Troubleshooting The Bin

Every once in a while, despite our attempts to take excellent care of our worms, things just get out of whack in the bin. In this lesson, we'll try to address some of the most common problems. Let's bein with one of the most unwelcome visitors to the worm bin.

Fruit Fly Invasion!

Everyone gets 'em sometime! They just seem to be a vermicomposting "fact of life". When you have a lot of them, especially indoors, you really have an unpleasant situation.

Fortunately, there are several things you can do to keep their numbers way down. First, don't bring them in. Fruit flies come into the home as cocoons in the peels of fruit we buy. Their tiny eggs are planted into the skins. One way to kill the eggs, if you want to go to this length, is to drop the skins and peels into hot water, microwave a couple of minutes or steam them. The eggs aren't buried deeply, so you shouldn't have any problem reaching them.

In the worm bin, always bury your food waste several inches deep in the bedding. In addition, you can place a couple layers of damp newspaper flat over the surface of the bedding. Each of these helps to keep adult fruit flies from accessing the buried food, where they'd love to lay their eggs.

Maggots

The most common type of maggots found in a worm bin are grey brown and about 1/2" long. These are the larvae of the soldier fly, a large pretty, blue/black fly. These larvae are attracted to compost piles and to the worm bin, and will not harm you or your worms. In fact, they are good decomposers and, like the redworms, will produce a high quality casting.

If you haven't added animal proteins, and don't have any foul odors in the bin, then in all likelihood the maggots you are seeing will be soldier flies. Once your bin has soldier flies, it can be difficult to say goodbye to them. Your best tactic is to simply allow them to grow out of the larval stage (which they do quickly) and fly off. If you really can't stand them, you'll have to harvest the worms and get rid of all your vermicompost material (put it in an outdoor compost pile, or bury it in the garden). Then put your worms back into fresh bedding.

Stink!

Once you experience a stink, you'll try your best to make sure it doesn't happen again! When air doesn't get to part of the bedding, then things can get really smelly.

When a stink happens, it's important to get the material in your bin aired out quickly. If there's just one offending item, of course, remove just that. If it's a whole layer of the bin that smells a little bit, try mixing the bedding it to get air in there. While you're at it, add more shredded paper or cardboard to promote even better aeration, and to balance any excess nitrogen there may be.

A stink can be caused by a matted-down, wet layer of bedding, which stops the flow of air and oxygen. If your bedding tends to mat down, use several different kinds of bedding material together, which will help keep air spaces open. Also, try to prevent bedding from becoming too damp.

Swamp!

Ok, so you've got a couple of inches of water on the bottom of the worm bin. "Now what?", you ask. Well, the answer's simple: start bailing!

First, remove any waterlogged castings from the bottom of the bin. Place these in some kind of porous container (a box with holes in the bottom works) to let the castings dry out before using them.

Then, ask yourself how the excess water got into the bin:

• Did you recently added a lot of very wet waste, like watermelon rinds? (If this is the case, problem solved.. remove some of those rinds and vow not to do this again.)
• Is the humidity in your area high enough that very little evaporation happens through the bin's air holes? You can correct the problem by adding a lot more aeration holes or by placing the bin where there's more air circulation.
• Does your bin just seem to collect moisture? Many bins, particularly pastic ones, do. To improve its aeration, add some 1/4" holes on the bottom and sides of your bin. Adding a dozen per square foot should help a lot. If it's a stacking tray bin, look and see where it is designed to allow air to enter. You're going to have to improve the aeration on teh bin somehow. Leaving the lid off will help, and so will keeping the spigot open (with a bucket below to catch excess liquid.)

Worm Crawl/Escape

Worms that are uncomfortable will try to move on to a new location. If your worms have left you, you're probably already coming up with a song about the experience. What else can you do? Try to determine what caused them to crawl.

• Were they new to the bin? When they first arrive in a new environment, worms will be inclined to look around. It takes time for them to settle down. (remember that if the new bedding and food are clos to that of their old environment, they will be less inclinded to leave.
• Was something awful added to the bin?
• Have predators like dogs, moles, birds, even housecats or mice, been in the bin a lot lately? This may disturb them enough to make them want to move on.

Address the causes for your worms' move and you'll find they stay put more often.

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What is Vermicomposting | Worm Bin Location
Building your Worm Bin | Set up | Feeding
Basic Worm Bin Care | Troubleshooting
Harvesting Worms and Castings | Food and Organic Compost Tea
Advanced Topics | Earthworm Biology and Production