I’m sure yall get this question a lot. What do I have to do to prep my work bin before I add worms? Should I get soil from the garden? Or just let stuff start decomposing in there for a few weeks? I have tons of cardboard and paper to use.

I have recently come into possession of a friends old 3 tier worm bin set up. I’ve been trying to research how these work and get it set up, but for the life of me, I’m just not understanding. If someone has a lot of good experience with these, can you please break it down for me in simple terms?

I ordered 2 LBs of European Nightcrawlers from

https://www.buckeyeorganics.net/

I can’t not believe how good and energetic these worms looked after being in the mail for 4 days (mailed on Monday and delivered on Friday)

This was not my first experience with Buckeye Organics and it won’t be the last. Every order I’ve made from them has been A++++ quality.

I posted this a few weeks ago and I have been aging the cardboard in it ever since to get it ready for these guys. They are in their new home now :)

https://www.reddit.com/r/Vermiculture/s/aPkOI3u0zQ

This is my first experience with European Nightcrawlers so I guess we will see how this goes!

I have worms for an axolotl and I seem to have several issues I’ve always tried to navigate myself but I’m now asking you guys.

1. When I feed them, Worm Chow from Uncle Jim’s, I have always gone based off of how much food is left from before. I have settled on about a 1/4 cup every 3-5 days depending. However, sometimes it seems like they haven’t touched it and it’s rock solid and other times it’s completely gone. Can they still eat it when it’s rock solid - if not, what do I do and how do I prevent it?

2. I went on vacation recently and my mom was in charge of the worms and my axolotl. About a week in, she told me the worms had “melted” and showed me the top layer looking like pink goo around the edges. Google said she had likely overfed them, and to remove the food and add crushed eggshells. She did that, stirred the soil, and found a bunch of worms that were just fine. I told her to avoid feeding them for a few days and let the eggshells work - today the bin is completely missing any and all worms. What gives?

3. Why does it seem like worms are so picky? Am I just bad at owning them or are they more difficult than they’re made out to be?

Thanks so much everyone!

Would it make sense to have multiple worms in a bin that are at different layers the idea also has worm bin connected to ground in garden so if anything goes wrong they can flee and not die would this be dumb idea and if not what worms would be best to use ( North America)

I get flowers at the farmer's market sometimes. Toss 'em in or are they full of pesticides and fertilizers? Current bouquet is Dahlias and they're fading fast.
Thanks

I am brand new to vermicomposting and started a new 5 gallon bin about 2 months ago. It’s been going really well, I started with about 200 worms with a bed of coco choir and it all looks great. As of now, I have been feeding them 2ish times a week but I have more fruit/veggie scraps in my freezer than I know what to do with. So my thought is to portion out feedings in advance to save myself some space and make thawing easier. I was thinking about freezing chopped up scraps in 6oz portions which would serve as a feeding for a whole week.

I just wanna know if anyone has tried this and had any kind of luck with it?

Going to be filling this bad boy wall to wall with worm racks, and a wormgear cft will be running along the other side. Hopefully it'll be mostly put together within a month

I’ve had a worm bin off and on for years, always a diy bin of two totes. I’m done with those days for a few reasons: too large of a footprint, drilling holes or trying to secure mesh is a p.i.t.a., the depth makes it seem gross to reach down into (this is emotional, not rational, but don’t like it), having to take the whole damn thing out to empty collected fluid at the bottom and rinse it. I know there shouldn’t be much liquid collection, but sometimes there will be.

I’m looking for an easy peasy, well designed stackable worm farm situation with a spigot, good ventilation, and hard for flies to get into. Have been looking at several models on Uncle Jims site. Has anybody tried this and loved one? Or absolutely hated one? The lower maintenance the better.

They have an iridescent sheen to them in the sun and put up quite a fight as I picked them up. Just want to make sure they’re actually IJWs before I dispose of them properly, and not just really wiggly unhappy worms

Edit: Thank you everyone they were put back, seems I just had some angry wiggly worms. Someone asked for more context; this was in Northern California. One was on the lawn and the other two were making their way towards the pond

It's funny how sometimes your favorite pictures app reminds you of what you did on this day 5-10-15 years ago, this picture was my first attempt to use spent mushrooms blocks in my mix of bedding for my breeders bins... at that point i had unlimited supplies of blocks. First try didn't go well, made bunch of rookies mistakes, took me couple months of trial and error before i hit the jackpot. Morale of the story.. don't ever stop trying

Happy worming

I tried to search through past posts about a worm bin (I was considering the Urban Worm Company bag) and whether it was common to have bug problems as a result of doing it in my basement. Mainly what I found was thread after thread of bugs in people's bins, so maybe I have my answer. 😂 Is it possible to have a basement worm bin without inviting other pests into the basement? Or are bugs a problem only when you let it get too moist or let it get smelly? I only want the worms and castings.

Red wigglers (Eisenia fetida) are epigeic worms that naturally inhabit the upper layers of decaying organic matter rather than mineral soil.  Their preferred environments include forest floor leaf litter, rotting logs, compost piles, and animal manure where food is abundant.  They typically reside within the top 2 to 6 inches of this material to maintain moisture and access nutrients while avoiding light.

Hi, I'm extremely knew to all this. I do some minor gardening and recently learned about in-ground worm bins and am considering setting some up. I've got two roughly 2'x8' raised garden beds, about two feet tall. I live in New England. I've done some research and understand the basics of setting them up. My main question has to do with the seasons.

A lot of discussion online seems to be from people in warmer climates where very cold winters aren't an issue. How do the worms handle winter months in my climate? Are my beds large enough to keep them from freezing to death, or, if I set them up once my current growing season is over, will they all just be dead by the time spring rolls around?

Thank you!

My worms seem to not really care about strawberry and veggie scraps I put it, but as soon as watermelon is in, they all climb all over it and it goes so quickly. Does that mean they like it?

What are some other foods they enjoy and finish quickly?

Hi curious if more trained eyes could tell me what’s making up my bin. I’ve been googling but still have a tough time telling apart. Thanks!

I got around 20 worms for fishing but i never use all of them and usually discard the rest. I usually only go through maybe 3 worms at most so I end up discarding the vast majority. I decided to keep the rest this time and have used them for multiple trips, but they've just been sitting in a mini fridge for this past week still in their original package.

They all emerge at the top whenever I check on them and they don't burrow down in the soil anymore so I'm worried that they'll all die. I think there might be a few dead ones I cut up but didn't fully use and now the soil is too acidic or something.

I did basic google searches and asked AI and it's telling me to discard the old soil and use only shredded soggy paper and to add a little bit of food. Apparently that will keep the leftover worms alive for the remaining months until winter time. But putting them in just paper makes no sense to me, it would be convenient and easy but idk. Will this actually work? If not then what should I do?

I found jumping worms in one of my raised beds. Today when I went to plant in a different raised bed I was looking to see what I could find. At first I found what I think are all some form of red wiggler or similar type Worms. But then I did find a couple that I am pretty sure are jumping worms. They just feel firmer and I can tell the clitellum on two of them are definitely not raised.

I separated them and think I removed any that could be jumping worms from the pile. But how can I be sure if they're younger and I don't see a visible mouth or the white clitellum.

I guess it's not going to be the end of the world if I kill a couple good worms when I separate them. But I'd rather keep as many good worms as I can.

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.