Question 1

What to do if my Bokashi Liquid smells?

Accepted Answer

This liquid is a very potent fertiliser or drain cleaner and it can have a really strong smell so the best way to avoid this is to drain it regularly and use it. Pour bokashi tea directly into toilets, sinks and drain to disinfect these areas. To use as a fertiliser dilute 2 teaspoons of Bokashi tea with 1.5 Litres of water, apply it to the soil of your plants once a week, avoid touching the leaves as it could cause burning.

Question 2

What to do if my Bokashi Bucket Smells?

Accepted Answer

If your kit begins to smell add a good handful more of Bokashi Bran as it is likely the waste is putrifying rather than fermenting. It does usually have quite a strong smell of fermentation when you empty your bucket so before you restart a good swill out with water is best – then once you have the lid on again all will be well.

Question 3

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.

Question 4

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 5

What to do if...... There’s blue and black mould in my Bokashi Bin bin.

Accepted Answer

The best way to deal with this is to throw the whole batch away. The problem is caused by one of three things:

You have added really mouldy food into your kit.
You haven’t added enough Bokashi Bran.
There is too much moisture in the bin so the liquid needs draining.

Question 6

How do I store Live Mealworms?

Accepted Answer

Don’t worry about your mealworms wiggling a bit – we promise you will get used to them and you will be rewarded by you garden birds.

The best way to start to buy live mealworms is to start with 3 x 40g tubs. The tubs have a serrated lid which is breathable and this means they are easy to keep. If you want to keep them for more than a few days – sieve the frass out and add some bran or mealworm food to keep them going, and pop them into a cool dark place (a garage or shed is a good option).

Question 7

When is the best time to feed live mealworms to garden birds?

Accepted Answer

Your birds will benefit from feeding all year round and live food is important. There are times of year when it is more important than other times though – in particular feeding adults and young in the breeding season is key as live food is critical to the survival rates of the whole family.

Outside of the breeding season because there is a decrease in natural food and invertebrates and there is no better food than live mealworms so if you want to all year round is a good idea. If not live mealworms are particularly beneficial when there is dry weather or drought and in the moulting season so summer and late summer.

Question 8

How do I feed live mealworms to garden birds?

Accepted Answer

When your worms are weighed and packed here at the farm they are sent with some bedding of wheat bran. As they eat this the resulting material is called frass and needs to be sieved (a normal small kitchen sieve is perfect). Because live mealworms are a bit wiggly the key to feeding them to your birds is to use a steep sided dish so that they can’t crawl out. The ones on sale are all steep sided but they also have the benefit that you can lower the cover section which stops the rain from getting in and also means that only the smaller birds can access the feeder.

https://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/products/i-love-robins-birdfeeder

Question 9

Which birds eat live mealworms?

Accepted Answer

Lots of birds are attracted to live mealworms including

Blackbirds

By the way whilst you may want to deter larger birds it’s well worth helping out your starling population with some live wigglers as their numbers have been in decline for some years.