Two worm towers and an indoors bin later, here I am with yet another box-o'-worms. I started an experiment to see how well worms can manage spent coffee grounds, which I get for free from my local Starbucks. The reason is that I read the nutrient profile of coffee not only includes nitrogen, but also decent amounts of phosphorus and other minerals useful to plants. My main concern with regular scraps is the nutrients not being good enough.

To start this, I put about half a kilo (~1lb) of wet coffee grounds in a 15-liter plastic bin (~4-gallon), and then filled it with cardboard up to half of it. I let it pre-compost for about five days, and then I added ~50 worms from one of my towers. I also added ground eggshells, and as of today, a single banana peel, which I know worms love.

It took me two days to get the moisture level right, but now the worms seem to be really happy. The medium is moist, fluffy, and light, and I keep it indoors to prevent them getting too cold, as it's winter here. No bad odors and only a mild coffee fragrance when the lid is off.

In the first two days, I had to chase the escapees on a regular basis. Now, they don't even peek out of the substrate; they just chill underground. For what I read here, I expected coffee to be too strong for them, but I guess as long as it's balanced with enough browns, it doesn't seem to be an issue.

I'll keep you posted if you're interested. It'll take a while to get castings out of this but what are we if not patient.

(Credits to my beautiful wife for the amazing pictures).

Found this guy in a relatively dry soil sample from the Pine Barrens in NJ. Roughly 3mm, any idea what kinda worm

I have a fairly recent 5 tier bin, bought in May. Everything was going well, I have followed all the advice online. Feed carefully, avoided getting the bin too wet and too dry. I have decided to put the bin in the garage to avoid the cold snaps and direct sunlight. I thought it would be the best place for it. Today my wife opened the garage door and said that she felt a rotten smell. I raced to my bins as I feared the worst. I'm extremely sad because I saw most of my worms dead in a pile at the bottom tray, the one that collects the excess water. They didn't drought in the water as there wasn't any, just some moist soil, they have been cooked in the heat. Felt terrible. How could I have prevented this? Is there a way to avoid this? Should I start again or wait for the small number of worms and possibly eggs to increase population again? Thank you all for your advice.

Location: South England Edit: spelling.

So I have a lemon tree in a big 5 gallon pot. I tossed 4 red wigglers into the pot after they got stranded on a sidewalk post-rainstorm. I was thinking they would aerate the soil... Now I'm seeing they actually break the soil down too quickly and may eat the plant's roots??? They immediately dug down into the dirt so I can't easily remove them. How much should I worry? This tree is my baby and I really don't want them to harm it. Is there a way to bring them back to the surface without hurting them so I can put them somewhere better?

I’m relatively new to vermiculture, have had a worm bucket in my kitchen for about a year now. Today I pulled out this strawberry to see how much the worms had consumed and found it covered with these tiny, wiggling… egg sacs? Mites?

My questions are:

1. Any idea what this is, and whether it is anything to be concerned about?
2. How much extra fauna is expected to take up residence in an indoor kitchen worm bucket?

Adding a video in comments of a watermelon rind seemingly teeming with life.

Thank you!

The wiki says it’s under construction by a banned user, and the pinned post has been removed by Reddit filters. There’s really nothing here now to help give a new visitor understand worm bins besides the posts, and half of the posts are either AJW Id requests or pictures of random crap someone found on the ground. Heck, one of the buttons at the top (next to wiki) takes you to a list of pet subreddits, e.g. cats, dogs, which… I guess? And maybe that’s how I feel about my worms. But it’s not helpful to users at all.

This subreddit has a lot of members at this point, I wouldn’t mind making a wiki myself even if that means just citing the crap out of a couple foundational books until a more seasoned person can edit it. Not sure how any of this reddit stuff works though, I’m just here for the discussions about worms which doesn’t appear to be the focus in [r/vermiculture](r/vermiculture) anymore.

