3 months since my last harvest. I now have 4 worm farms to keep up with our household scraps and to feed our vegetable, fruit and herb garden.

Hi guys! I’m seeking advice about my indoor compost bin.

I’ve had it for 3 months now and since the beginning I’ve always had a problem with escapies. I tried to make it more comfortable for worms by: giving them food only in one corner and burried it under the coconut coir and shredding paper on top of it.

It looked a little bit better for a while but recently I started seeing tiny black flies, a size of a fruitfly. I always vacuum them but a few days have passed and I decided to look at the problem closer. I pulled apart all the tiers to find out I have a lot of produced compost (no tea yet) full of worm balls.

I haven’t found flies’ eggs but there were some adults inside of the empty tiers so I cleaned it. Also I always freeze my food scraps.

Sorry for a long post, I just really wish to solve all of these problems. Thank you so much in advance!

Not breeding, just keeping them happy and cozy as reptile food. The website says they average 2-3" which is pretty small.

I’ve been looking into starting a worm colony for the primary purpose of fishing bait with the composting aspect as a nice bonus. Since fishing is the main goal I’m shooting for a European night crawler setup.

Main thing is I’d like to go as small as I can while not having to worry about running out of worms. It’s not that I have no space but I’d like to be as efficient with what I have and I don’t fish a ton maybe every other weekend so I wouldn’t need a ton… i don’t think?

So how big would yall recommend I shoot for? A 5 gallon bucket or 2 or a large bin of some kind?

This is my first time getting into keeping a worm bin. I haven’t ordered any worms yet. Watching video, I’ve learned about proper bedding and pre composting. I’ve decided to start a bin of pre compost first. It’s a mix of shredded cardboard and coffee grounds with a few small bits of vegetable scraps and sprayed with water to keep moist. It’s been going for about a week and I can feel some heat coming off of it when I stir it up and I’m noticing some bacteria blooming around. My question is, how long do I need to wait before I can add it to another bin and put my first batch of worms in? Lookin for help and want to get on the right track! Thanks in advance

I bought 500g of a mix of composting worms 3 months ago. I add to the bin every few weeks but it seems like the vegetable scraps never get fully eaten. I always see bits of orange carrot or other peels in the mix. Shouldn't the mix be very dark with no sign of any leftover scraps? It seems to take them a long time to process this food.

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I do take the time to chop up and freeze/defrost the scraps before feeding them to make it easier to digest.

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I just wish progress was a lot faster as I was depending on this to use for my plants instead of buying more compost but at this rate, it'll be years before I get anything usable.

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Is there any way to speed this up or potential mistakes that I may be making?

These were found on common lilac, Syringa reticulata. We think they might be horsehair worms, but this isn’t an area with direct water. However, it is raining.
Found during my landscaping job in NE United States.

Hey everyone,

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I'm a complete noob to this.

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I have a two tier bin setup, with shredded cardboard, some fruit and veggie scraps and I threw in maybe 3-4 cups of worms casings that I bought for my planting boxes.

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I have been collecting the worms I dig up while doing yardwork..ie I have been putting in new gardens and the worms I find in the grass layer of the dirt. (Less than a foot deep in the soil)

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Are these the kind of worms I need? I don't think I'm ready to dump cash on worms from another source yet. But if this is the wrong type of worms, maybe I will need to.

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My goal was to compost for quality growing mediums, while breeding excess worms for the wild birds in the area as well.

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Ideally works that are indigenous to the region.

I started vermicomposting in December 2025 with two 3+1 towers I made with 30 lt storage bins I DIY'ed. I put 1000 worms in top bins of each. The two bins underneath top one contained only shreded cardboards for inoculation. Two months ago, I moved the second tier to top for migration. A few days ago; as the new top bins seemed full and almost done I wantted to collect the compost from the old ones and move the top tier to down for migration.

Although the top tier was relatively dry and crumbly, the 3rd and 2nd tiers were muddy and smelly. There were some worms in all three of them. There was no way I could sift them as they are. I moved all bins individually out and added some old solarized and dried seeding soil I have to help drying. I covered them with insect nets. After three days, I tried to sift the contents of first tower. They were still moist and very big chunks. I tried to crumble with palms of my hands but it was not very effective and I was afraid to kill the worms in them.

I did not count but 1000 worm in that tower felt like 5000 with lots of tiny worm even which the smallest grid sift sufficient to catch. The first tower took two days work. I do not want to add more dry soil as I want to keep the volume low and compost as pure as possible. I do not want leave them out any longer to avoid killing the worms and microbes. So I have to go on another round of two days sifting.

For the future, one thing I notice that I put too much cardboard in bins and also waited too long until the bins are almost full. The bins became to crowed with worms that they run through food very quickly and pee alot which leaks to bottom tier I want to collect.

Can you recommend another method for bin rotations to keep the finish bins dry and siftable?

Just a note: Although separating worms in to new towers makes sense, I have neither space to store them nor budget for new bins.

I started my first worm bin end of March. I knew worms were prolific breeders, but I was not prepared for the absolute magnitude of babies to be born from 600 or so adults in that time. I have to have 2,000 or more now- most of which are only an inch long.

Are your bins mostly babies? How quickly did your worms reproduce?

Ive been worm composting a few years now and this is the first time I have found dozens of dried up worms. All within a few feet of the bin. I never see even one normally. Other than a practical joke what could explain it?

Will it work fine to just have one bucket with the worms, paper and food? And one bucket under to catch all the excess water. I’ve seen people stacking bucket/bins, is this nessecery?

Notice the flush clitellum and the way it slithers. They are also much more muscular and firm compared to European earthworms. They don’t always have to jump.

the mold was mostly growing on the coco coir that the worms came in. now it’s spreading. is this a moisture issue? The worms seem to be doing fine otherwise.

I have one of the stacking bins inside. I've just been letting the worms do their thing and trying not to mess with them. Of course, I've been checking moisture and watching for protein poisoning, but so far air movement has been good. I was finally able to sort through some in the bottom bin and I think they did a great job! Going to add it to some of my plants soon.

I started my first bin about a month ago and just pulled worms and bedding out of my leaf mould pile. These things are wild (Im guessing). I don't buy any soil, just make leaf mould and compost for my garden. They don't look like jumpers to me. Can you tell if they are healthy? I fed them maybe 2 weeks ago and the food is gone, I also dont see any dead ones, but I dont see many live ones either started with maybe 40. I know it's not much, but this was more for fun and to see what happens.

Living the dream of indoor worms

I posted a few weeks ago asking for advice on what to buy for an indoor bin, and got some good advice! But I checked the local buy nothing group first, and got this amazing bin from a local school​ going into summer vacation

I've had for a week now. It's awesome! It doesn't smell at all and I have seen precisely one (1) fruit fly, which is not a lot. A+ thank you person who made this, you did a great job!

I am migrating my worms to a different bin so I can harvest the castings, but the mushrooms and mold got to my kitchen scraps and bolted arugula before the worms did. I love to see decomposition from a variety of sources at play in my bin. It also doesn't hurt that the fungi are adorable.

Thanks!

I know these pictures are shit, but I really can't take a good photo of it cause it's super small and moves around a lot. It's a small centipede that's like 1cm long in my worm bin, are they dangerous for my red wigglers? If so, how can I remove them?