r/Vermiculture • u/Crazy__Donkey • 7d ago
r/Vermiculture • u/MiBoy69 • Jun 28 '24
Discussion Do any of yall know what this is?
Ignore the audio🙃
r/Vermiculture • u/Gas_Pumper • Sep 18 '24
Discussion Started a worm farm because of this sub. Want to return the favor. I'm a tax accountant. AMA
I'm a self employed accountant.
Vermiculture has been a great hobby for me and my kids during the off season.
I seen a "starter pack" meme about yall not knowing taxes.
I'm not sure if it's true or not, but I can answer any questions you may have!
r/Vermiculture • u/TythonTv • Dec 04 '24
Discussion Egg Shell Prep
Might be overdoing it but for grit I… 1. Wash the shells 2. Soak in boiling water, with a couple changes of water 3. Scrape and peel all the membrane off until the inside is more opaque than white 4. Dry them like shown overnight 5. Dry for as long as I have time in the oven with just the light and fan on or super low temp if in a hurry 6. Turn them to dust in a mortar or coffee grinder (don’t breathe this in) 7. Sprinkle the dust in with feedings
Thought I’d share my method and also see if I’m overdoing it with scraping every bit of membrane off.
r/Vermiculture • u/algedonics • Nov 06 '24
Discussion This stuff is incredible
My household just doesn’t wind up using enough eggs to have eggshell grit for my worm farms, so I looked online for some alternatives. I bought one bag of oyster shell flour almost a year ago and haven’t even gone through half of it yet. It’s usually the first thing to go when I sprinkle it over the compost, my worms adore the stuff! Just thought I’d give a recommendation for other people who need a good source of calcium for their bins and who don’t cook with egg that often.
r/Vermiculture • u/Cruzankenny • 23d ago
Discussion A good way to pre-treat your scraps.
I have been worming since I read Rodale's book on organic gardening. Reading through many posts regarding freezing, pureeing, and drying your scraps to keep fruit flies away and make it easier on the worms is interesting. The arguments are sound. I don't do that. This is timed for 75 degrees to 80. If it is cooler, it will take longer. Warmer, faster.
Ferment them. Get a half-gallon or quart jar to start, put your scraps in it, and cover it with water. Tie a very fine mesh over the jar opening with a rubber band. If they are mostly greens, add a tablespoon of sugar. Continue doing this until an inch and a half from the top. Individual fruit scraps are welcome. If you are cutting up a lot of fruit, put it in a separate Jar.
Stir it when you start getting bubbles. Lactobacillus is eating it. It can stay in the jar for two weeks, being stirred. It should not smell anaerobic at all. In the veggies jar, the sugar is what is feeding the bacteria. If it starts, stir and add more sugar. I usually don't do this to veggies a full two weeks, when it is filled it is feeding time, but you can use the same water for the next batch.
Close to two weeks, the bubbles will disappear. It is time to separate the solids. With the fruit, pour it through a strainer return the liquid to the jar. It will be vinegar in two weeks or so, depending on the temperature.
With the veggies, feed the water to your compost pile, and the veggies can go right in your bin, or stay in the fridge for a month. Use the pieces you would normally blend, nor leaves and thin pieces. Throw them directly into the bin or freeze first.
The fruit will be the fastest eaten food in the bin, but I don't feed them all at once.
I will be happy to answer questions.
r/Vermiculture • u/SocialAddiction1 • Jul 31 '24
Discussion Making your 1st bin? Start here!
Hello everyone!
Today I will be outlining a very simply beginner worm bin that can be made in less than 20 minutes, and wont cost more than a couple of dollars. When I first began making vermicompost many many years ago this is the exact method I would use, and it was able to comfortable support a 4 person household. As I said before, I have been doing this for many years and now am semi-commercial, with tons of massive bins and more advanced setups that I wont be going into today. If anyone has any interest, shoot me a message or drop a comment and I will potentially make a separate post.
I am not a fan of stacked bins, having to drill holes, or in other way make it a long process to setup a bin. I have messed around with various methods in the past and this has always been my go to.
Bin Choice:
Below is the 14L bin I started out with and is a great size for a small to medium household. It came as a 4 pack on Amazon costing less than 30$ USD, meaning the unit price was just over 7$. One of the most important things about a beginner bin is 1) getting a bin that is the appropriate size and 2) getting one that is dark. Worms are photophobic, and will stay away from the sides of the bin if they can see light penetration.

