Question 1

I Have Ants In The Wormery, What Should I Do?

Accepted Answer

Whilst ants don’t harm the worms as such, they will take the worm eggs—this will obviously affect future generations, so you need to get the ants out.

An effective treatment is Diatomaceous earth (DE) Powder. it’s non-toxic to kids, birds, and pets. And yet it effectively sorts out ants in your worm bin. As they move across the powder, it sticks to their feet and legs only to get into their joints and exoskeleton.

Buy DIATOMACEOUS EARTH here: https://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/products/diatomaceous-earth

If you can find and remove the queen, the rest should follow her. Watering the wormery, to keep it damp, often encourages ants to evacuate the kit.

You can help keep ants out by smearing some Vaseline on the legs of the wormery.

Question 2

HELP! My Worms are Escaping.

Accepted Answer

Worms in a wormery sometimes try to escape. If it’s just one or two adventurous worms, it’s best not to be concerned – all just part of life in a worm bin really. However, if you see worms clumping near the top of the bin, or escaping, there may be a problem brewing…

When you first get your kit the worms need to establish in the bedding so when you are introducing worms to the bin the best way is place them on top of the bedding. Let them dig their own way in. They build little tunnels that provide oxygen. Dumping lots of bedding or waste directly on worms can suffocate them.

IMPORTANT: Worms are sensitive to the weather. If a low pressure system or thunderstorm is moving in, the worms might start clumping and climbing. Watch for a while and see if this is the pattern. If so, do not worry.

Worms need OXYGEN!

Worms breathe through their skins. If they don’t have enough air, they will try and escape. Lack of oxygen could be caused by:

Overfeeding
Insufficient ventilation**

To check for overfeeding, dig around. Is there a lot of undigested food in the bin? You can take some out. Wait until they have worked through most of the food in the bin before adding more. If you have excess scraps, you can freeze them until later.

Your worm bin should have a lid. Keeping the lid on discourages escapees.

Excess Moisture

The cure for a wet bin is to add dry bedding. Shredded newspaper is perfect; so is peat moss, coconut coir and shredded cardboard. Add and stir gently. Lime mix and worm treat also absorb excess moisture.

Recent Changes

If the worms are in escape mode, reduce nitrogen-rich foods, which includes grass clippings and acidic foods (tomatoes, onions, pineapples, excessive coffee grounds, tea bags citrus). Once you have the balance of the worm composting back to normal you can increase these types of waste again.

Sometimes people forget to feed their worms. Starvation will drive the worms to greener pastures. If you go on holiday for several weeks it’s worth saving up some scraps in the fridge or freezer. Ask a friend to feed the worms twice a week or so. Maybe you’re eating out a lot and aren’t generating any kitchen scraps. You can always ask a neighbour save their kitchen scraps for you, and save left-over salads (wash off the dressing).

Your worm composter pH

Baby Worms

Quick Fix: TURN THE LIGHT ON!

Question 3

What to do if there’s white mould growing in my bokashi bin?

Accepted Answer

This is good news. The white mould is actually a fungi and shows that the food waste is fermenting rather than putrefying. Fermentation is precisely what you want in your bokashi bucket. So, if you see white mould on your bokashi food waste, you can be confident that all is well in your bokashi bucket.

Question 4

What can I do about slugs in my wormery?

Accepted Answer

Slugs can be a challenge in your wormery so good to address them

Food Competition: Slugs do compete with worms for food resources within the wormery. Significant numbers of slugs can reduce the efficiency of your composting process by consuming a large portion of the organic material intended for worms.
Competition for Food: Larger slugs may predate on worm eggs and juveniles, potentially reducing worm populations over time.
Balance: A few slugs might not pose a substantial issue and can contribute to decomposition. However, an overabundance can disrupt the internal ecosystem of your wormery.
Disease and Parasites: Slugs can carry diseases and parasites that may not affect them but could impact worms or the plants where the compost is used.

Action:

It’s a good idea to check your wormery at night, to gauge slug population and activity.
Directly removing slugs can be effective for managing small populations.
Putting the legs in water or using copper tape can prevent slugs from entering the wormery.
Avoiiding excessive moisture can help deter them so adding a layer of cardboard is helpful.

Question 5

What Should I Do If I Have A Tray Full?

Accepted Answer

Once you fill one tray and it looks like worms soon will not have anything to eat, load the next / new tray above the old one. As there are holes in each tray the worms just migrate through these into the tray above. Prepare the new tray in the same way as you did the old tray.

Please note if you are using a moisture mat this needs always to go on top of the freshest waste – so if you are adding a new tray remove the moisture mat put the new tray on top of the waste in the existing tray and add waste into the new tray and the moisture mat on top of the fresh waste.

The worms will go up and down through the holes – you will see evidence of this with tiny specs of dark specs of compost. One thing to note is that sometimes as the worms work through the waste and reduce the volume which then means the compost sinks inbetween the trays meaning it’s more difficult for the worms to work their way up and down so it’s worth checking for gaps every now and again and if there are it’s simple just pop a bit of waste into the gap.

Once you have reached the top of the top tray (which will take some time as the worms reduce the volume on a daily basis) then most of the worms will have left the bottom tray and this compost can be used. Empty it out and then this tray can be used to go on top of the working tray so that the worms continue working their way up and you are rotating the trays.

There is bound to be some worms in the compost that you use – this is fine but if you want them all back in your wormery – just expose the compost to light and skim off the compost. The worms move away from the light and so will form a pile which you can pop back into your worm bin.**

We sell additional trays for urbalive composters here https://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/collections/spares-and-extras

Question 6

What to do if there are maggots or insects in my Bokashi Bin.

Accepted Answer

Obviously these must have entered on your food waste in some form so the first step is to add your food waste more regularly to avoid this issue. If they are there the best option is to bury the whole lot in your soil and restart.

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