Hello. I have a compost pile full of red wigglers. I also have a worm bin that I would like to set up. Anyone know how to do it?

Thanks, Brenda

Hi Brenda. You don't say what kind of worm bin you have, but that doesn't matter so much. Your wigglers need bedding, moisture, oxygen, and food. The bedding can be shredded paper (not shiny), or shredded leaves. You can also add smaller amounts of sawdust, peat, or coir. These materials should be damp, because worms breathe through their skin and require a damp environment.

Add several inches of bedding and the red wigglers. You can harvest the wigglers by digging into your compost, looking for clumps of worms (they'll be mostly where less composted organic matter is, but not where it's hot). Gently take them out and place in a container. If you use a plastic pint container and fill it, you'll have enough for your new worm bin (assuming it's a modestly sized bin).

There are different ways to add food to the bin. You can dig a hole in the bedding, pour in the food, and cover. Add more food next to the first hole, and so forth. Or, you can add a layer of food on top and then cover with bedding. Once you have the entire bin full of buried food, wait until the worms have eaten it up pretty much before adding more.

You can add a layer of cardboard over the material to keep your bin moist. Keep track of the amount of bedding material that is in the bin, as it also decomposes, and the organic matter will reduce in volume. You will need to add bedding material as well as food as time goes on. Check on the moisture level too. Worms like fairly damp places, but not soggy. The environment should glisten slightly, but there should not be standing water. Smell is useful to pay attention to. Icky smells indicate something is wrong--too wet probably.

Feed your worms vegetables and fruit. No meat or dairy. Only very small amounts of citrus or onion family as these are hard on the worms' sensitive skin.

You should begin to see small amounts of finished vermicompost (worm compost) within about three months. To harvest the compost you might try putting food on top or to one side. This will attract most of the worms away from the finished material and into the fresh food. Scoop the worms and food into another container. Harvest the vermicompost and use, then put fresh bedding in the worm box and add your worms back.

Keep your worms out of the hot sun and protect from freezing weather. Both will kill them. They work best at the temperature we like best: 72 degrees (the most activity will occur between 55 degrees and 77 degrees F). Over 90 degrees and below about 35 degrees they suffer. Cover your box with blankets or leaves in freezing weather & put in the shade in hot weather. You can place a bag on ice on top of the bin material when it's super hot. The box & bedding material will provide some insulation & the worms will naturally move to their preferred temperature within the environment.

Like most things, you'll need to experiment with what works best for you.

Some books that can be helpful are:
Let Worms Eat Your Garbage a pamphlet produced by WSU Cooperative Extension (www.king.wsu.edu/gardening/documents/23CompostingwithWorms_000.pdf)

The Art of Small Scale Vermicomposting a periodical published by Worm Digest (www.wormdigest.org/files/artof_vermicomposting.pdf)

Worms Eat My Garbage and Worms Eat Our Garbage by Mary Applehof (www.eugenebackyardfarmer.com/ ) He has at least one of these in stock.