McCannon said:Mine works a little different. There is only one bin for the worms. The castings are removed out the bottom of that bin and into the lower bin. The bedding settles in the upper bin. A lot of worm casting sellers use a similar system, but usually on a larger scale. My bins are roughly 14" by 20" by 16" deep.

I have Red Wrigglers (or wigglers as they're sometimes referred to). They're growing. Yes, they're a lot faster than the nightcrawler we have in the yard.

No flies or bugs of any kind so far. There's a "fruit fly" cure that some worm growers refer to, involving apple cider vinegar with a drop of cooking oil on top. You can "google" it.

Let me know how your system is working for you when you start collecting the castings.

Thanks Mac, let us know how yours goes too! I'll definitely Google the fruit-fly cure.

joannakat said: I'll definitely Google the fruit-fly cure.

I hope it works for you!

I hope everyone has a great and prosperous New Year . Be safe.

Joanna, did you resolve your fruit fly issue? I haven't had any bug problems. The wriggler population is expanding rapidly. I've been spritzing the bedding daily to overcome the low humidity.

McCannon said:Joanna, did you resolve your fruit fly issue? I haven't had any bug problems. The wriggler population is expanding rapidly. I've been spritzing the bedding daily to overcome the low humidity.

I did, thank you for asking! I put a new bin on top of the current one and filled the new bin with a nice, fluffy layer of shredded newspaper. This helps to prevent the escape or entry of fruit flies. I put out a sticky trap (the type used for mice), and I used a version of the fruit fly trap--it involves a container with about an inch of apple cider vinegar in it with a drop of dishwashing liquid to break the surface tension, a paper cone inserted into the opening, and a plastic bag over the top. Both the sticky trap and the container have a lot of dead fruit flies! Yaay! And it looks like the bin has stopped drying out so much too. The flies that got trapped inside either die there or just never mature or???? There were some for awhile that were crawling around but couldn't seem to fly.

Apologies for not updating before this, but I was super sick. Better now! And I love my wormies, but they're still pretty skinny. Is that just how red wigglers are? Maybe I'm just a mommy who wants her babies to be nice and fat!

Sorry to hear you've been sick. The seasonal bugs seem to be particularly active this winter.

I'm glad you got the fruit flies taken care of. Have your worms migrated to the new bin yet? Wrigglers, or wigglers, depending on who you ask, don't get very large compared to nightcrawlers. I have found some in my garden that are 8 to 10 inches long and quite plump.

McCannon said:Sorry to hear you've been sick. The seasonal bugs seem to be particularly active this winter.

I'm glad you got the fruit flies taken care of. Have your worms migrated to the new bin yet? Wrigglers, or wigglers, depending on who you ask, don't get very large compared to nightcrawlers. I have found some in my garden that are 8 to 10 inches long and quite plump.

Thanks Mac. No, the bottom bin isn't full enough to use the upper bin for feeding yet. I expect it will be in another month or so.

I just put some more food in for them and the ones I saw are really pretty thin, almost as thin as when I first got them in mid November. So going on three months now. Does that sound normal? Or should they be bigger by now?

Joanna, I have all sizes. Some are quite skinny, others quite plump. I noticed that the thin ones have circular stripes along their length whereas the plump ones are pretty much solid red. I wonder if there might be some other variety of worm included in the batch I purchased. I also noticed that the skinny ones were most noticeable near the top of the bedding while the plumper ones were farther down. Have you dug into the bedding to see if there's a difference? Are they consuming all the food they're given? I've seen comments saying to feed them every day or every other day but mine don't seem to eat all that fast. I seem to have plenty to new hatchlings when I uncover the food.

McCannon said:Joanna, I have all sizes. Some are quite skinny, others quite plump. I noticed that the thin ones have circular stripes along their length whereas the plump ones are pretty much solid red. I wonder if there might be some other variety of worm included in the batch I purchased. I also noticed that the skinny ones were most noticeable near the top of the bedding while the plumper ones were farther down. Have you dug into the bedding to see if there's a difference? Are they consuming all the food they're given? I've seen comments saying to feed them every day or every other day but mine don't seem to eat all that fast. I seem to have plenty to new hatchlings when I uncover the food.

