A quick
worm bin update. The worms did well in their move across town last September. They live on a shelf down in the basement now, and their storage bin blends in with the rest of the bins down there. In the eight months I've had them they've completely consumed their original newspaper bedding, as well as the scraps I've been feeding them, and have produced about two inches
(measuring from the bottom of the bin) of compost. I fed them yesterday and decided to take few pictures.
In the picture above you can see that I've just added some scraps of food on the left. The food in this case is green onion stalks, potato peelings, carrot peelings, and a few apple cores. I freeze all the food
(using leftover plastic containers from restaurants) while I build up a large enough quantity
(and while they consume their previous meal). Once I'm ready to feed them, I microwave the food to thaw it out, as well as cook it. I think this combination of freezing and heating makes the scraps break down in the bin faster, and also kills off any undesirable hitchhikers like fly eggs, or other bugs. I only want worms in my bin. On the right side of the picture above, you can see what's left of the newspaper bedding I added a couple months ago.
This time around, I decided that things are getting a little too moist in the bin. The worms like and need moisture, but they don't seem to like too much of it either. When it gets too damp in the bin, they all crawl up the on the inside wall of the container. To help absorb some of this excess moisture, I've added some new bedding. Usually I would dampen it, but this time I'm going to let the bin do that for me. I'll check on it again in a few days to see how it's doing. Notice that there are no worms visible in the pictures. They're light sensitive, and they don't like it. Usually when I lift the lid off the container, they burrow down into the castings or hide in the bedding. By the time I got the lights set up for the picture, they were all out of sight.
In the picture above you can see that I've just added some scraps of food on the left. The food in this case is green onion stalks, potato peelings, carrot peelings, and a few apple cores. I freeze all the food (using leftover plastic containers from restaurants) while I build up a large enough quantity(and while they consume their previous meal). Once I'm ready to feed them, I microwave the food to thaw it out, as well as cook it. I think this combination of freezing and heating makes the scraps break down in the bin faster, and also kills off any undesirable hitchhikers like fly eggs, or other bugs. I only want worms in my bin. On the right side of the picture above, you can see what's left of the newspaper bedding I added a couple months ago.
This time around, I decided that things are getting a little too moist in the bin. The worms like and need moisture, but they don't seem to like too much of it either. When it gets too damp in the bin, they all crawl up the on the inside wall of the container. To help absorb some of this excess moisture, I've added some new bedding. Usually I would dampen it, but this time I'm going to let the bin do that for me. I'll check on it again in a few days to see how it's doing. Notice that there are no worms visible in the pictures. They're light sensitive, and they don't like it. Usually when I lift the lid off the container, they burrow down into the castings or hide in the bedding. By the time I got the lights set up for the picture, they were all out of sight.
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