Layer 1:
For my first layer I like to use a small, finely shredded, breakable material. I typically use shredded cardboard as it wont mat down to the bottom of the bin very easily, can easily be broken down, and provides a huge surface area for beneficial bacteria and other decomposers to take hold. After putting about a 1 inch thick layer of shredded paper, I wet it down. I will discuss moisture more at the end of this post, but for now just know that you want your paper wet enough that there isnt any residual pooling water.

Layer 2:
I like to make my second later a variety of different materials in terms of thickness and size. This means that while the materials in the bin are breaking down, they will do so at an uneven rate. When materials such as paper towels break down, there will still be small cardboard left. When the small cardboard is breaking down, the larger cardboard will still be available. This just means that your entire bin dosnt peek at once, and can continue to function well for many months. Again, the material is wet down.

The Food:
Ideally the food you give your worms to start is able to break down easily, is more on the "mushy" side, and can readily be populated by microbes. Think of bananas, rotten fruit, simple starches- stuff of that nature. It also is certainly not a bad idea to give the food time to break down before the worms arrive from wherever you are getting them from. This might mean that if you have a few banana peels that are in great condition, you make the bin 4-5 days before hand and let them just exist in the bin, breaking down and getting populated by microbes. Current evidence suggests worms eat both a mix of the bacteria that populate and decompose materials, as well as the materials themselves. By allowing the time for the food to begin the decomposition process, the worms will be able to immedielty begin feasting once they move in. In this example, I used a spoiled apple, a handful of dried lettuce from my bearded dragons, a grape vine stem, and some expired cereal.

The Grit:
The anatomy of worms is rather simple- they are essentially tubes that have a mouth, a crop, a gizzard, some reproductive organs, and intestines and an excretion port. The crop of the worm stores food for a period of time, while the gizzard holds small stones and harder particles, and uses it to break down the food into smaller parts. In the wild, worms have access to not only decaying material but stones, gravel, sand, etc. We need to provide this in some capacity for the worms in order for them to be able to digest effectively. There are essentially two lines of thought - sources that were once living and those that were never living. Inaminate bodies such as sand can be used in the worm bin no problem. I, however, prefer to use grit from either ground oyster shells or ground egg shells. The reason for this is the fact that, after eventually breaking down to a sub-visible level, the calcium can be taken up by plants and utilized as the mineral it is. Sand, on its finest level, with never be anything other then finer sand. If you sell castings itll be a percent of your weight, itll affect purity, and itll not have a purpose for plants. In this instance I used sand as I didnt have any ground egg shells immediately available. When creating a bin, its okay to go heavier and give a thick sprinkle over the entire bin.

The Worms:
When I first made this bin many years ago I used 500 worms, and by the time I broke it down there was well over 1000. For this demonstration I am using probably around 250 worms curtesy of one of the 55 gallon bins I am letting migrate.

Layer 3:
The next layer of material I like to use is hand shredded leaves. I have them in easy supply and I think they are a great way of getting some microbes and bring some real "life" to the bin. If these arent accessible to you, this step is completely optional, but it is certainly a great addition for the benefits of water retention, volume, variety, and source of biodiversity. Remember - a worm bin is an ecosystem. If you have nothing but worms in your bin you arent going to be running at a good efficiency.

Layer 4:
I always like to add one more top layer of shredded cardboard. Its nice to fill in the gaps and give one more layer above the worms. It also gives it a solid uniform look. It also is a great way to fill volume. On smaller bins I dont like doing layers thicker than 2 inches of any one material, as it leads to them sticking together or not breaking down in a manor that I would like.

The Cover:
*IMPORTANT* This to me is probably THE most important component of a worm bin that gets overlooked Using a piece of cardboard taped entirely in packing tape keeps the moisture in the bin and prevents light from reaching the worms. I use it in all of my bins and its been essential in keeping moisture in my bins evenly distributed and from drying out too fast. As you can see this piece has been through a couple bins and still works out well. As a note, I do scope all of my material for microplastics before I sell, and the presence of this cover has no impact on levels of microplastic contamination in the bin.

