Andrew's Page

Since the volume of compost in my flow through was so slow to increase, I decided to incorporate half the contents of my static (no vent or drain holes) styrofoam bin. This was about 3 gallons of material and worms. I also added more worms from the regular compost bin. I want to increase the population density to 1 lb. per ft2. Since the FT has 2.3 sq. ft of surface area, I need ~ 2.3 lbs. of worms.

Today I did a quick & dirty pile-method worm harvest from half of the FT to a depth of ~4".… Continue

It's only been 2 weeks, but so far neither excessive moisture or smell has been a problem. Since I regularly add coffee grounds, the predominant smell is coffee-ish. It doesn't smell like worm compost, but there's nothing close to offensive about the smell...so far. :-)

I'm on the 3rd version of my DIY BSFL bin. I've modified it to a bin-within-a-bin design. The smaller bin houses the feeding area. This 5 gal. bin always has condensation on the walls. The mature grubs easily crawl up the vertic… Continue

My curiosity about BSFL was too great to wait until next year to seed my own local colony. So I cheated and bought a "BSF multi-stage starter kit" from Jerry at blacksoldierflyblog.com. The kit includes hundreds of juvenile & mature grubs along with a "hatchery" that contains a few clutches of eggs (hopefully another 2,000 juvenile grubs in a few weeks) and the baby grubs born in the 2 days it took to get to CA from GA.

Here's an unpacking video that shows the grubs & my mini-bin. Pleas… Continue

About 10 yrs. ago (maybe longer), I bought a county-subsidized Wriggly Wranch Worm system (WWW) and stocked it with a pound of worms. Despite (I'm ashamed to say) mostly neglect, the worm herd survived through the years. Several months ago the WWW was knocked over by an animal (dog, raccoon or possum). I didn't notice this in time and the herd was no more.

My sister, who is involved with her kids' school food recycling efforts, asked me for my now empty worm bins. I figured she'd be a better st… Continue