Q: Can I add cooked food waste to my worm composter?

I would avoid this – first of all there’s the trudge to the bottom of the garden but also this sort of waste has a tendency to attract pests if anything is going to. The best methods for kitchen waste are Worm Composting or Bokashi and for cooked waste Bokashi is the most flexible - the Japanese fermentation method is fantastic for all sorts of waste and can deal with bulk amounts in one go (unlike a worm composter). Shop our Bokashi Kitchen Food Waste Composters

Question 1

I'm looking for extra spare trays for my Can-O-Worms - do you have some?

Accepted Answer

I’m sorry we stopped stocking Can-O-Worms in 2013 so have sold out several of spare trays (although we still stock moisture mats, lime mix, worm treat and complete rescue kits. The best way to source hardware parts including trays is usually ebay or gumtree.

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

How do I separate my worms from the compost?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 4

Why use worms to compost.

Accepted Answer

In the UK it's estimated that households throw away about a third of the food they buy. Around half of the 6.7 million tonnes of food thrown in the bin each year is edible and the rest comprises waste such as veg peelings and food scraps.

All this waste then gets transported to landfill sites around the UK. These sites are nearly full and account for a large percentage of the greenhouse gasses that pollute our atmosphere.

Even if they centrally compost the waste it is still a huge waste to transport waste and compost back and forth from people's houses back to their gardens. Worms are efficient at turning all organic material into a valuable soil fertiliser called vermicompost.

Question 5

Do woodlice cause a problem in my wormery?

Accepted Answer

No. Woodlice are primary composters so eat organic waste and produce compost so they can live along side your worm population. They can be a sign that your wormery is a bit too dry but not necessarily. By the way one interesting fact about woodlice is that they eat their own faeces for the copper content they contain.

Question 6

Are composting worms - Earthworms?

Accepted Answer

The worms you need for domestic composting are still earthworms but are often termed surface litter worms: These include Eisenia Foetida (Tiger Worms), Eisenia Andrei or, Eisenia Hortensis (often known as a Dendrabaena Veneta) They are all reddy brown in colour and they live in the soil in the surface layer of decaying vegetation.

You will find them naturally on the floor of a forest or they often migrate into your compost heap. They are all UK native species of Earthworms.

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Question 7

How do I encourage worms in my garden?

Accepted Answer

If you can get a healthy population of worms in your soil they will make you an ongoing supply of topsoil so to encourage them to breed avoid disturbing the soil where you can and feed them!

You can add garden worms as well of course but also making your own worm compost and adding this to the soil will also encourage a natural increase in your worm population.

Shop Our Wormery Composting Range Shop Garden Worms

Question 8

What do worms do in the soil?

Accepted Answer

They can consume their own body weight per day in food and so this means that they are processing 90 kilos a year, and providing you with several centimetres of new topsoil. They bring up rich minerals and nutrients from the subsoil and deposit them as castings on the surface making them readily available to our plants.

Physically as they burrow into the soil the channels they leave behind channels which aerates and drains the soil. If you have a good population of earthworms 5% of your soil will be made up of aerating earthworm burrows

Question 9

Can I add cooked food waste to my worm composter?

Accepted Answer

I would avoid this – first of all there’s the trudge to the bottom of the garden but also this sort of waste has a tendency to attract pests if anything is going to. The best methods for kitchen waste are Worm Composting or Bokashi and for cooked waste Bokashi is the most flexible - the Japanese fermentation method is fantastic for all sorts of waste and can deal with bulk amounts in one go (unlike a worm composter).

Shop our Bokashi Kitchen Food Waste Composters

Question 10

What do I do about Maggots in my wormery?

Accepted Answer

Maggots are the larvae of a number of species of flies, including the common housefly. The flies are attracted to food, in particular meat, and lay their eggs directly on the food waste. The maggots form pupae and hatch into flies. The whole of this life-cycle, on average, takes up to 10 days in warm weather and up to a month in cold weather. With regard to flies, you need to keep your food waste covered up. All flies lay their eggs on the surface of the food waste, but will not burrow. Make sure that you keep your moisture mat in place at all times (or you can use clean newspaper) to restrict access. In addition, you will need to keep any kitchen collecting bin (if you have one) covered, otherwise it is likely that you will transfer fly eggs into your wormery.

To break the cycle you can cover the top of the food waste in your wormery with a thin layer of garden soil or clean newspaper and refrain from adding waste for 2-3 weeks.

Flies prefer acidic conditions, so it is important to sprinkle a handful of the anti-acid lime mix over the surface of the food waste on a regular basis, for example, once a week. You are trying to achieve as neutral a pH level as possible so it is important to use equal quantities on a regular basis.

The other fantastic product for sorting out flies is DE Powder which is available on our website. It's non-toxic organic powder that helps control all crawling insects including flies bed bugs, fleas and ants.