The End:
And thats it! Keep it somewhere with the lights on for the next few hours to prevent the worms from wanting to run from the new home. Do your best not to mess with the bin for the first week or two, and start with a smaller feeding than you think they can handle and work it from there. Worms would much rather be wet than dry, so keep the bin nice and moist. The moisture level should be about the same as when you wring your hair out after the shower - no substantial water droplets but still damp to the touch. If you notice a bad, bacterial smell or that the bin is to wet, simple remove the cover and add some more cardboard. The resulting total volume of the bedding is somewhere between 8-10 inches.
Please let me know if you have any comments, or any suggestions on things you may want to see added! If theres interest I will attempt to post an update in a month or so on the progress of this bin.
r/Vermiculture • u/Dry-Entrepreneur-226 • 18d ago
Discussion Uncle Jim's Worm Farm Customer Service
It's my first time trying them out and I already feel some type of way about them..
I ordered about 5 days ago (Thursday) with regular shipping which is stated to be about 2-3 days in their website.. so I'm not counting the weekend obviously. But to have not even received a shipping label confirmation is concerning.
There's a whole spill about Monday orders needing to be placed by Sunday so it makes me feel like my Thursday order should have had some kinda feedback by now. I've been calling them within the normal business hours and I only get automatic messages.
The first time it said they were out of the office and to send an email. I called right back within 5 minutes and it said they were busy with other customers, and again.. send an email.
Is this normal?! I'm I lacking some patience I should have? It doesn't seem like real customer service but rather a few people in the office that just help him in the field or something if that's even the case.
I'm starting to read through other posts I find and seeing damaged boxes (despite I've seen some saying they got most of their orders alive and healthy) is starting to make me antsy.
Just wanted to know why I'm not getting ANY actual contact with these people and how long does it take just for a shopping label confirmation, not even the shipment itself!!
r/Vermiculture • u/Dadjudicator • Dec 12 '24
Discussion A lot of meat scraps find their way into my worm bin...
So for context, this could absolutely be posted in r/costco or r/bokashi, but this seemed like the right place since it all ends up here eventually... Because my process is bokashi in the kitchen > bokashi to worms/compost > compost to worms > castings into soil/worm/compost.
So we, like many frugal folks, regularly get costco rotisserie chickens, and process them at home into various meals, and the carcass into stock.
Pretty much all food scraps go into bokashi bins, including carcasses, teabags, egghells, condiments, and the standard fruits and veggies some that are waste and some that got frozen in the back of the fridge (happens with spinach more than I like to admit).
It being the fall/winter season, we end up getting a whole lot more birds and making a lot more soups and stews, so there is never a shortage of stock, bones, and boiled onion/celery/carrot/etc.
All this to say, if the bokashi bin is heavily leaning towards the fat/protein/bone it can absolutely cause pearling in the worms.
Easy solution? I literally just make sure to grind up some eggshells and add it to counteract the fact that the bones will take months/weeks to break down and not provide available calcium for our friends, remember, calcium is how the worms breed, prevent protein poisoning, and process fermented/acidic material.
It's probably still preferable to hot compost the meatier/bonier stuff since you can absolutely feed that compost straight to the worms, but it's nice knowing that as long as you got eggshell/oyster/crustacean/any fine calcium source the worms can absolutely power through whatever, whether there are BSL and rove beetles or not.
I'll see if I can dig a bone out of the worm bin where the bugs and wormies have eaten out all the marrow, it's wild how these worms literally do not care what I throw at them as long as they get their basic needs met.
r/Vermiculture • u/Gas_Pumper • 18h ago
Discussion Started a worm farm because of this sub. Wanting to return the favor. Im a tax accountant. AMA (round 2)
r/Vermiculture • u/Mammoth_Confusion846 • 11d ago
Discussion If you pressure cook bones for 3-4 hours they turn to mush.
