Worms eat waste in pictures

[CincyGarden]

I have a bin just like this, except it was less expensive. I'm not sure I would have bought it. Had I known it was going to be in the basement, I would have just gone with a couple of bins like you have. I have no complaints, really, about the basement arrangement. They're plenty happy down there and we do 95% of stuff through bokashi.

In a system like the one you're considering, one way (described in

Worms Eat My Garbage

Worms Eat My Garbage

, if I remember correctly (pretty straight up book on the subject, maybe one of the first?)) is to dump the whole thing on a tarp. Shine a bright light over it, and pull off 1/5th of the pile to the other side of the tarp. Wait 10 minutes, and repeat. When you're left with 2/5ths, return the stuff you haven't pulled off to the bin, and add bedding and food.

The good thing about a system like mine is that you can harvest the casting easily; you just rotate the levels, and when one gets full you "feed" a lower level. The worms go to that, naturally, and you just wait a week for the eggs to hatch and then take the worm poo. There are a few stragglers, always, but it's easy enough.

I think you (Equil, that is) compost in other ways, too, conventional and bokashi. You could probably get away with just 1 bin (without nesting) as long as your careful about adding bedding and not putting really, really juicy stuff in there (melon rinds come to mind as something that would quickly overwhelm the bin.) Just be moderately aware what you're putting in there (in terms of moisture content) and it'd be fine for a week, I think.

The product of this process is really amazing. It is absolutely worth the effort. even if you have alternative methods of composting.

[havalotta]

I made my own out of two Tupperware containers. All you do is poke a few drainage holes in the bottom, shred some newspaper into it, add a handful of dirt to get things going and a couple of containers of red worms from the bait shop. NOT nightcrawlers. Those will die from the heat.
Add a handful of fruit and veggie scraps (NEVER any meaty oily things-they ROT) cover it with a cover so they don't crawl out and put it on top of a cover from the second bin you have. Set in a cool place like under your kitchen sink where it is handy to add daily scraps into. I feed at one end untill the papers turn to soil. Then feed at the opposite end to move the worms over for collection.

[Equilibrium]

Let me digest this information... pun intended. This was the original link I was given to set mine up, Cheap and Easy Worm Bin! What size holes would I drill in the bottom of the upper rubbermaid container and what should the spacing be? What size holes for the lid? Here's my problem> I'm worried about the eggs. I've got enough problems around here with the worms I'm stuck with destroying my leaf litter. I have killed thousands. I'm afraid of undoing what I've done by using the castings from vermicomposting if I can't be reasonably sure I'm going to get all the eggs out. There was a very lively discussion about this a while ago, Vermicomposting-Worm Farming. I've been diligently killing earthworms on my property for at least 5 years... long before the public at large began understanding that in gardens they're our friends but in the wilds... they're foe. Problem is our worm friends don't stay put in our gardens. You understand, right? I need to find a reliable way to get all the eggs out of the castings and a sifter is all anyone has recommended to me so far.

[havalotta]

Just grab a drill and fling some in it unless you want to get fancy and arrange them in flowery shapes.( A small bit ) Doesn't matter how many or where they are. All they so is add air above and drainage below.
What about baking the soil in the oven to kill them first?

[CincyGarden]

I wouldn't recommend sterilizing in an oven. Part of the great stuff about worm castings is the "slime," or the stuff left over from the worm's digestive tract. There's a lot in there, and studies have been conducted that show that the great properties of worm castings (disease suppression/resistance included) are not present in castings sterilized before use.

You could harvest and isolate, I guess, or screen. I've also dried it, but I wonder, having read about the effects of sterilization, wonder if drying it also reduces it to mere humus.

[havalotta]

Kind of like colostrum for the soil!

[CincyGarden]

Well, it is in a wormy sort of way, yea, you're right!

My guess is that it's a "nesting" sort of thing, in that what the worm leaves behind, it's bound to cross again, and it's inoculating the area for future feeding. Now that I think about it, it would probably be preparing the area for eggs, too.

[Equilibrium]

That's what it is! Colostrum for the soil! I can't cook it since I don't want to heat if up high enough to kill the eggs or I'd wipe out everything else but drying it out before sifting it sounds viable.

[havalotta]

How do you sift it without squishing the eggs...................

[biigblueyes]

I haven't started my own worm bin yet, so I can't give personal experience. But here's a link.

:: WormsWrangler Red Worms | Worm Bin | Worm Farm | Compost Tumbler ::

The material harvested from a "finished" worm bin is generally called vermicompost , and is a mixture of earthworm castings (earthworm poop), decomposed organic matter that did not pass through the gut of the worm (compost), and partially decomposed/undecomposed organic matter that is still (somewhat) recognizable. In most situations it is castings that comprise the bulk of the material, usually around 70-80% of the total, dependant upon system type, management method and residence time in the system.

Castings (also called casts and vermicast) are, as stated above, the manure of the earthworm, meaning they are the waste material generated after the worms have processed the organic matter through their gut. Castings are collected by sifting the vermicompost through a series of mesh screens, typically beginning with a 1/2" mesh, with the material that falls through then screened through a 1/4" mesh. Some castings producers screen the material that falls through the 1/4" mesh through a 1/8" mesh to produce an exceptionally fine, uniform material, but it is generally accepted that the material sifted through the 1/4"mesh is nearly pure earthworm castings.