What's Wrong With My Worm Bin?

Living with a herd of worms definitely provides you with an interesting educational experience. Watching a few hundred worms turn my apple cores, potato peels, egg shells, and coffee grounds into dark, rich vermicompost is almost too much fun for this particular gardener. (Seriously. I'm geeky that way.)

But it takes a bit of trial and error to get a worm bin in perfect working order, and my first year or so of vermicomposting presented me with a few challenges. It turns out that the issues I ran into are pretty common among vermicomposters, so I thought I'd share them here, as well as what I did to get my worm bin back to normal. I'm happy to say that now that I understand how to keep my worms happy, they are more productive than ever.

Without further ado, here are the top three issues I've had with my worm bin, and how to solve them.

Problem #1: Smelly Worm Bin

Your worm bin should not smell like garbage. Even though you're technically putting what most people would consider "garbage" into it, it should never stink. If it does, you need to get to work as soon as possible to get conditions in the worm bin back to normal.

There are a couple of reasons your worm bin might stink. First, you may have added too many pungent items, such as onions and garlic. If this is the case, remove those items from the bin, and don't add quite so many from now on. Sometimes, merely burying these items in the worm bin is enough to eliminate the odor.

But the more common cause of worm bin odor is that the contents are too wet and compressed, and not enough oxygen is getting to the contents. This anaerobic condition not only makes it smelly, but is also unhealthy for the worms.

To fix it, do the following:

1. Empty the bin onto a tarp or garbage bag.

2. Put a fresh layer of shredded newspaper or cardboard bedding in the bottom of the bin. Moisten it lightly. 3. Add maybe a third of the old contents back to the bin, breaking up any large chunks of food and bedding. 4. Cover this layer with another layer of shredded newspaper. 5. Repeat until you have all of the old contents back in the bin. 6. Cover it all with a final layer of shredded newspaper. Moisten the newspaper, cover the bin, and you're done. This works because you've aerated the contents by breaking it up and layering it with newspaper, which will help soak up any excess moisture, and your worm bin will be back to normal in no time. Problem #2: Worms Trying to Escape So, you open your worm bin, and there are more worms on the underside of the lid and the edges of the bin than there are in the bin. There are three possible causes for this: - Your bin is too dry. Move the contents around a bit, moistening them with a spray bottle. The moisture level in your bin should be like that of a well-wrung sponge - damp but not wet. - Your bin is too wet. If it's not yet to the smelly stage, just fix it by shredding up some fresh newspaper and mixing it into your worm bin contents, making sure to get some onto the bottom of the bin to soak up any puddles that may have formed. Monitor the situation, adding more newspaper the next day if it's still very wet in the bin. - You've added something that's irritating your worms. Citrus is a common suspect here. If you've added a lot of citrus fruit and rinds, that's probably the cause. Remove the citrus and see if the situation improves. Problem #3: Fruit Flies in the Worm Bin It's pretty gross when you open your worm bin and a swarm of fruit flies comes billowing out. This happens because fruit flies lay their eggs on the skins and rinds of fruits and vegetables. You have added these items to your worm bin like a good vermicomposter, and now you have to contend with the fruit flies that result. There are three things you can do to prevent fruit flies in your bin: - Wash all items very well. - If you want to take it a step further, put your food scraps in the microwave for about 30 seconds. This will kill any eggs that you may have missed during the washing step. - Always cover your food with at least two inches of fresh shredded newspaper or cardboard. As you can see, these problems are annoying, but also fairly simple to solve. Good luck with your worm bins!