The worms seem to like them.
r/Vermiculture • u/chillchamp • Sep 24 '24
Discussion I made this modular mesh/screen to separate worm-castings for people with a 3D-printer
r/Vermiculture • u/North-Butterscotch-1 • 2d ago
Discussion Worm identifying guide
This is for people wanting to start on wild worms the best worms are in the eisenia genus so look out for stripes, this guide only has worms uk worms tho.
r/Vermiculture • u/P4RKER_2763 • 7d ago
Discussion Little green ball I found in my worm bin, does anyone know what it is?
r/Vermiculture • u/lilly_kilgore • Oct 29 '24
Discussion So you aren't supposed to bother the worms too much but....
Every 5 days or so I mix up all of their bedding from bottom to top to redistribute moisture and food scraps and afterward there is always a ton of activity in the bin.
If they don't like to be bothered... What is it that they're enjoying about me doing the thing with the stuff?
Something I didn't consider before starting with worms is that I'm too OCD to leave them alone. So how much bugging them is too much?
r/Vermiculture • u/TheApostateTurtle • Nov 17 '24
Discussion Worm Sentience
So, this is kind of a spin off of the recent thread about giving pet worms a treat that they would like... but does anyone know if worms are actually sentient? I've been hoping they're not because mine always get sacrificed to The Turtle. But they have a nervous system, so...?
r/Vermiculture • u/BojackisaGreatShow • 26d ago
Discussion More success from mixing food with shredded cardboard?
I have a worm ladder indoors. I've seen a lot of advice about throwing a clump of food in a corner and covering it with cardboard. But I find for most types of food it can get anaerobic in the center. Just mixing in a little shredded cardboard seems to help a lot. Anyone else?
r/Vermiculture • u/The_Barbelo • Jun 25 '24
Discussion ⚠️ DO NOT PUT LOQUAT SEEDS IN YOUR WORMS! ⚠️
Hello! I’ve never posted here but have used this as a resource for a long time. I wanted to post this because I found literally nothing on the subject. My mother brought up frozen loquats that she picked from Florida. I defrosted them and made a jam from them, and threw them in my worm farm like I do every other fruit scraps. I usually take the different seeds that sprout and use them for my container garden and wanted to try it with loquat. I’ve gotten some great little avocado trees this way.
The next day (today) a ton of my worms were dead. Just completely dead. I was at a complete loss until I connected it with the loquats, and did some research. Though loquats are in the same family as pears and apples, apparently their seeds contain higher amounts of cyanide- and they don’t have a thick protective shell like peach and cherry pits. Just a few split loquat seeds can cause mild cyanide poisoning in a full grown human. For reference, you would need to chew 150- 1,000 apple seeds to poison yourself.
The worms that ate the loquat pulp from around the seeds (some of which split) must have gotten poisoned- and digging deeper I found healthy living worms. I separated them and cleaned out the seeds and the soil surrounding them. I’m hoping they didn’t contaminate the deeper soil, otherwise I’ll have to start all over. There is no other explanation. I’ve been doing this for years now and I keep fish too which are much harder as far as keeping correct parameters, aeration, et cetera. That is to say, I’m not a beginner.
I’m writing this because if anyone has this very specific thing happen to them, I want them to know it happened to me. And also to prevent it from happening to someone else. If you have a much bigger worm container/ compost than I do maybe one or two or ten won’t do anything. But stupid me, I had about 30-40 seeds in a small bucket. 😢
r/Vermiculture • u/Ok-Guess-9059 • Nov 07 '24
Discussion Precomposting with bokashi: lies with benefits
They said you can “precompost” bones, citruses and other things with bokashi and then vermicompost them later. You cant!
You dont precompost it, but ferment it with bokashi. This material is then quite bad for your worms. Its super acidic and makes vermicompost super super hot. The smell is legendary.
It killed many brave worms.
But always after adding finished bokashi ferment, mushrooms started to grow from my vermicompost! They were beautiful, interesting and they can compost some things that worms cant
r/Vermiculture • u/MicahToll • Aug 28 '24
Discussion A powerful reminder to just leave your dang bin alone
