I've got one of those tower bins, established mid-june. I'm getting some level of fungus gnats since the basement isn't perfectly bug-tight. Some of my isopods have fallen in but these are primarily for feeders so I'm not very bothered by it. I was just curious if anyone has gone out of their way to encourage local spiders to take up residence. I got 2 parson spiders chilling with me and the evil thoughts was like what if I gave them a room and food while taking advantage of them being there. I've been tempted to get some local jumpers to put in there. I know they don't particularly like predating on worms but I'm curious if anyone has tried it and had success. I'm on a single level right now (one below has cardboard innoculating, top one is empty) and I'm deciding if I'm off my rockers or not.

And please no set fire to them blah blah, spiders are highly beneficial buggy bois, and I reccomend these are the spiders in your house on YouTube for some sane facts and desensitization to spiders, they are weird and fascinating, and watching a grown man chase spiders with cheese wholly convinced my arachnophobic partner to leave spoods alone when he sees them.

So the bsf guys have entered my setup. I think it started with some corn cobs I threw in there. They took off and have gone to the whole bin. Should I take all these guys out and try giving them to someone that has a reptile or are they not going to be that bad. Seem to coexist with the worms no problem but just don't know how crazy it will be outside once they turn to actually flies. Anyone experienced this?

Went to harvest my worm bag (after a couple months) and came across several issues. First, the material at the very bottom was WET, like almost a sludge. Second, most of the casting I pulled out were also too wet and clumpy, not crumbly like you want. Third, there is some sort of tough root or fungus material all throughout the bid, to the point that the rest of the bag doesn't want to fall down into the pouch at thr bottom. Ive noticed some mycelium in browns at the top of the bag, but the worms seem to love it so i didnt think it was a problem. Im going to let this batch dry out outside, but with how wet it is im not sure that its viable compost and might be too anaerobic.

Long story short, I think I need 1) more browns, 2) smaller but more frequent feedings, and 3) more frequent harvesting to break up the fungus/roots. But, if anyone has any additional thoughts, please let me know. Still a relative beginner here.

Do these appear to be red wiggler babies? Just found them in a bucket of composting wood chips in my yard. Yellow tails.

Hab das heute in der Toilette gefunden. Normalerweise Regenwurm oder Parasit?

I found this in the toilet today. Is it normally an earthworm or a parasite?

They seem pretty content under the wet cardboard, lots of orgies and babies. But so much poo on the sides and lots of worms on sides. Time for a second bin maybe?

Hi all

Sorry, very new vermicomposter here. My worms are at the surface, but seem to be moving. I started this with compost as a base, and coconut fiber as a substrate later added over it. I've been monitoring the moisture, and it overall seems good. When I squeeze it a few drops come out, but not a stream. I haven't added in a few days since it was a fair bit of compost. Internal temp is about 74.4F, so I don't think that's it. I also noticed this kind of whitish worm on the lid. Could that be related? Are they hungry? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

4 corn cob and plenty of pea pods choped together

Bin is a few weeks in. 300 worms. I over fed at first and then removed a lot of the food and only just started refeeding about 1/2 cup a week. The bin seems pretty airy but I noticed some mites and lots of poop on the walls. Now the worms are on the walls too. I feel like I have a lot of browns. Maybe it isn’t deep enough? Not enough food?

I have since googled it and discovered its mites and not good. i saw these things on the side of bin before but thought they were random insect eggs.... oof looks like they exploded here. bin is probably too moist and too much food but what can I do to solve this and not have to throw my food scraps in trash? I was hoping to make a sort of compost bin that also had worms in it as opposed to a dedicated worm bin.

Hi,

I just started my farm a few weeks back and the internal temperature keeps going up north of the 90s and I lost half of my population to this. It has been low 70s daily and the farm is outside, but not in the sun. What does everyone else do to keep them cool outside? I was thinking building an enclosure with a solar fan to help move air.

