We are one month into our vermicomposting adventure and our little savages are thriving. We had a bit of drama last week, what with the worms trying to escape en masse (not to mention the fruit flies taking over our kitchen), but this week when we opened up the worm bin all but a few were happily burrowed beneath the newspapers munching away on their food. They had eaten everything except a few bits of tomato, so it seems the two piles (~1/2 cup each) is just the right amount of food to last them a week. Feeding zones this week: 1 & 8.

We tried keeping the worm bin out in the laundry room to help with the fly situation, but Andrea noticed after a couple days the worms seemed rather lethargic, indicating it was too cold out there for them (food scrap bin is still nasty and outside though, and we feed outside). Fortunately, bringing the worms back into the kitchen did not exacerbate the fly infestation. In fact, the flies have thinned out a bit. We have two fly catcher contraptions set up, one filled with vinegar, one with red wine.

The volume of castings (i.e. poop) is definitely accumulating, as is to be expected. Only 2 months to go until we have our first harvestable batch of fertilizer for our plants! It will be just in time for the long, cold, darkness of winter (ugh…) when the plants usually loose some of their luster (if not their lives). The nutrients will do a body good.

Another interesting thing about the castings we noticed is that there is quite a bit on one side of the walls of the bin, but not the other. After thinking about it, we came to the conclusion that the reason is that the nook where we keep the worm bin leaves only one side of the bin exposed to light. Since we know that the worms try their best to avoid light, it is most likely that when they were on their mission to escape they were also on a mission to find darkness.

In a bit if sad news, we found this lone worm dead under our couch. I guess this little one was successful in his escape. R.I.P. wormey.

Savage Worms archive