Fortunately I haven’t seen any bears yet, but I have been fighting various flying bugs since I started vermicomposting in the Spring. I do freeze all of my food, I do keep dry bedding on top, but there are always still gnats and/or phorrid flies. I have an indoor tower and my question is simple — is it really possible to operate a tower without these bugs or is my tolerance for bugs just lower than most? Is anyone operating an indoor tower and you don’t see flying bugs around it at least once a day?

This new bin is now around a year old. Before that, I was doing an in ground vermicompost and after a year of that realised I was just feeding the nearby trees, but at least I had a small worm population. Moved them into this bin outside under a large goat willow. Initially it was a bit anaerobic, the roof has a bit of a leak too, so heavy rains sometimes got the bin a bit wet in the lower levels. The holes in the bottom helped, though they got gummed up at times. There have been various species of fly that have been present at one time or another as well as ants too. I’m hoping the spider web played its part in keeping the flies under control. Now seems like mostly just worms present. I’ve been giving kitchen scraps, some garden residues like old/eaten cabbage leaves, and some hay and rye/fireweed stalks for browns (I had previously found lots of worms hanging out in piles of cut rye and fireweed stalks). Expanded this autumn to 2 new slightly smaller bins to grow the worm population.

I think ready to harvest in a week or two?

They are translucent and about the same size as a piece of cardboard fiber. I could only really see them on camera.

If I focus really hard, I can see a couple with my naked eyes, but not nearly as many as what the camera is able capture

The most similar thing I found were pot worms, but these seems much smaller

Outside of the pesky mites, I'm interested in knowing what other pests have you seen in your bin? Ants? Roaches? Spiders?

Asking as a "don't freak out if this happens" prep for myself.

Any other strange appearances you did not expect?

I had my Vermihut prepped for me to be gone for a week. PH good, great level of not being too dry or too wet... And I came home to black cap mushrooms growing out around the edges of my top active tray - on just two of 4 sides. I did a dig into remedies and took care of it, but boy did I freak out.

We had a very dry summer with no pests in the house, but after the rain showed up, pest activity has ballooned. I found a tiny little roach - freaked out, baited for it, and done. But I'm seeing a ton of ant activity pop up outside, all around the property (we do have pest control), and I dread the day they may make it to my bin.

I finished moving! Here are some pictures throughout the move in process.

Among the first things was getting in the CFT. I had an older one from Terra Vesco (the same ones seen in the little big farm documentary) but I sold it so I could scale up. The new one is from Wormgear.

I had 14 racks of worm bins already in use at my old space (moving a commercial worm farm is no joke!), but with the additional square footage I built 7 more, placing my total bins a bit over 1,000. Each tray will have between 800-5,000 red wigglers at a time depending on where it is in the process.

Whenever I move the trommel in the back of my truck people say it looks like a rocket launcher haha.

And when you have 3000+ gallons of manure being decomposed in an indoor system, ventilation is key so I'm working on that currently but for now this shutter fan is doing the trick.

But I'd say we're totally moved in now and shipping off the healthiest red wigglers known to man!

I'll answer just about any question. The business is Hungry Worms and you can also find lots of info there on the website

I have a vivarium with terrestrial newts that has more flowerpot fungus than I would like. Do red wigglers or encs eat that? I don't want a bunch of worms in there but I keep both and would definitely add a few if that's something they eat since isopods and springtails don't touch it.

Hello. This post might be removed but I think it’s related so will give it a shot.

Does anyone do blatticomposting (using very specific, non-pest, cockroaches). I’m in Canada and trying to find the appropriate cockroaches.

I’m pretty shocked that this isn’t happening more widely or to a larger scale because it creates a lot of great outputs including compost, feeder insects, a source of high protein, and starter colonies for others ( in addition to dealing with food wastes).

Any input and thoughts on this?

1 i plan on using rubbermaid container as the worm bin i got air holes drill into it but what else should i do before adding worms

2 are red wiggler the best option the bin will be indoors a garage even during winter

3 are there any risk to using leaf litter as brown in worm bin

Do you take your worms to any events to educate others about worm farming?

The clump of wiggling dots is new. What is it? Friend or foe?

