Worms and You! Worm Food

(still life with worms and junkmail)

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What do worms in a bin eat? When thinking of what to feed worms, it's easier to think about what not to feed worms.

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Don't Feed:

Greasy foods
Salty foods
Alcoholic food or beverages
Vinegary foods
Animal products (meat, cheese, eggs, and any meat eaters' feces)

Eisenia fetida are manure worms. Their very favorite food is poop from other animals, But in a bin, manure does two things- 1) it can really stink, and 2) it can heat up and kill the worms, or at least make them very miserable. A stinky bin will just make you and your family very miserable (though the worms don't care).

I feed my worms a combination of poop from the house rabbits and kitchen scraps- finely chopped vegetable trimmings, cooked grains, stale bread. There's a food chain regarding who gets fed what and when in the house; saint-husband and I get first dibs. Bunnies get second dibs (vegetables only). Worms get whatever is left over. If I had chickens (*sigh*), they would be fed between the buns and the worms. I'd feed chicken poop to the worms, too, but only after it was pre-composted. Chicken poop is very high in ammonia and in concentrated amounts is dangerous in a bin. It stinks to high heaven, too.

When it comes to feeding the bunny poop, I have found that if I feed in very fine layers- say, a little every day and only on the surface- it neither stinks nor heats up. I feed whatever is in my buns' litter boxes every day, and it's gone in 24 hours. The bunny poop will make absolutely outstanding castings.

NEVER feed bin worms human, cat, or dog poop. It is full of pathogens and can make potentially dangerous castings. Worms in the wild will obviously eat any kind of poop that happens to be on the ground, but they have helpers in the weather, microscopic soil critters, UV, and other animals. In nature there is no waste. In human-controlled environments that's another matter entirely.

My worms also get fed nearly all our household junk mail (except for glossy paper- worms can't process it well and the inks can be poisonous). I use it as bedding in combination with my neighbors' newspapers.

So, what's the difference between bedding and food? Not much to the worms. In a bin, damp, fluffy, pre-soaked bedding is kept on top of the food and worms. It helps draw the worms to the surface since they are moisture-loving creatures. It helps keep the bin cool and aerated. It also controls odors if a new worm farmer overfeeds the bin. And ALL new worm farmers overfeed their bins, despite many well-published warnings not to do so. I was certainly guilty of it.

Eventually, the damp bedding gets eaten, too. My worm's castings are fairly light in color because of the paper. The nutrient balance in the finished castings is likely still good, though, because of the vegetable trimmings and, most of all, the fabulous bunny poop.

Come May or so, I'll be sending my first castings off to a lab for testing. It's required for resale of "soil amendments". Perhaps by June, I'll be selling my first castings at our local farmer's market.

Worms and You! The Worms...

The most common worms for composting (in North America) are Eisenia fetida, otherwise known as red wigglers.

It is extremely important that you use only surface worms, or epigeic worms (also called manure worms) for composting. The common earthworm, Lumbricus terrestris, is not a surface worm; it is a deep burrower, an anecic worm. Anecic worms build permanant borrows. Not only will they not do the job, they are likely to die in a bin.

True fact! Earthworms such as Lumbricus terrestris and Eisenia fetida are not native to North America, and are considered an invasive species. They are currently and actively decimating many US northern and Midwestern forests, because well-meaning fishermen "return" unused worms to the wild (they "dump out the can" after a day's fishing).

Adding to the problem, a lot companies now sell worms to gardeners. Not only are the worms likely to just crawl off if the environment isn't to their liking (a likely scenario if a gardener purchased worms to try and improve the soil in the first place), they reproduce like crazy.

Even so, Eisensia fetida and Lumbricus terrestris are both long and well-established species on the North American continent. They established a foothold (so to speak) in North America almost as soon as Europeans began settling here. They were introduced accidently, via ship ballast and tangled up in the roots of plants.

So, what's a conscientious worm farmer to do? Never release your worms into the "wild". Even if your environment is urban, don't release your worms. In the ground, worms are the megafauna- the "whales" in their ocean of soil. They are far larger than almost any creature under there; fungi, springtails, bacteria, nematodes, arthropods. They quickly overtake a biosphere and can radically change it. If you have to get rid of your worms, donate them to a school or give them to a community garden, where they will be welcomed.

Worms and You! Water

Worms require a lot of moisture in their little bin-world. Some folks recommend that worm bedding, when picked up by the handful and squeezed out, should emit 2 drops of water. It's a good goal to aim for, if somewhat unrealistic for the ordinary household bin.

An ordinary household indoor bin, when ensconced in a stable ambient temperature, can get by with slightly less moisture. Say, one drop will do ya'.

Which is not to say that worms will tolerate dried-out conditions. Not at ALL. Worms breathe through their skin, and they need moisture to resperate. A dry bin is certain death for the little pinkkids.

