The Worm Bin

• Pick a container with drainage holes, kept out of direct sun.
• Add moist bedding, shredded cardboard or newspaper, damp like a wrung-out sponge.
• Add your worms on top and let them settle in.
• Leave them alone 24 to 48 hours before the first feeding.
• Feed small, bury scraps under the bedding, and check before adding more.

Good to feed

Fruit and veggie scraps, melon, pumpkin and squash, coffee grounds and used tea, crushed eggshells, small amounts of berries, and damp cardboard or plain paper for bedding.

In moderation

Pineapple, bread, crackers, pasta, and rice. Small amounts, buried deep.

Keep out

Meat, fish, dairy, onion, garlic, citrus, hot peppers, and oily or fried food.

The bedding should feel like a wrung-out sponge, damp throughout but not dripping when you squeeze a handful.

Too wet, mix in dry shredded cardboard. Too dry, mist it lightly and add fresh damp bedding.

55 to 80°F is the range you want. Above 90°F is dangerous, and below 45°F they go dormant.

Through the Texas heat

Move outdoor bins to covered shade by May. Keep frozen water bottles ready for days over 85°F, and check the bins daily from June through September.

Bad smell

Almost always too much food or too much moisture. Stop feeding a few days, add dry bedding, fluff the top, and pull out anything rotting.

Worms escaping

Check the bedding first. If it is soggy, add dry cardboard. Stop feeding until things settle, and leave a light on overnight so they head back down.

Fruit flies

Bury food under a couple inches of bedding and pause fruit for a while. A dish of apple cider vinegar with a drop of dish soap works as a trap.

Sluggish worms

Usually the bin is too cold, too dry, or was recently disturbed. Check those three first.

Castings are ready when they are dark, crumbly, and uniform like fine coffee grounds, around day 90 to 120.

How Sean harvests

Push the food to one side and feed only that side for two to three weeks. The worms migrate over, and you scoop finished castings from the empty side.

Using castings

Mix one to two inches into raised beds, or up to 25 percent into potting mix. You can also top dress around plants and water it in.

Worm tea

Steep castings in water, about one cup per gallon. Aerated brewing works best, so run an air pump for 24 to 48 hours, and use it fresh.

In good conditions a red wiggler makes one to three cocoons a week, and each cocoon holds two to seven babies that hatch in about 21 to 45 days.

A healthy population can roughly double every 60 to 90 days. Keep the bin around 70 to 75°F and not too crowded. Counting cocoons each week is the best health check there is.

How often should I feed?

Check first. If the last batch is still mostly there, wait. Feed the bin, not the calendar.

What are the tiny white bugs?

Most likely mites, harmless in small numbers. If they take over, cut back on moisture and feeding.

How long do red wigglers live?

One to three years is typical in a real bin, and the colony keeps replacing itself as it breeds.