Number of Mites significantly reduced

[Eric M]

I have had a pretty significant amount of mites in my worm bin the past few weeks.  I read in several places that they can be a good thing, so I am not worried about it.

Yesterday, I added some food to the bin.  It was a mixture of banana peels, grape tomatoes and apple cores.  I put it all in a blender and then added it, nice and mushy, to the bin.  I also crushed up an egg shell and sprinkled it on top, several hours after adding the food.

Right now, it's been over 24 hours since I added the food and egg shells and I noticed the number of mites has been very significantly reduced since last time I opened the bin to feed them.  I figured they found the food and were all attracted to it, so maybe they just weren't at the top anymore.  I pulled back the bedding to reveal the area where I put the food, and it looks like most of it is gone (albeit, it was mostly water content so It could have soaked in with everything else).

Does anyone have any insight on this?  Did the egg shells do something?  Or Maybe the mites dug into the compost at the bottom?  Or maybe something I fed the worms scared them off?  I would consider what I fed them a "typical" meal that I've been giving them.

The only thing I did that was different yesterday was add tomatoes, and this was the first time I put egg shells in there.

There are still a good amount of mites in there, but I have to try to find them.  Before this, I could just open the bin and see the mites everywhere.

Once again I ask: Does anyone have any insight on this?

[Will Overstreet]

I have also noticed that I now seem to have mites, lots of em and they just now are showing up.  IF I were to try to rid my bin of mites how would one do it? Where do they come from? I have been carefull of what goes into the bin and do not know how they got there.

[Eric M]

A popular method is to put watermelon slices in there and let the mites build up on it.  When it's full of mites, take it out of the bin and rinse them off.  Place the watermelon back in the bin and repeat this process until you have noticed a significant drop in their population.

I am not 100% sure how mites got in my bin, but there was one point in time that I put a handful of leaves in there from outside, so that's most likely the case for me.  If you have a healthy bin environment, it may just be part of nature that they found their way in there.

[Bill S]

I have never worried too much about mites in my bins.  I figure that they are there to help eat the food.  When I first started with worms I was nervous about them leaving the bin and "infesting" my house (seems so silly now) but they just  stick around the food and don't cause much trouble for the worms either. 

As for where they have gone, it could be that they are just dispersed rather than being gathered around a specific portion of food yet.  I typically see more mites in the plastic drum bins that I have, and It seems that when it is humid or when the bin is very warm and moist that they are more prominent. 

[Casey Wilder]

Hey eric!

I've heard from most sources that mites aren't a threat to worms and just love their decaying matter. One way to gradually fix the problem is gradually dropping your feeding down. Those mites are decomposers also. If you're having a mite problem, there may be too much food for the worms so the mites are picking up the slack.

Also, I've read that mites like wetter and more acidic environments than most worms do, so you may be running a little wet and/or over fed.

Take care and keep us posted!!

[Eric M]

Yeah, his website is awesome!  I've read the same sort of information about mites.  I'm not so worried about them.  I found it interesting though that it seems the quantity of them dropped so low, so quickly.  Thanks for the info!