Worm Disasters!

Several weeks ago, Matt and I bought a chicken from the Lauraville farmers' market, and I froze the carcass to make stock.  A couple weeks ago, I used the leftover carrots and celery we had to make some stock with the carcass.  The bad parts of those vegetables, plus the ends of the onions I used, all went into the worm bin... Along with a lot of other food that was already in the compost pale from the week.

This was too much food.

We got fruit flies. (Disaster one.)

It wasn't that big of a deal, we vacuumed the fruit flies up everyday, and put out vinegar traps (a glass with vinegar at the bottom and a piece of paper shaped into a cone so the flies can't find their way out easily).  After a while, we didn't have any fruit flies.  We also stopped feeding the worms during that time so we wouldn't add to the problem.

And we added bedding on top so it would be more difficult for flies to find the food underneath, where they like to lay their eggs.  (Keep in mind that there are holes at the top of the bin, where the tiny flies could come and go as they please.)

Bedding should be damp, but not soaked.  Err on the dry side if unsure.

I probably did a poor job keeping this in mind when I put the bedding down. Two days ago, when we looked in the bin, we found it extremely water-logged. Something that also tipped us off was that we noticed worms trying to escape more often.  Since they first moved in, we hadn't had any escapers until now. (Disaster two.)

This is the bottom bin.
I've never seen it this wet before.

Notice how wet it is in the back left corner.
Also, we should learn to take better photos.

Our solution?

More bedding!  But, this time, we decided to put dry bedding in to soak up the excess liquid.  We put bedding underneath, and bedding on top.  We also washed out the bottom bin, and used all of that "tea" to water our garden.

And we put some bedding on top.

We put bedding on the bottom.

So far, it seems to have done the trick.  No worms have tried to escape for a couple days now, and it doesn't seem quite so damp.  Of course, this is all trial-and-error for Matt and I, so it might not be the end of this.  But, I predict it'll all be back to normal in the next few days.

We Have Worms!!

Composting is a great way to dispose of organic material without letting it go to waste in a landfill.  Composting is essentially a natural decomposition of materials sped up with a couple simple tweaks.  There are two main ways to compost: a traditional compost pile (or bin) and worms.

If you pile up your organic material or stick it in a bin, it will decompose over time because microbes will eat your garbage and convert it to black gold.  Keeping it in a pile or a bin keeps the material warm, which speeds up the decomposition.  It's important to keep the material a little moist and to turn the pile every now and then (which is why many people use tumblers-- so instead of churning the material with a big shovel or other tool, you can just rotate the bin a couple times and you're done).  The carbon-nitrogen ratio should be rather high, and as a general rule of thumb this means the ration between yard trimmings and food scraps should be high (of course, this is simplifying it quite a bit).  This method of composting is great if you have the room and patience for it, and if you produce a lot of waste.

Worms, on the other hand, are a better method if you live in a small space, produce a little less waste, and are maybe a little lonely but not yet responsible to get a real pet.  Worms will eat your garbage and turn it into really nutritious compost for your plants, and they will do it all in a bin under your kitchen sink.  The following is a simple tutorial on how to compost with worms.  I'm really not great yet at taking pictures for the purposes of these posts, so please forgive me.

Worm House

I used this website as a guide.

1. I bought 2 bins (opaque is important because worms do not like light)

2. I drilled holes into the bottom of one bin.  This is so any excess liquid from the compost could drain through.  Worms can drown, but they require moisture to live or they dry out.  I drilled about 5 rows of 4 holes each.

I borrowed the drill from my neighbor Joe

3. I drilled holes around the sides of the same bin, near the top.  Worms breathe air, so this is important.  I didn't take a picture of me doing this, but I drilled several holes about 1.5 inches apart along the top of the sides.

4. I stuck a couple bricks, sideways, in the bin that was hole-less and put the holey bin on top of the bricks.

WORMS!

1. I ordered worms off amazon!

2. They arrived!

3. Put bedding in the top bin.  This consists of newspaper, cardboard, dead leaves, etc. soaked in water, squeezed to get rid of excess water, then fluffed around so the worms can get through.

4. WORMS! in the bin

5. Let them get acclimated to their new home for a few days to a week, then feed them regularly every couple days.  Too often, and the worms won't get through it fast enough so it will start to stink.  Too infrequently, and I don't think there's a problem unless you neglect them for weeks.  So better to err on the side of less frequent feedings.

I read that worms prefer to eat food that's less fresh.  I also know that it's not great to feed them too often because I don't want to worry about smells or pests.  SOOOO I got a really cute ceramic compost keeper from TJ Maxx for 15$ (it's orange\\red with a carbon filter that works unbelievably well).  I find this method to be really great because I'm feeding the worms on a better schedule, not just whenever I decide to cook, and I can feed them from the bottom of the keeper so it's nice and appetizing for them.

Worms won't be able to digest dairy, meat, or fat.  I find a good rule of wrist to be to feed them scraps from the cooking process (ends of onions, tomato cores, fruit, etc) and not anything that I've cooked because I usually use olive oil or some other fatty substance to cook.

Worms have a gizzard, like chickens, so they need hard substances to help them digest.  You can use sand for this, but I think crushing up egg shells and giving them used coffee grounds will do the trick.

One last thing.  The worms try to escape at first.  Nowadays, I have worms at the top whenever I take the lid off, and it's no big deal because I just push them back down.  But when they first moved into their new home, they tried to escape.  Really escape.  I found a couple on the tile, dried to death, the morning after they moved in.  They were coming out of the air holes, I suppose.  But they are all fine now.  Survival of the hungriest, I guess.

These little guys were the first to try to escape.

We have hardly anything in the trash now.  The recycling bin is full and the worms are at work making me black gold for the garden.  It's beautiful.