As soon as I finished writing my last post, I decided enough was enough – it was time to rescue my Euros from the horrible conditions clearly present in their bin (as indicated by the mounds of mite cadavers piled up on the floor close by). So I grabbed the bin and headed out to my big outdoor vermicomposting system – one that has up till now only been occupied by Red Worms.
I wasn’t sure what sort of gruesome mess I might find down in the bottom of the sour bin, but I knew there were at least a few Euros still alive (I found some yesterday when digging around).
As it turns out, the entire lower half of the bin was pretty much fine – a tad anaerobic perhaps, but certainly not the toxic nightmare I was half-expecting. I found countless healthy looking worms, along with plenty of juveniles as well, so that certainly has me breathing a sigh of relief! In all honesty, I could have easily just scooped the materials (and worms) from the lower half back into the worm bin and continued on my merry way with that system. Little did I realize it was only the materials in the top half of the bin that were in really bad shape.
No problemo though – I am really interested to see how they fare in the big outdoor bin.
As per usual, I will keep everyone posted!
8)
do you think this is because the Euros are deep feeding worms?
I understand that the red wigglers are very much a surface feeding worm, while the Euros are a mid to deep feeding worm. I was thinking of adding some Euros to my bins to see how they faired.
Yeah, you may be right. I have read that myself, but wasn’t sure if indeed it was the case. I’ll be interested to see what they do in my big outdoor bin – i.e. if they stay up in the higher layers or head down deep.
B
What are those small round white things all over your bin?
Good question, JJ!
As mentioned in my other ‘Sour Worm Bin’ posts, my bin became absolutely infested with round, white mites (a very common worm bin inhabitant – especially when conditions become acidic and/or too much food is added)
B
I also had a problem with these white mites and a tad sour bin. They showed up after I put in the spent grains and hops from making homemade beer. I figured that it would be okay to add these ingredients because they were never in contact with the yeast (therefore non-alcoholic). However, I opened my bin today and there were white mites covering the top layer with a slightly sour odor. To make things worse, the bin was very wet. Since this is my first bin, I didn’t want to sacrifice my worms. So I drilled some bigger holes for ventilation (none of my worms have ever tried to escape), added some dry cardboard and mixed up the compost pretty well. I hope this solves the problem. Any suggestions?
Hi Dave,
It sounds like you are doing pretty much exactly what I would do in your situation. I might also try to find some ‘living’ habitat to add, like decomposing leaf litter, well-aged manure or compost.
Good luck!
B