Welcome, Stephen McGuire!

Stephen -- Thanks for reaching out and introducing yourself. I have been "lurking" in vermicomposters.com for a while but not had any human interaction. I have had my worm bin for about eight months now starting with 1 lb of red wigglers. Pretty good results (they didn't die), and have muliplied and consume what I put in.

My best experience has been giving them watermellon rind, pumpkins (after halloween), mellon rind, and spoiled apples. Coffee grounds is a regular addition. I stay away from citrus and my experience with bannas was not good (smelled bad).

Good luck with your project. Let me know how you make out !

LarryC

Stephen, Euros "nightcrawling" is normal. It's easy for them to travel up walls because of the condensation. They'll do this even when everything in the bin is ideal: temps, moisture, food, etc. If there is no condensation on the walls, most of them won't bother to go very far. You can accomplish this by not using a lid. I have one RM bin that I cover with dry, torn cardboard and a dry burlap cloth. The bedding under remains moist and the worms stay there.

I also turn on a string of LED Christmas lights (4 watts) at night to discourage any of the worms that might try to head out even with the lack of moisture. But if your lid is secure and you have some ventilation, there's nothing wrong with them wandering around the bin. I'm going to test using a 5 gal. bucket with a tight lid and just leave them alone a week at a time. They won't be able to escape and I'll open the lid only to feed them.

Stephen, I have the Christmas lights over a 14 gal. tote with ~3/4 lbs. Euros. The lights are piled on a piece of plastic with a 1/4" grid. I have it set on a timer to turn on in the evening. During the daytime there's enough ambient light to keep worms under. This "lid of lights" spans about half of the top opening, so there's plenty of ventilation. I don't get any condensation.

If you want to try it with the lid, take a look at this worm bin modification. You could insert 10-20 of the Christmas bulbs instead of a single night light. Of course with a lid you will probably get condensation and some worms may wander in any case. But it seems to me that 99.5% of my Euros are very sensitive to light and duck back under even with very dim light. Of course there are still a few that seem bent on suicide.

Hi Stephen,
Thanks for reaching out. I've been a vermicomposter for a few years now. I actually started my own business and sell The Worm Factory, red wigglers and compost at Farmer's Markets in MA and RI. My website is www.urbanwormcomposting.com.

Keep them cool & moist with plenty of bedding and some food. They'll start producing cocoons soon enough. Here's Larry's Euro experiment. I couldn't find his update, but he had lots of cocoons once the weather cooled down in Florida.

Except for a few things the worms can handle immediately (melon rinds, some over-ripe fruit, bolted lettuce, etc.), I throw all my kitchen scraps into my compost bin first. I then grab whatever looks worm-ready from the compost bin and feed that to the worms. If your compost is made from mostly leaves and grass, then there might not be the same level of nutrients available for the worms.

Hi,
The price is $120.00 for the Worm Factory 360, and I'll throw in free shipping. It comes with 4 trays, a DVD, coir, shredded paper, manual, and accessory kit (thermometer, rake). It is so simple to set up and use. Only takes 15 minutes or so. Let me know if you want one. The price is pretty standard since the company requires you sell them for this price although some people may sell them for more.

hi
i sure do put socks in there. haven't put a shirt in yet but plan to soon. gotta clean out my drawers....
they'll eat all the cotton and the only thing left with socks is the elastic! kind of a pain to clean out while harvesting vc though

it takes months and months....

Hey Stephen Im doing great and how are you?