Troubleshooting

Problem: My worm bed is too wet. I put paper/cardboard in but I still have to drain off a lot of liquid; I have not put any liquid in at all.

The liquid is most likely the worms' urine (leachate), which is an extremely good fertilizer. See below for how to use the leachate to help your plants thrive.

How to use the worm leachate

Leachate is an incredible resource for you to use in your garden. It contains all of the microflora and the beneficial bacteria that reside in the worm's’ stomach. When you water your plants with this leachate all of your pants are getting that benefit.

You can use leachate straight out of the bin by simply pouring it out of the bottom layer.

You can make worm tea by diluting leachate with filtered water into a 5-gallon bucket, adding a small pond aerator, and bubbling the solution overnight. The next day spray the worm tea onto your plants, water directly, or water via your fertigation system.

Leachate on the bottom of the bin is in an anaerobic form - anaerobic meaning that it does not have oxygen. When you take the leachate and bubble it you’re adding oxygen. What's happening is you're allowing the aerobic (oxygen-loving) bacteria to take over and eat the anaerobic bacteria. This changing process allows the beneficial bacteria to flourish so then you can spray them on your plants, allowing the plants to protect their own microflora and allow them to thrive.

Some Worm Bin "Dont's"

Worm bins are not difficult to maintain, but they do need to be looked after. Here are some things that you shouldn't do if you want a healthy, hearty ecosystem.

Don't feed your worms too much. If your compost bin starts to smell, it could be because you are feeding your worms more than they can process. When this happens, the bedding can also heat up, killing off the worms.

Stay away from combinations of the following in your worm bin. While the worms can process these materials in different settings you don't want to be doing this within your worm bin that's in your house or garage (see below for some workarounds):

• Excessive citrus* — no more than 1/5 of the total worm food
• Meats or fish**
• Fats or excessively oily scraps**
• Twigs and branches**
• Cat or dog feces***

Workaround

• * Citrus needs thermophilic composting to process. Always keep citrus away from worms.
• ** Meats, fish, fats, excessively oily scraps, twigs and branches can all be composted by worms in an outdoor separate bin. We're trying to turn people on to the fact that instead of just keeping your worms in a bin, if you have the area, and you want your land to become fertile, then use worms as a fertility hub. Create a space for your worms to come out and migrate around your land. As long as there's area, leaf litter, and mulch for them to move about (and moisture) they will populate your land. You can bring them where you want them by where you put the food. They'll migrate to it. We've developed ways to use worms with composting. You can check it out on our website (www.livingearthsystems.com).
• *** You can make a separate worm bin for just dog and cat feces that you keep outside. The worms are very effective at breaking feces down but we do not recommend putting that in your kitchen. Sometimes meat-eating animals (such as dogs and cats) have parasites that can be passed on and that the worms don't kill.

Problem: Worms are dying or trying to escape

Probable Cause & Solution: If you think about it and you haven't split your worms up like we talked about earlier and you're trying to harvest mainly silky castings instead of vermi-post, the environment may be too toxic for them. Or if you're feeding them too much and they've gone through all their bedding and they don't have any neutral material and they're just swimming through their own poop, the environment may be too toxic for them.

If need be separate your worms from your castings or vermi-post and re-bed your bin. You can usually get it under control by holding off on feeding them, or making sure you haven’t put the wrong foods in your bin. Check your bottom tray and empty the leachate out. It’s usually as simple as that.

Problem: The bin stinks!

Probable Cause & Solution: Not enough air, too much food, or too wet.

If your bin smells bad you put too much food in there. Stuff in your bin is rotting and the reason it's rotting and not being eaten is there's not enough oxygen present. We want an aerobic (oxygen-rich) environment for these worms to do their thing. Oxygen is important. Make sure your bin is in a cool place in the shade and check your leachate on the bottom and draining it when it needs to be drained.

Drill more ventilation holes (if not enough air), do not feed for 1-2 weeks (if too much food), or add more bedding (if too wet). And make sure that you've drained the leachate from the bottom layer.

Problem: Fruit Flies

Probable Cause & Solution: Sometimes other creatures will make it into your bed. It's not a reason to panic. Worms work well with other creatures, such as pill bugs and copepods, and there's all types of other creatures, as well as fungus and bacteria, that work with the worms. So again, don't panic.

If you get some fruit flies in there you can eliminate them by just making sure that the food you've added in there is buried better and not exposed. Make sure to keep the lid on tight, and if the fruit flies are getting in after you’ve tried all of that, you can even tape a piece of screen over the tiny ventilation holes.

You can also drill more holes for more ventilation. Make sure that your bin is not getting too hot and that it's not in the sun heating up. The closer your bin is to the worms ideal temperature (60° - 70° F), and the more oxygen it has, the better.

If it's winter you're going to find that you're going to actually have to keep your bin inside or in the middle of a compost pile that will keep it heated through the cold periods. In their normal environments worms will congregate in compost pile, or piles of manure, and they’ll use the thermophilic heat to keep them warm for the winter.