and then folded sheets of dry newspaper.  This helps keep the sides and top free of condensate (liquid moisture).  If you see condensate on the inside of the lid and insides of the bin, then it is time to add more dry paper to the top dressing and to dump the bin and add more dry folded newspaper to the base.  When there is condensate present on the inside walls of the bin above the top dressing the worms will soon follow.  If the sides are wet, the worms will crawl up the inside walls of the bin and even across the inside of the lid, also under the lip of the lid but not out of the bin.

Add Baited Fly Trap now as a precaution or later as needed.  The issue is to capture the adult flies inside the bin before they mate and lay their eggs and keep them out of your home.  To make the trap cut a small plastic bottle in half.  Invert top half into bottom half.  Bait with 1 TBS water, 1TBS honey, 1TBS Apple Cider Vinegar and two drops of liquid dish soap.  Tape the two halves of bottle together.  Set the trap in a corner of the bin with the top level with the layer of newspaper.  Replenish the bait if you see adult flies inside the bin but not in the trap.  It works for two to three weeks before it loses its appeal.

Feed with the appropriate amount of food for your worm population.  If you start with 50 to 100 worms like I did you can only add 58 grams of scraps and then wait until they have eaten that before you add more – very tedious I assure you.  It will take a year to build your population up to a pound of worms.  If you start with one pound of worms then you can put in a half a pound of scraps one week to one end of the bin and then a half pound to the other end the next week and so forth.  If you have four bins like I do with two pounds of worms per bin you can put 2 lbs (1/2 gal) of scraps in the front of bin one and then rotate to the front of bin two next, then bin three and finally bin four.  Then to the back of bin one, two, three and finally four – eight positions total.  Then it is back to bin1 front position.  It takes me roughly 28 days to make the complete cycle and the food in the front of bin one is nearly all digested when I start the next cycle.  If you add too much food for your worm population to keep up with, then it will decompose before they eat it and you run the risk of unpleasant odors associated with the rotting food.  Burying the food deep in the bedding will help.  Better to put your excess in the trash or in a compost bin until your worm population can keep up.

Food consists of all garbage that is vegetable (plant) matter or of vegetable origin.  I do not compost meat, fish or dairy products.  The issue is odor.  I do compost citrus (oranges, lemons, grapefruit, and limes) but not in huge quantities.  The issue is acidity.  Paper towels are fine.  Tea bags and coffee filters compost as well.  I microwave my egg shells and pulverize them in a food processor before composting.  This is to get smaller pieces of egg shell.

To control fruit flies bury fresh garbage deep in the bedding.  Keep the lid on the bin so that new flies can’t visit.  The screens over the vents are to keep visitors out and those in the bin in.  The fly trap in the bin eventually cleans out the hatching resident larva.  A fly trap in the vicinity of the bin but outside keeps any escapees or visitors under control.  I also keep a trap by the container in the kitchen where the week’s garbage accumulates before I bury it in the bin.

Design and Construction of My Worm Bin

Design and Construction of My Worm Bin

Materials and tools to construct:

Ten Gallon Sterilite plastic tote

Cheapest  1 inch X 3 inch strapping you can buy

Two inch diameter hole saw and electric drill to cut ventilation holes in sides and lid.

Fiber glass window screening to cover vents holes

GOOP adhesive to secure screening and plug holes

Flexible one inch putty knife to spread GOOP

Sand paper to smooth holes cut by hole saw

Lots of old news paper, don’t use the glossy inserts

Construction:

Use hole saw to cut two ventilation holes near the top of the tote on two sides – total of four two inch diameter vents

Cut two more holes in the lid.

Smooth the edges of holes with sand paper and use GOOP to glue fiber glass screening over all six vent holes.

Construct base to fit in the bottom of tote and cover with the fiberglass screen.  I use GOOP or Hot Melt Glue to hold the screen in place initially and then add tacks.

Plug the holes near the handles with GOOP.  A small piece of screen helps bridge the hole.

Why?

Ventilation and air circulation help reduce condensation inside the bin.  Getting rid of the moisture that is a byproduct of the vermiculture process is very important.  The vermiculture should stay moist and the castings should be crumbly – NOT muddy.  The air space under the base helps too. 

Worms need air to breath; they absorb oxygen through their skin.  And air promotes aerobic decomposition which is the “good” kind.  Anaerobic decomposition (without air) produces nasty smells.

Drain – I have eliminated the drain which came with the original bin.  It was there to drain off excess “tea” that accumulated in the space under the base.  The drain leaked.  Also I have changed my method of getting rid of the excess moisture which has eliminated the need for a drain.  In fact I am considering adding vents to the bottom of the bin to keep this area drier.

Base – to support the bedding and allow excess moisture to accumulate below the bedding.  Otherwise the bottom of the bin would get soggy wet and so would the vermiculture in that area.  Wet muddy vermiculture is to be avoided.  There is less air in this type of environment and can result in anaerobic (lacking oxygen) decomposition which smells awful.  We want aerobic (in the presence of oxygen) decomposition.

Fiberglass Screens over vents and all holes plugged – to keep resident fruit flies inside the bin until captured in the fly trap and to exclude visiting fruit flies that are attracted by the smell of good food. These visitors would lay their eggs if given a chance.  With the fly trap installed there will be few if any fruit flies inside the bin under normal conditions. (During my latest inspection on the inside of the eleven bins in my cellar I found one fruit fly.)

My Worm Bin, Last Edited 7/29/12

My Worm Bin

Last edited 7/29/12

Ten gallon plastic tote from Wal-Mart, Sterilite Brand, cost about $5.

A wooden base in the bottom covered with window screening material provides air space under the bedding and a space to collect excess moisture.

I eliminated the drain – more on that later.

Several dry folded newspapers to act as a sponge to soak up excess moisture.

Shredded news paper strips that have been dampened make up the next layer.  This is the layer that the worms live in and in which you bury your food scraps.  It is also where the worm castings accumulate as the worms do their thing.

Dry shredded news paper strips on top of bedding to absorb excess moisture.

A layer of folded dry newspaper on top.

Screened vents in the top of the sides.

Edit: 7/29/12: I have eliminated the screened vents and instead use a piece of garden row cover to cover the top of the bin and hold it in place with a one inch wide nylon strap with an elastic piece sewn in.  The tension in the strap holds the row cover on tight. The row cover provides plenty of ventilation and does a better job of keeping flying insects out of the bin (or ones in the bin from flying out).  Particularly, this has solved a problem I had with fungus gnats infesting the bin.  The fungus gnats could access the bin through the screened vents.

I purchase the row cover from Gardener’s Supply Co. Item 32-646, All Purpose Fabric, 6ft X 20ft – enough for 24 worm bin covers.

Screened vents in the lid.

Edit: 7/29/12: The lid has been replaced with row cover.  I also lay a couple sheets of folded newspaper on top of the row cover to retard drying if the bin seems to be drying out.  

A baited Fly trap to capture fruit flies.

Edit: 7/29/12: If fruit flies are a problem then continue to use the baited fly trap.  I have had more trouble with fungus gnats and another small fly identified as a Minute Black Scavenger Fly which looks a lot like a fungus gnat.  They are not attracted to the vinegar bait in the fly trap.

New 7/29/12: A strip of TAT Fly Paper to trap flying insects inside the bin.

To trap flying insects inside the bin I use a strip of TAT Fly Paper unrolled from its container and stuck to a sheet of dry newspaper that is put in the top of the bin under the row cover.

Stick the bins if you stack them to allow ventilation.