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.