I heard that they don't like to be disturbed so I haven't done any digging except for once when it looked like there weren't any worms in the bin. I found them all balled up in the center! I also heard that overfeeding them can create problems, so I only put more food in when what's there is almost completely gone. It seems to take a pretty long time. Could that be because it's kind of cold a lot of the time? It's always between 45 and 65 degrees where they are, but the bedding temp is always higher and pretty consistent.

Joanna, I disturb mine when I'm checking their food level or adding more. They don't seem to mind. I move the feeding location every time I feed and it only takes a day or 2 for them to find it. I don't know about "all balled up in the center" unless maybe that's the warmer spot, or when the food starts to get depleted they're searching around for more. I think they tend to get lethargic much below 60 degrees. I have an indoor/outdoor thermometer probe in the bedding and it runs around 62 to 69 depending on whether we're running the furnace or heating with the wood stove. The bottom of the bin is maybe 18" off the floor and naturally the floor is the coldest place in the basement. Maybe try feeding them a little more often. Most of what I give mine is green waste, banana peels, coffee grounds, and crushed egg shells. I dice everything up fairly small, 1/4" or so.

McCannon said:Joanna, I disturb mine when I'm checking their food level or adding more. They don't seem to mind. I move the feeding location every time I feed and it only takes a day or 2 for them to find it. I don't know about "all balled up in the center" unless maybe that's the warmer spot, or when the food starts to get depleted they're searching around for more. I think they tend to get lethargic much below 60 degrees. I have an indoor/outdoor thermometer probe in the bedding and it runs around 62 to 69 depending on whether we're running the furnace or heating with the wood stove. The bottom of the bin is maybe 18" off the floor and naturally the floor is the coldest place in the basement. Maybe try feeding them a little more often. Most of what I give mine is green waste, banana peels, coffee grounds, and crushed egg shells. I dice everything up fairly small, 1/4" or so.

Excellent points Mac, thanks. Especially the temperature thing. And moving the feeding location--I've been spreading mine around the top. !!!

Joanna, I feed mine on the bottom. Along with moving the feed location, when I add more, I put it on top of the already deposited castings. With your setup, that may not be practical. I use an old style indoor/outdoor thermometer with a wired probe that can be buried in the bedding.

Since I live in a condo, my composting is on a small level. I use a big black plastic pot that a tree came in once upon a time. There are drain holes in the bottom, and I keep the pot in my rose bed. Wrigglers find there way into the pot through the drain holes, and often when I turn my compost I will find a group of new baby/half grown wrigglers. Since I started doing this, many years ago, my earthworm population has increased significantly in my rose bed, along with the soil. And my compost is very nice. I am moving my compost pot to a different bed this summer - one with poor soil - I hope to get the same good results.

Christie, earthworms are always a beneficial because they aerate the soil, and casting help plant growth. It looks like what you're doing is working for you . I understand that wrigglers will double their population in 60 days or so if they have a reliable food source.

Ah, that is good to know. I dump my coffee grounds in there, and also banana peels and egg shells, so there is always food for them. Not sure if they eat the egg shells though. Something happens to the egg shells though, because they always disappear.

They love coffee grounds and eggshells. I think the eggshells add grit that they need to digest their other food. They'll eat just about any vegetable matter as long as it's not spicy. We chop up the stuff we feed them as it breaks down quicker. They will still eat it regardless.

@cwhitt

You should post that to "ideas!" What an excellent way to move your worm composting around without having to dig each time.

When I first started my little garden strip (I live in a condo too), I buried a lot of kitchen scraps. When I dug the area up the following spring, there wasn't even a hint of those scraps left!

Yes, Mac is right according to what I've read. Worms eat eggshells and it helps them to clean out their systems. I grind mine up using a regular drinking glass and a cutting board. But I've also used larger pieces of eggshells in my garden to deter slugs. It seems they don't like to creep over the sharp edges, and then the garden worms can eat them too.

@joannakat thanks for the suggestion - maybe I will post it -- it works very well for me - and win-win for the worms and the garden both.