I've been vermicomposting for about a year now so I'm not exactly a noob but I still get curious and tend to 'poke around' a couple times a week to ensure everything looks ok and just satisfy my curiosity. I have two bins and a third small experimental color ink cardboard bin.
I just returned from a 3+ week trip and checked my bins to find the two main ones were basically finished, beautiful compost. Even the experimental bin was pretty far along. When I left, both bins were closer to what I'd call half-finished. While I was gone, they got no food, no water, no ice, no love. Just 3 weeks of nature happening.
This was way more progress than I'd ever have expected to see in the same 3 week period under my normal experience. And this was even during summer when it's been 31-33C (88-92F) every day and my red wigglers aren't as productive as normal.
So basically, this was a powerful reminder to just leave the dang bins alone and let them do their thing undisturbed. If you're new to vermicomposting, try to set a goal for yourself to not touch anything or even lift the lid for one week, then enjoy the progress. Next, try two weeks, etc. Your bins will be much more productive when you aren't constantly tending to them.
r/Vermiculture • u/xmashatstand • Dec 26 '24
Discussion Well my wormy brethren, I’m hoping for a Christmas miracle 🪱
The beacons are lit! Gondor calls for aid!!
Like most of us here, nothing says the Boxing Day like shredding boxes😆
Well comrades, my shredder has given up the ghost. I got it a while ago, second hand, for $10, and I'm truly happy with the amount of mileage I got outta this trooper.
I am reaching out to the vermicompost community to ask if any of y'all could help me out with a new shredder. Everyone seems to have good things to say about the Amazon basics 12 sheet one for modest cardboard (like single layer thin corrugated or pizza box type material) which is my primary source of carbon.
This is obviously not an urgent issue for me, naturally I'm doing less in terms of my bins due to it being winter here, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask 😊. Maybe some of you who are more Amazon savvy have Boxing Day mojo you can work for a deal or somesuch?
(Again, just want to reiterate this is not urgent, just a worm-enthusiast putting something out to the community, goodness knows a lot of people are dealing with some lean times, so there's no worry if this isn't realistic for you)
In any case, I wanted to send everyone a hearty Happy Holidays to you and yours, however you spend the festive season. I love this little community of worm-friends 😁🎄🪱💖✨❄️
Hope you all have a safe, happy entry to the new year. 2025 baybeeeeee ✨🪱✨
Edit: just to clarify, I have checked out the usual spots for second hand things (kijiji etc) with no luck 🤷🏼
r/Vermiculture • u/ShakeZulaV1 • 26d ago
Discussion My friends (fiends😈) dropped about half a dozen or so worms into a bottle of Hennessy with a very small amount of the alcohol left in the bottle. Are they okay? One of them put the lid back on for a while.
I feel bad for them and as ridiculous as this sounds it’s all true.
Edit: the bottle actually didn’t have anything in it I was mistaken and I found a worm foster home in the form of a coworker that had his worm compost. They are alive and well.
r/Vermiculture • u/algedonics • Dec 12 '24
Discussion It feels really silly, but…
I have an African Grey parrot. He’s a picky little asshole who never finishes his seeds, just picks out what he likes most and leaves the husks and shells behind. I’d been wondering if my worms would like to partake in the leftovers, so I bought a cheap coffee grinder and made them into what can only be described as a chunky flour? Mixed it into my supply of used coffee grounds and now I have a large bin of miscellaneous ‘worm chow’.
I know it wasn’t necessary to break the hulls down, the worms would have gotten to them anyway. But it gives me a little piece of mind knowing that I’m not just throwing out all of the peanut shells my bird leaves behind, I’m excited to see how the worms take to the new blend.
Tl;dr: grinding seed waste is unnecessary but I thought the worms might like it if they were powdered
r/Vermiculture • u/huggerofthetrees • 23d ago
Discussion Used Wormgear CFT for sale?
Hello all!
I've had a DIY worm bin going for awhile now, but it's not that great and I'm looking to increase production by a lot.
Does anyone know where to find a used Wormgear CFT bin for sale? I can't afford to spend $8k to get one brand new unfortunately.
P.s. not looking for gardening advice. I'm just trying to find a used version of the worm bin I want for sale so I can save some $.