How do I separate my worms from the compost?

Harvesting your compost

If you are using a tray system and are feeding at a speed the worms can cope with, then the bottom tray should be ready to harvest when the top one is really close to full (not before).

You can dump the entire tray into your compost heap or border if you like but if you want to retain every single worm take the lid off and and put the bottom tray on top of the top tray and leave open to the air. Gently remove the top layer of compost until the worms are uncovered and they will bury deeper as they move away from the light.

Repeat until there is no compost in the tray and the worms will have wiggled through to the layer below. If some worms do go out with your compost into the garden this is no problem - red worms, tiger worms, dendras and composting worms are one of the 27 species of UK native Earthworms.