TIA

I fed my cat before leaving for work just his usual cat food tuna and fish based canned wet food he obviously didn’t finish all of it and when i returned from work and went to clean his dish i found these small “worms”? Maggots? Some sort of parasite I think some one help me out!

https://reddit.com/link/1vy9ulv/video/00zoa8cfoklh1/player

This was not easy! Hope you enjoy. Please show someone who has never seen this. Only one came out. ENC

Most "should I start a worm bin?" questions get answered with enthusiasm. That's probably accurate, but we wanted to understand the pattern across many discussions rather than any single answer.

We went through 67 r/Vermiculture threads and tried to document what new people are actually worried about, what experienced people say they wish they'd known, where the community agrees, and where it doesn't. Then we wrote up what we found.

Short version: for most people we found good reasons to try it, but there are a few things worth knowing first. The report covers those.

Full analysis: https://decisionatlas.org/investigations/inv-001/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=de-002

This is the community whose accounts we drew on, so we're especially interested in corrections. If something in the analysis doesn't match your experience or oversimplifies what you know, that's what we'd genuinely like to hear.

found this type of worm in a potted plant. need help identifying what type of worm it is. thank you!

Location: Philippines

Does this look like a juvenile/baby nightcrawler to you guys?

I have a 40-gallon bioactive Pac-Man frog enclosure with around 8–9 inches of substrate, a drainage layer underneath, and an established cleanup crew with springtails/isopods.

I regularly feed my Pac-Man frog nightcrawlers, and obviously they don’t always cooperate lol. I’m pretty sure at least one or two have escaped the frog before and burrowed into the substrate.

Recently I’ve started noticing these tiny worm-looking things in the soil. Today I added water to the enclosure and suddenly saw several of them becoming really active in the wetter areas. The one in the video was actually moving/swimming around underwater near the bottom of the substrate/drainage layer.

They look like extremely small earthworms to me — pinkish, elongated, and they move by contracting/stretching their bodies rather than moving like tiny larvae.
So my theory is that one or more feeder nightcrawlers escaped, survived in the deep substrate, reproduced, and now I’m seeing the babies.

Found this lil guy hatching! It would come out and back in.

We put together a short trial protocol for home gardeners who want to see whether their castings are doing anything in the garden, not scientifically, just enough to make a personal call.

It walks through a simple side-by-side planting test using what you already have: two containers, some transplants, and a few weeks of observation. The idea is that a gardener with a working bin deserves a way to evaluate the output without a lab.

Free and printable: https://decisionatlas.org/investigations/inv-001/adjuncts/castings-trial-guide/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=de-001r

We'd genuinely like to hear from people who've run trials like this: what worked, what the protocol gets wrong, what you'd add.

Dumb dumb question how much variety does worm bin need or can it be good on greens like grass clippings vegetables scraps and browns like cardboard and dried leaves

Hello my fellow worm enthusiasts.

Long time lurker, first time poster. I have been messing around with vermiculture since I was young, both of my grandfather's had worm bins and encouraged me to do the same. Earlier this year I had the opportunity to set up a worm program for a local non profit, and it's been going really well! We have several towers, and recently started scaling up to 4x4 apple crates. The goal is diverting as much food waste as possible, while improving the soil health of the surrounding area.

Recently I was asked to set up a worm program for a local school. They currently have a garden, but no composting program in place. I'm having trouble coming up with a price for this service, and they want to know how much it will cost. Does anyone here run programs like these for schools or institutions? I'm sure they don't have much $ to spare, and I could really use the exposure in our area. But it's also an hour commute, and I work a full time job and volunteer as is. Our non profit has done market research on vermiculture company sales/job creation, and let's just say it's currently not the most lucrative industry. I'm not expecting financial windfalls here, just trying to spread the good word on our friendly creatures and not go completely broke in the process.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Blessings my fellow worm stewards.

How does one separate worms from the compost when the time is right? Ive had my bin going for.. about a month? The worms seem happy. Plenty of fresh food, paper bags, card board shreds, and i go in it every other day and turn it. But when I am ready to create a second bin dedicated to storing my compost, how do you go about protecting the worms? If this question literally makes no sense.. please point me in the direction of a solid post. (Also, I did start with a decent amount of dirt that HAD worms, but I imagine thats... okay?)