Comments on: Homemade Manure Mania

By: norah

norah — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:26:33 +0000

Bentley, Do you think it is ok to use bokashi in the bin? Mine is homemade so I know what is in it. I used a little to see what happened – nothing bad that I can see but what about a larger amount?
Thanks

By: Bentley

Bentley — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:44:22 +0000

Hi David,
I would be cautious about adding anything starchy like that since it would have the potential to become a goey anaerobic mess. I guess if you were going to spread it out in a nice thin layer, and weren’t going to leave the material to sit (before feeding) for any length of time it could work.

By: David

David — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 05:51:12 +0000

Any idea about adding old flour , corn meal and oatmeal. Would it hurt them or help with other food scraps?

By: Bentley

Bentley — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 14:47:26 +0000

Hi Robert,
Thanks for the kind words.
I haven’t seen any issues with the worms and the bran thus far.

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 02:11:57 +0000

Hi, Bentley you have one of the best sites I’ve seen.reguarding using bran to soak up your worm food mixture. I thought bran would over bloat the worms, I know bran will cause slugs to bloat to death. Would you use very little bran or is my theory wrong?
Robert

By: Bentley

Bentley — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:09:42 +0000

I should also mention that peat moss would likely work very well too

By: Vermifan

Vermifan — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 07:31:10 +0000

I never thought of blending my food, usualy just throw it in the bin and let the worms do their stuff.
I will deffinetly look at blending and using the coir to absorb any moisture that will be created.

By: Bentley

Bentley — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 04:08:17 +0000

Hi Jerry,
My theorizing is entirely based on observation of my indoor systems. I have yet to see a fruit fly infestation spring up in a bin that has a really high density of worms – although I’m sure it could happen if larger, bulky waste materials are being added as food.
I actually have some fruit flies inside, but they just don’t seem to be able to get a foothold thus far.

By: Bentley

Bentley — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 04:02:46 +0000

Hi Sherry,
I’ve been pleasantly surprised with this old blender (which is actually just part of a food processor combo system) – I swear it works better than our stand-alone blender. It shreds up coffee filters and paper towels with no problems – even egg carton cardboard can be shredded (in liquid). That being said, I’m trying not to push the limits too much in an effort to avoid having it break down on me. I found that fall leaves can really gum it up though, so I’ll likely just add these manually.

I got my coir from Home Hardware – it is a product called ‘Beyond Peat’. It’s pretty expensive but I really like it. Not sure they will have it this time of year though.

By: Jerry Gach

Jerry Gach — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 02:59:08 +0000

Hi Bentley,

When you theorize that the worms are “Out competing” fruit fly larve, do you think it could have to do with the cold temps where you live? Fruit flies reproduce extremely quickly in warmer temps, but their swarms usually reduce naturally when it gets cold. Are there even any adult flies hovering this time of year?