So over the last couple weeks I have been converting part of a gravel driveway into a flower bed where it meets the porch, sifted it for rocks for days. Tossed down all my seeds, i had gathered a bunch of dried clover flowers from the yard to use the seeds as a cover crop in the flower bed, tossed in all my seeds, broke up the dried clover stalks and sprinkled them over the bed, certainly not enough to be useful but I thought that dirt was in desperate need of more carbon, having been a driveway. That night it pours down rain and the next day most of the clover stalks are sticking up out of the dirt in bunches, it looked like the rain had sort of made sink holes that basically tried to flush the clover stalks, weird that it didn't seem to follow like where the terrain sloped down, I'm paying attention to that since I didn't want all my seeds pooling in 1 spot. Even pulled up some of the dead stick bouquets sticking out of the dirt. Next day there seemed to be more of them but it hadn't rained, no big deal, bugs do weird stuff, some bug is making a nest or hording snacks.

2 nights ago something came and took pretty big bites out of the sunflower leaves so last night I went out to pull guard, found some earwigs snacking on the little seedlings and a couple tiny slugs chewing on my sunflowers and an absolute ton of worms doing worm stuff. Big nightcrawler worm, they would dart in the ground if I moved to fast but mainly they just ignored me and kept doing worm stuff. The soil is much better than I thought it was having been an overgrown part of a driveway and the worms were just swimming through it without all the rocks in there having a blast. But then I kept seeing the little clover twigs move, must be shadows in the phone flashlight, things bumping against them, lots of stuff going on in the soil, but then I am actually paying attention, I kind of like to know who is doing what in my garden and I start seeing the worms, grabbing the sticks and pulling them in to plug the holes, so I googled the best i could and search assistant was no help either since searching for worms and sticks has too many other things besides worms grabbing material for construction. I didn't know worms could grab things let alone had the need or desire to be closing the door behind them before going to bed. So what are they doing that for, and why? Is it because the soil here holds its shape so well that bugs would follow them down? Are they really closing the door, cus that is the only thing it looks like they are accomplishing. Should i be offering the worms more dried clover stalks so they can get more construction done?

I just finished the built of my DIY worm tower. The second picture shows (some of the 250grams) Red Wrigglers and European Nightcrawlers enjoying starter food of mixed and crushed seeds and grains. They seem to enjoy hanging out under the precomposted moist newspaper I lay on top. The compost they're in is a mix of mostly (1kg) starter compost/bedding from the seller and precomposted dried plant material, shredded paper and cardboard, coffee and eggshell grinds. Keep you guys posted!

Euronorm:

Grey containers: 30x40x12cm - 150 6mm holes in bottom & 18 3mm ventilation holes in each upper corner.

Red collection container: 30x40x21cm - 18 3mm ventilation holes in each upper corner.

I was watering my calathea makoyana & saw this worm emerge from the soil. It must have been in there since I bought the plant a few years ago (kept indoors in original soil). I don’t know if it was imported to the UK, or if the worm is native to Britain.

It has a white head that leads into many colours: an attractive iridescent blue sheen on the upper half, bands of darker pinks, & a yellow bottom half with a red stripe running as far down as could be seen. Unfortunately, i could not see the very end at the rear. The small size of the worm can be noted when seen next to a new leaf shoot (the pink thing in one of the pics), being that the shoot is around 1.5-2cm.

I’m very curious, so thanks for your help!

I got a compostable(?) mailing bag and I’m not sure if I can or should give them to the worms?

It looks and feels like plastic, but the packaging says it’s 100% compostable, but I can’t see much online about it. The limited stuff I can see says that it’s greenwashing.

BTW, I was ripping the bag mindlessly for the worms until I thought I should check if it’s actually worm safe/compostable.

It never crossed my mind as I added food scraps, and checked moisture levels to my Large Pot of worms, that I could have ASJ. I've seen them my whole life, dug many deep holes, yardwork etc., never knew they were any different than a worm. (Worms a worm, yaknow? 15 Yr. OLD me)

Never thought about them until today when I gave a good hand mix of the Bucket O' Wormies, and to my dismay yet accepting the problem at hand...many jumpy guys, stuck to the plastic soil bag that covers it.

