Thanks Worm Man
Having worms isn’t as glamorous as they make it out to be people! It turns out my worms are a liiiiiiiiittle on the lazy side. My bin started growing a lot of white fluffy mold and I wasn’t seeing a whole lot of the food magically turning into worm poop. I guess my expectations were a bit high. So…worried that my little Eeeeeeedooooos were in peril I contacted the worm superhero Bentley at Redwormcoposting.com and he in no time at all reassured me that my little guys were probably just fine. Here is my letter and his very fast, very helpful response which he posted on his blog earlier this week.
This question comes from a vermicomposting beginner, wondering how best to deal with an overfed bin.
I am a newbie and way overfed my worms. Can I just leave
them alone for a few weeks and let them work it out or do I need to
clean out their whole bin and start over? They seem to be enjoying
themselves, but I am worried about the white fuzzy mold growing on the
food they haven’t gotten to yet. It is only slightly musky
smelling…for now.
This is a great question, and deals with a problem I’m sure MANY worm composting newcomers encounter.
You never mentioned how you knew you had overfed your worms though. The fact that they are still “enjoying themselves” seems to indicate that all is still ok. That being said, it is always much better to err on the side of caution when concerned about the health of the bin.
I will assume that the presence of large amounts of unprocessed (now covered in fungi) food is what tipped you off. Indeed, this is a good indication of an overfed bin. If you see that the worms are not even coming close to processing everything that is being added then it’s definitely time to ease off with the feeding. I’d recommend either adding new wastes to an outdoor composter or some sort of food scrap holder (a bucket with bedding in it works great) in the meantime, if at all possible.
You definitely don’t need to completely start over – especially given the fact that the worms are still happy. I would recommend adding a decent amount of fresh bedding to the bin then simply letting it sit for as long as it takes for the food materials inside to be broken down. Once it looks like the worms have processed most of the wastes you can start adding new materials (slowly) again.
The musty bin odour you described is also another indication that the bin is still in OK shape – if you smelled some really foul odours it would likely be an indication of all the excess waste materials going anaerobic.
Anyway – hope this helps!
It sure does Worm Man! I strongly recommend reading through his site if you are interested in starting your own vermi love affair. He has a lot of great information. Hmmmm. I should ask him about the “hungry robin coming to the door” motivational technique I have been using.
Hi there I came over from another blog read and want to say what a nice blog.
I am now going to waunder over to the worm site because I’m beginning to like the idea of the worms better than my outside composting.
Bad bad bird. Go find grub somewhere else.
Worm composting still sounds like fun though
I will start one when we come back from our trip. How long of a trip can you take without the poor worms starve to death?
It took about a month or so for us to get use to the worms (and them with our eating habits). The cycle now is that we get compost about once every 2 months…faster than the average of 3 months.
I think we actually need another bin because all our meals are made at home and our worms don’t eat that fast. We store excess in the freezer until the worms are ready. Yes, I have learned to respect the Worm Gods.
Also isn’t redwormcomposting an awesome blog? When I first found it I spent hours practically drooling at the pictures (look! Shiny shiny worms!). Yes, I am a strange one.
You had me hooked from the first line.
I totally thought it was glamorous!