So when y’all say “egg shell powder”… what are y’all doing to these egg shells to get them that fine?!

I just got an Ooni wood-fired pizza oven (they’re amazing btw!), and I was wondering if I can feed the leftover wood ash after making pizza to my worms?

I’m mostly burning oak wood pieces, plus some lumpwood charcoal (made from birch).

I know that ash when added to a garden can tend to make the soil alkaline - but I’ve also heard that adding lots of coffee grounds (which I do) can make your worm farm acidic, and that adding some powdered egg shells or calcium carbonate with your coffee grounds can help as it balances things out. I don’t eat a lot of eggs generally, so could I add a handful or two of my wood ashes to my worm farm with my coffee grounds, instead?

Didn’t want to disturb my big ol worm orgy, but they seem to be having the time of there lives…

Eating, lovin and pooping

(Posted this to r/bokashi and inquiring here as well.) I’m about to make my first batch of bokashi pre compost in a 5 gallon bucket and let it sit for several weeks before giving it to my worms. As my worm population grows they continue to need more food. Goal is to pre compost anything I can’t put into a worm bin first before feeding it to them.

I’m using 5 gallon buckets for this and my worm bins can’t handle 5 gallons of bokashi at once, especially due to the initial acidity. Question is, if I’m not using it all at once but I’d like to feed it bits at a time, what’s the best way to handle this? Scoop out what I’m feeding and leave the rest of the pre compost in the bokashi bucket…continue the process until done? Or is there a better method to preserve the pre compost until ready to feed? TIA!

I posted a couple days ago about my worms not liking the coir bedding I gave them. I got a lot of good advice, so thank you for that.

After some troubleshooting, I think I figured out the source of the problem. I keep this bin on my wire plant shelf. Underneath each shelf I have a few Barrina LED light strips. Under this shelf in particular, I have 3 lights. Most of you can probably see where this is going.

Today, after checking on the worms, fluffing the bedding, etc. I noticed the coir at the bottom felt a little warm, so I grabbed my thermometer after I put it back on the shelf for a few minutes and it was already up to 86°f. That's close to the upper end of what red wigglers can tolerate. So of course they were coming to the surface where the ambient temperature in my apartment is in the mid to high 70s.

I feel so silly not even thinking about the temperature. I've turned two of the three lights off and the temp has decreased to 82 and still dropping slowly. . I think I need to find some sort of spacer to lift the bin slightly so I can still use all three lights on my plants below, but overall the crisis has been averted.

Thanks for all your suggestions everyone!

https://x.com/MachinePix/status/1708889909606727845?s=20

I got a bonsaii paper shredder from Amazon. Shreds great, but the blades have a strong kind of chemically smell and they impart it on the paper/cardboard. I’ve tried cleaning by running a lot of cardboard through it and also oiling it with canola oil but the smell is still there.

what do I do? I bought this just for my worms but I’m worried whatever is causing the smell would harm them. I don’t know how else to clean this thing.

I accidentally introduced earwigs in my worm bin a couple months ago, and for a number of reasons I really want them out. From suggestions on the internet, last week I tried traps consisting of a small plastic tub with 1/2" of soy sauce and 1/2" of olive oil, and a couple of 1/4" holes in the lid. This morning I took out the two traps, and the results were baffling. One, as hoped, had about 50 dead earwigs at the bottom of the tub. It also had maybe 30-50 dead springtails. But the other tub was completely different - the oil was almost solid with dead springtails. I couldn't tell if there were any earwigs in there, so I dumped the contents into a plastic bag (see image below). There may have been one earwig in there, but it was difficult to see due to the thousands of springtails. I looked around in my bin - and I now see zero springtails.
I'm stumped why the two tubs would have such different results. Before putting in the traps, the earwigs and springtails were pretty evenly distributed across the bin (it's pretty big, 4' x 3').

https://preview.redd.it/ks67fwnymprb1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1b28d4c5403b2d719b6ed58413ced8cba91c7592

Hi all, I’m looking for a solar-powered outdoor light that automatically turns on once it gets dark outside, to keep my worms from getting too adventurous. Anyone have any recommendations?

Hi all,

I have rats, possums, gophers, moles or maybe voles in our neighborhood. I’m nervous that if I build an outdoor CFT Bin that the vermin will infest it and it will be the “Hometown Buffet” for the neighborhood critters. I plan on having a lid, but I am thinking the bottom could allow rats. Anyone have experience with outdoor CFT Bins and vermin infesting them? Or not?

Thanks!!!

Hey worm peeps, I am in a bit of a bind. I'm in an abusive relationship and I'm finally ready to leave. The problem is, I've been in a care taker role since 2016, and no one wants to hire me with a 7 year resume gap. I used to work in finance, but now I can't even get a fast food place to interview me. I've been putting in 20-30 applications a day, but have only had two call backs. And those were MLMs.