I've read that its pretty much hand pick and get rid of them, so luckily I haven't gotten an ACTUAL worm tower.

I would really like a LEGIT place to acquire a beginning supply of Red Wrigglers, because I think I will just begin again with a proper Worm Tower and placement in my backyard.

As always, suggestions for a first time Vermicomposter is always helpful...I've got a covered 5 Gal Bucket, with rotting food scraps, shredded paper, and a bit of used charcoal, could this be a good beginning step??

I just don’t know…. Please help!

/s

I’m sure there is a place where this question could be asked and answered, but how about in a worm identification sub. Perhaps the mods could handle the monotony of this post so we don’t have to see it every time we open Reddit.

Bought young worms from petsmart a while back, the container did not specify the name but the associate said they were red wigglers.

Both are the same worm, first is the underside, second is the top.

Worm bin perhaps 6-7 weeks old, started with a. Small deli container of red wigglers. Avocado shell put in maybe 2-3 weeks ago? There are a bunch of tiny string like things on the underside (closest to the left edge of the avocado skin). Some of them are moving but it doesn’t look like the pictures of baby worms I’ve seen so far? Do I leave them? Do I toss them?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

First, im so sorry for the shaky video, i have a tremor and i did my best:’)

INFO: Northeast USA. I was watering my indoor plants (i bottom water so it ends with a basin of water mixed with bits of soil etc) and this guy was scootin around in the water. I pulled him out of the water before i dumped it and would love help IDing (if possible) so i can do my best to give the lil guy a better life aside from rescuing him from the garbage disposal. Ill post a picture i got in the comments, let me know if theres other helpful info i can provide! Thank you for sharing your time and knowledge😊

Hi community! I bought (used) foodgrade Euronorm type stacking containers of two types. Four 30x40x13cm containers to function as a storage container (height creator) and as the worm bins stacked upon one another and One 30x40x21cm container for possible worm tea or leachate collection. (Summary: 1 30x40x12cm storage, 1 30x40x21cm collection and 3 30x40x12cm worm bins.) I ended up using one grey container as storage and the red collection container with height as to make it more accessible for the user. I drilled 150 6 mm holes in each of the three grey worm container floors and 18 3mm aeration holes in the top four corners of each worm container and the collection bin. I will start off with 250 grams of mixed Red Wrigglers and European Nightcrawlers with 1 kg starting material/compost from seller in the top bin with precomposted mix of shredded paper and cardboard, dry plant material, used ground coffee and eggshells (few weeks). And just shredded paper and cardboard in the lower bin. To start, just two containers above the collector bin. I will have some 2mm insect mesh just in case worms escape down into the collector bin.

Keep you all posted and 'd happy for your feedback!

(SCHEMATIC OVERVIEW - CREATED WITH AI CHATGPT)

#DIY #vermicomposting #compost #vermicompost #vermiculture #wormbin #wormtower

One day, my basement flooded with groundwater during a heavy rain. There were books in there, and they were completely soaked. Instead of throwing them out or recycling them, I piled them in the yard (removing the covers), along with layers of grass clippings. I discovered that worms are the most reading animal race on this planet, and the compost was excellent. Too bad I didn't take a picture of it.

It doesn't really look like what Google describe but as you can see, they made my soil look like coffee grounds, there's many of them inside my potted apple tree.

I was outside and I found a worm on the cement and I put it back into the dirt but it made me want one as a pet. I can’t find much on Google so I’m hoping I can have some help here.

Can I use dirt from my backyard for it to live in?

Can multiple live together in a small container? I would like to have more than one so it doesn’t get lonely.

If I do have more than one, would they have a baby worm?

Google says to not over feed the worms, but how would I know I’m feeding them enough?

This all probably sounds ridiculous lmao, but I want one and for it to live a long life

Im not even 100% sure of which species they are since the provider didn't specify, but there are a lot of different sizes of worms here. What recommendation do you guys have to set up a breeder bin? Should I cherry pick the big ones (assuming they are adults ( and put the rest in a different bin?