Category: Maintenance

Maintaining your worm bin means finding a balance between food, acidity, pests, bedding, and moisture. In this section, I’ve worked to outline each of these different aspects of vermicomposting.

Here is a brief overview of some of our most popular maintenance topics.

Food

In the food articles, I will cover how much to feed your worms and adjust based on things you are seeing.

Some foods will produce certain smells you would like to avoid, like decomposing potatoes or cabbage. Other foods may attract pests like ants.

I will also cover how to prep food for your worms so you can feed more consistently.

Pests & Friends

As you start vermicomposting, you will start to notice other life in your worm bin. Some of these items are friendly decomposers like mites and slime molds. They can be alarming at first, but in many cases, they are helping your worms break down food faster than ever.

However, if the number of these friendly decomposers grows out of control, they can compete for food with your worms. Other times you may attract items like pseudoscorpions that could potentially kill your worms. Many times these creatures live in peace and all work together to compost your food.

Bedding

You will need to add bedding every time you feed your worms. The bedding you add acts as a home and food. You must select bedding items that are not full of dye or chemicals.

I prefer to use cardboard boxes, newspapers, toilet paper tubes, and egg cartons for bedding. Adding bedding during each feeding helps you absorb moisture.

Moisture

A large part of vermicompost container maintenance is balancing the moisture level. If you let too much liquid gather in your bin, it could kill your worms. In many cases, you will see signs that your worms are not happy.

Be sure to check out this section if you are looking for the top worm composting maintenance tips.

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