You could also microwave, bake or boil it but I’m assuming the more you muck with it the more it loses its potency. Freezing is also easier as it doesn’t stink up the house nor tarnish your cookware.

Either way, imho even prepped compost is a far better natural fertilizer than any regular commercial ones I’ve seen at my garden centres. G’luck!

I’ve come to accept mites as being normal in a healthy bin. I keep the lid off to reduce moisture on the walls/lid and use a line of masking tape on the top rim to stop exploring mites.

Refresh tape every few weeks, esp right before a good compost turning as mites will explore everything right after.

i also have problems with mites in my bin many say cantalope, or even watermelon, but we don’t get watermelons this time of year
do you have any idea? anything will do…….

thanx, schalk

I just started up a double bin last month and unfortunately have had an explosion of mites. I’ve found most of them crawl right over thick layers of petroleum jelly and watermelon rinds don’t entice them at all!

Currently I’ve gone down to a single bin and am using masking tape along the edging. So far it’s working well. I’m also going to try vinegar traps in the near future.

While I don’t like the thought of killing en masse, I’m really getting nervous about the idea they could be leaving the bin and exploring the house!

B

I think this is another bug solution.

While its still to early to know if i have a permanent fix this is working as a quick fix.

My bin is now two months old and i just had my first bug explosion. White mites and fruit flies.

Now that the garden is coming around I recently have started adding a lot of fresh garden produce along with too much store bought fruit, especially watermelon. The watermelon was gone just the rinds are left so it is getting ate. But the rind and everything else was covered with mites.

I went from having a few drips of liquid to over 3 inches in the bottom of the outer bin in just a couple weeks. For the first time my bin was getting smelly and mites were everywhere, up the sides and coming out air the holes. And fruit flies were all over the house, a cloud of them escaped when i opened the lid. i don’t think that the smell of bin was so bad that it was sour but it was starting to go that way.

I decided my first step should be to get rid of the stinky liquid so i separated the bins and dumped and washed out the bottom drip bin. I then took the opportunity to drill a few more air holes I decided not to turn it upside down so i carefully drilled them couple inches above the bottom of the worm bin.

I noticed that the fruit flies were landing on the top edges of all the highest points in the bin so I then added a sticky fly trap into the bin. One of those cheap cardboard roll things with plastic ends made for house flies. I just laid it on top of a couple sets of inverted egg crate pieces making it the highest thing inside the bin and closed the lid.

Checking again tonight most the mites were back down in the bedding just a few on the sides of the bin and i had an amazing amount of fruit flies stuck onto the fly trap. The smell did improve a lot by just cleaning out the drip tray, already the scent inside the bin is improving.

Another thing i should note is that by using the double bins the mites that got out of the bin never ended up on the floor. They ‘fell’ into the outer bin. A nice plus when considering what type of bin system to use.

Eve

The thing that puzzles me, is that I wait till the food is pretty much or completely used up before feeding. There’s no liquid in the bin, and the castings are really light and fluffy. There are also lots of cocoons. Yet I have mites. They aren’t crawling on the sides, but they are crawling all over the top of the bedding. The lids of the Rubbermaid bins are usually propped open a bit (hinged lid) or set ajar on the snap lid.

Since the worms don’t talk, I don’t know if they are stressed or not, but I know I am.

I’m open to ideas, short of flaming them with a torch.