The best option for a small household bin: keep lots of damp (but fulffy!) top-bedding on the top. Worms gravitate to moisture, and wet bedding will keep them moving steadily upwards. Top bedding must be fluffed up and well separated. If wet bedding compacts too much, it can inhibit airflow.

Standing water is definately not a good thing. You know when you see lots and lots of worms on sidewalks after a particularly heavy rain? They are trying to escape their waterlogged environment because they don't have gills. If the area is too wet, they will do their best to flee it. Worms will drown in standing water.

Food should be placed under damp top-bedding. This keeps down odors, discourages flies, and makes food readily available to the worms. But food's another post...

Worms and You! Notes on the Container

A worm bin must be:
--humid
--shallow
--well-aerated
--dark
--well-drained
--covered
--and wide.

Worms used for vermicomposting are surface-dwellers, or epigeic worms, found under loose leaf litter or under manure piles. A bin needs to mimic those conditions. In the wild, worms can just crawl away if the conditions are bad, but in a bin, worms are at our mercy. It's up to us to keep conditions perfect for them.

It's best to keep your bin indoors, as worms prefer the same temperature we do- about 70F. Cold and heat will kill worms- don't go below 40F or above 90F. Standing water or too-dry conditions can also kill worms.

If you do keep a bin outdoors, keep it under a shelter, like a garage or shed. It needs to be in the shade- never let a bin sit in the sun. If you live in a cold climate, the bin must be insulated. It can be tricky to strike a balance between good airflow and functional insulation. Temperate climates can keep bins outdoors much more easily than northern climates.

There are several excellent commercial bins out there. My first bin was the Can 'O Worms. It is a multi-tiered bin, well-aerated, and not at all bad-looking. There are 4 tiers if you count the bottom, and each is about 6 inches deep. It has a nicely-fitting lid. It stands on fairly tall legs, which makes it comfortable to access and also provides good airflow for the bin (the tops of the legs are perforated).

The idea behind a tiered bin: as food and bedding are eaten and turned into worm castings, the worms will move up higher to get new food, leaving finished castings behind. In reality, this isn't quite how it works out- worms continue to eat their castings several times over, and it can be tricky to get all worms to move up in a bin. Still, the shallow tiers make it easy to maintain a healthy environment, and the round shape makes it easy to harvest castings.

There are also square tiered bins, though square bins can be slightly harder to harvest. Worms love to squeak themselves tightly into corners and in bunches, and the corners can make it somewhat harder to get all the worms out at harvest time.

A single-layered bin works fine, too. A 30- to 40-gallon opaque plastic storage tote or an old recycling bin can be used, provided the bottom and lid are drilled with lots of holes. The bin needs to be slightly elevated, say, on bricks, to provide good aeration, and there should be a tray under the bin to catch moisture. If the bin doesn't happen to have a lid, a well-perforated piece of black plastic will do in a pinch. A lid is preferred, though- sometimes worms go on the march, and a lid keeps them nicely tucked in.

Don't use cardboard. The worms will eat it and it won't hold up to moisture.

Don't use particle board. Who knows what mystery glue was used to hold the sawdust together- it could poison your worms and your castings.

Don't use metal. It is harder to maintain temperature and it can rust or deteriorate from the moisture.

Wood works ok, particluarly for outdoor bins. Like any other bin, it also needs to be well-aerated. Avoid wood finishes and do not use pressure-treated wood. It can be harder to maintain healthy conditions in a bin if a wood bin is kept indoors.

Folks, it pains me to say it, but for indoor bins, plastic works really well in this case. At least the Can 'O Worms is made from recycled plastic.

Any bin you use must be opaque and always kept dark. Worms don't like any level of light. This makes it fairly easy to harvest castings later, though.

Worms need a lot of airflow to be healthy. It's best to keep a bin out in a room, rather than tucked inside a cabinet or small closet.

Worms and You! Basic Introduction

Although this topic already has a fair bit of coverage on the web, I'm going to throw in my two cents. Some sites are confusing and I'm here to help.

Here's the rough outline, but in subsequent posts I'll expand on each of the listed items, and no doubt climb up on my soapbox now and again, too.

Why keep worms, you ask? To reduce your household's organic waste stream and make your very own *outstanding* soil amendment. Also, you can keep worms in an apartment, it's easy to do, it's pretty inexpensive as hobbies go, kids love it, and you get that vaguely superior feeling that comes from posessing totally esoteric knowledge (well, I do anyway...).

You'll need:
--A covered, well drained container
--Bedding
--Water
--Food
--Worms (there are about 1,000 worms per pound)

In about 6 months, you'll have fertilizer that you can feed your own houseplants and vegetables, or give to a greatful gardener or community garden. Worm poop always makes a great gift for the posessors of green thumbs in your life.