I don't have a car to do rideshare or anything like that, so I decided to work with what I have and started a small worm farming business. My plan was to breed and grow them out over the winter and start selling locally next spring. I've done extensive research and planning and that should give me enough income to get out of my situation.

But things are getting worse and I need to leave sooner than next spring. I can move into the DV shelter temporarily, but I obviously can't take my worms with me. My significant other has isolated me from everyone, so I no longer have friends or family that would be willing to help.

The only thing I can think of is a climate controlled storage unit. The one I found says that they keep a temperature range of 55°f - 80°f.

On the high end, that would be good for cocoons hatching, but on the low end, which is what I expect through the coming winter, things will slow way, way down and be potentially dangerous for them.

I'm breeding European Nightcrawlers and Red Wigglers.

Is it possible to keep worms in a climate controlled storage unit? Is there any other options to keep my fledgling worm business going? I feel so hopeless because without that, I'm not sure how I can provide for myself.

Hello, I have a new 5g bucket worm bin with holes drilled on the bottom stacked on top of another bucket, lid is snapped into place on two sides so there’s some airflow. It’s about 3 weeks old and it was doing well until I was away and left it alone for a week. When I returned I found a bunch of the worm had climbed onto the lid where I had never previously seen them make it all the way to (usually a few on the walls which would return after opening the bucket in a well lit room) and the ones on the lid were dead. The previous week I had seen some moisture on the walls so I added a bunch of shredded unbleached recycled paper. I’ve added a handful of veggie peels/banana peel each week, covered with recycled paper strips.

I started with some vermicompost, cardboard/recycled paper strips. 2nd week I noticed a couple of black soldier flies and some maggots so I removed the food bit that had them on there and started freezing food scraps, haven’t seen any flies since then, have removed a few maggots since.

Unable to find many live worms, started with 250. Have had good experience with worm bins many years ago, having a hard time getting this one started up. Can someone point me in the right direction or should I start over?

Purchased some worm food, already feeding them veggies, cardboard, real food... is it a vitamin? Does it replace food? I can't find an answer!

Hi, so I've been doing vermiculture for about 2 years now, however i still don't understand the harvesting process. Can i use it right away? Cause I've heard that some people let it mature? (which i absolutely dont understand.. how long or to even let it "mature") if anyone has any useful links or could explain me i would greatly appreciate it.

I noticed today that I have a bunch of earwigs in my worm bin. I was reading that they can sometimes feed on larvae eggs, but that Diatomaceous Earth can usually take care of them. My question is, then, if I add DE into my worm bin, will it harm my worms? I have earthworms and night crawlers in the bin.

I've read about how you can harvest castings by feeding on one side for a few weeks so that all the worms migrate over there and then you can harvest the castings on the other side. But I've also read some people saying that it doesn't work and there's still worms on both sides even after a month.

I really need this to work because I don't have a stacking bin and my current harvest method takes several hours.

Would it help if I also put something they don't like such as garlic on the side of the bin I'm trying to harvest? I feel like that might make them move to the other side, but I also want to be sure it won't just cause them to climb out of the bin.

What are your experiences with this?

Hi all,

I have quite a LOT of small white maggots and a LOT of flax seed-looking eggs... is that okay?? it seems not right

Also, i set up my system with 3 stacked buckets, and put the worms and the bedding in the middle bucket with some food, but since I've been generating more kitchen scraps, I've been adding this to the top bucket. Thats where the little white worms are. Am i supposed to maybe add my kitchen scraps to another location and then feed the worms in the top bucket all at once, only once theyre done eating the food in the middle bucket? Or can I keep doing a continuous system like I am? I'm afraid theyre all going to move into the top bucket before the middle one is done and can be dumped... how crucial is it to stagger the feeding is my question.

Thanks in advance!!!!!!!!

I started a flow through bin in 96 gallon trash can. It’s about 5 inches deep. 50% coco coir and 50% half finished stuff from my original bin. It was 60° out side but my worm bin was almost as 90°. They have plenty of ventilation and it’s not anaerobic smells fine very fluffy. Not to wet. Just curious how much heat your worms produce.

I have 3 bins with a mix of european nightcrawlers and red wigglers. One of the bins is quite full with castings. I will probably only need castings in february next year. What is best to do: split the bin into two, so i have more space to feed the worms and add more bedding or clean the bin out and harvest to castings and save them over winter? I feel that by keeping the castings mixed in the bin, they will keep their microbial benefits naturally. But otherwise it might not be the best environment for my worm population.

I've got a round indoor compost bin. It has a bedding bin and a working bin and my working bin will be full by Xmas. Trying to understand how to harvest?

Do I harvest the bedding/deeper tray? How do I handle migration and work eggs? How do I know it's ready? Any prep steps?