Worms: Nature’s Industrious Little Recyclers
Did you know that Charles Darwin was fascinated by the earthworm? Because of the work of Darwin and other scientists, we have learned a great deal about earthworms. Turns out that the earthworm plays an enormous role in the decomposition process.
Red wigglers (red worms, eisenia foetida) are close cousins of the earthworms. They are the workers in a worm composting bin. Red worms can be purchased, found in leaf and older manure piles, in most mature yard compost piles, or taken from another worm bin.
Worm bins are usually wood boxes with tightly fitting lids that provide red worms with a dark and moist environment, while excluding rodents and other pests. Plans for a worm bin are available from the Spokane Regional Recycling Hotline, 747-0242. There are also commercially manufactured bins available. Look for them in specialty garden magazines and catalogs, garden stores and alternative product stores. You can even build your own using recycled lumber.
To decide how large a worm bin you need for your household, get a five-gallon bucket, weigh the empty bucket and lid, and then begin to fill the bucket with all of your kitchen vegetable waste, coffee grounds (filters too), tea bags, etc. that you produce in one week. (No grease, meat, dairy products or bones, worms like them but they produce bad odors.) Weigh the bucket and contents at the end of the week.
In a well-populated worm bin, one square foot of surface area is required for every pound of food waste to be composted per week. The free plans you can get from the Hotline are for a bin that is 45-by-20by-16 inches, although they can easily be modified.
Locate your worm bin in an area that is easily accessible for feeding. Worms eat the most when the temperature is between 55 and 77 degrees, hence, it’s best to put the worm bin in a shady spot. Be sure their bedding does not dry out, a moist environment is critical, but too much moisture is also bad. In the winter you will have to bring the bin inside, at least into a heated garage, to prevent the worms from freezing.
There are a variety of materials you may use to bed your worms; shredded newsprint is the most common. Other possibilities are narrow strips of corrugated cardboard, shredded computer paper, sawdust, dry leaves or other high cellulose materials. The bedding should be about as damp as a wrungout sponge. Put the bedding material in a large plastic sack or pail. Add water to soak the bedding. Wring out or allow water to drip from bedding before placing it in the worm bin. Fill the bin with bedding.
Bury your vegetable waste in one corner of the bin and put the worms on top of the bedding. The worms do not like light and will immediately dive into the bedding and go to their food. In a dry climate a light sheet of plastic over the top of the bedding will keep the bin contents and worms from drying out.
It is important to always bury the worm food under the bedding. The bedding keeps any odors from the waste from leaving the bin, the worms will do the rest. In a few months, if you have been feeding them regularly, the worms will have digested the food and presented you with many more worms and vericompost. Use it to top-dress your houseplants, add to your transplanting holes for new garden plants or if you have enough, even mulch your trees and shrubs.
An excellent reading source is Mary Appolhoff’s book, “Worms Eat My Garbage.”
For more information on composting with worms, contact the Spokane Regional Recycling Hotline at 747-0242.
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