Hello guys,
Long story short i bought a package of Eisenia Fetida in july. Being a beginner, i just thought the larges part of them were dead from the package. Started the colony with a few of them in a box. A few days ago, when tilling the raised beds i found a "clump" of worms. The rubbish bin where i placed the container with the "dead" ones is near the greenhouse. Can you help me identify if what i found are nightcrawlers or EF.

So I've had a composting bucket for years. Just something I throw random food scraps in when I cook. Have never been able to get worms in it but not for lack of trying I once caught a bunch of earthworms after it rained and brought them home and threw them in and they disappeared. Recently I lifted the lid and saw all these fellows. The bucket has holes so it can breathe but they are on the sides and it's pretty compacted. The lid fits snuggly so it doesn't let out a strong odor as I live in an apartment complex. I'm wondering what kind of worms they are and if they are good or bad?

I started vermicomposting this year in spring. I had a maybe a cup worth of worms from a friend, then enough for a bucket which can you see on the first picture. The soil I added had too much clay and small rocks as seen on the second picture. The thing on top is cardboard. I'd add coffee grounds, tea leaves and cucumber peels once a week and lately every time there would be around five earthworms on the lid. So now I added better soil and broke it up a bit...I expected a lot more earthworms though. They were mainly at the top...

So how bad is it, from your profession opinion?

It had rained the night before. Soil rich and peaty with clay deposits, approximately 30cm deep when it becomes primarily clay.

Little thing looked very leech-y when they were moving, with the head sort of flattening into a... tapered shape; not in movement, but in body. Unfortunately didn't get any pictures of that :(

They moved a lot, unlike other worms which tend to still when handled in my experience. They were uprooted along with some seaside daisies. Eager to squirm back into the dirt when placed down. Had normal worm locomotion though, with the ability to contract and stretch their body despite the thrashing they were doing.

As you can see, they were quite dark on the dorsal side, almost purple; ventral side was a tan colour. No clitellum I can see. Might be a Planarian?

Please help. I wish I'd kept them.

I found I bunch under rocks and wood, and put them in a worm farm I made with a 5 gallon bucket. will they survive and breed? im gonna use them for fishing when there are the right size, and I don't think they are jumping worms because they were calm when I picked it up. I also asked AI but it said I should dump it out and buy some worms online which I don't want to do.

Could you help me identify this little guy? I found it in Japan, if that helps. It was about a meter long.

The first picture is a leaf I froze and put in my bin. I noticed these little guys squirming around a few days later. My second picture is an apple core that was also frozen and placed in the bin. I think they might be fruit fly larvae, but they don't look like the pictures I have found. Can someone identify what's in either picture, and are they bad for the worms?

Bunch of different worms in my bin but I noticed these ones look different.

Hi everyone, so I want to start my very first vermicomposting and confused to choose which types of worm should I use between Eisenia fetida and Perionyx excavatus. The kind of waste that will be dump into the bin are mostly rice (which not really good for worm's main food as I know), if anyone have other suggestions which worm I should use please leave it in the comment section🙇

Where do they come from? They have invaded my compost pile. I thought they were good earth worms until I uncovered one and it had a green sheen and flat band that looked odd. Pulled out slithered like snake and jumped when touched them.

Like they hawe both male and female organs so i think we can asume they feal alined with both genders
this question is killing me can sowane smarter then me answer

Hi! Recently acquired a new worm farm a handful of days ago so still figuring this out.

My current set up I have is a tumbler compost bin and a 3 tier worm farm/cafe. We’re dumping kitchen scraps into the compost bin with the aim to feed the worms from the composting bin weekly or whatever schedule works out best. Compost is roughly 70-80% browns to greens (lots of shredded cardboard/paper tissues).
Was planning on this setup since Ive read worms tend to prefer slightly decomposed bacteria laden scraps over fresh food.

My concern is I’ve noticed some flies and gants hanging around the compost bin. I suppose its to be expected and its nothing insane and its definitely not infestation levels but it got me wondering if Im setting myself up for failure here. By feeding from the composting bin do I introduce the risk of introducing a bunch of fly larvae into my bin and is there ways to mitigate this?
Or do i just do away with the precompost step and go straight to feeding the worms?