Worms Leaving Bin – Help!
This one comes from Stuart. He is wondering why all his worms are attempting to jump ship.
I bought some red worms and put them in a rubbermaid contain
filled with peat moss, newspaper clippings, banana peels.. All of my
worms seem to be crawling out and leaving. What might I be doing
wrong ???Help Needed Desperately….
Hi Stuart,
Hopefully your peat moss has been a) moistened, and b) rinsed with water. The second one isn’t quite as important, but it can help. Peat moss is pretty acidic stuff, so it’s not a bad idea rinse it a bit under water before use (a cloth bag of some sort should work fairly well).
Was your mixture of peat, newspaper, and banana peels left to sit for a number of days – or was it mixed up the same day you got the worms? If the latter, there probably just isn’t really anything there for the worms to feed on. It will be a pretty sterile environment.
The best bet is to set up your system AT LEAST a few days before adding the worms, thus allowing a microbial population to develop. Adding a variety of food materials would also help. Worms DO like banana peels, but it’s not a bad idea to provide them with a few options.
See if you can find some sort of semi-rotting food in the back of your fridge somewhere and add that. If you live near a decidous (with leaves that drop in the fall) forest go gather a bunch of dark leaf litter (humus material down below the leaves) and add that – it will offer not only a quality habitat, but also a temporary food source.
Good luck!
Bentley
Written by Bentley on June 9th, 2008 with
8 comments.
Read more articles on Home Vermicomposting and Reader Questions.
Stuart Baunoch
Adrian
Terry
Selina
#1. June 9th, 2008, at 6:16 PM.
When I first started a bin, mine all jumped ship at first too. I fixed that problem with a screened top and a nightlight. They didn’t like the light, so they stayed put in the bin!