Our Worm Bin: Our Worm Bin

For quite some time I've been wanting to start a vermicompost bin. I've read dozens of articles and then I got my family on board. We started with a rubbermaid bin and we drilled air holes on the bottom and on the sides. The kids enjoyed this process because it was the first time either of them had used a drill LOL.

Then I lined the bottom of the bin with a fine screen in order to prevent any worms from escaping. After that was in place, we started to prepare our bedding. We decided to go with newspaper ripped into strips. We made sure to wet and then wring out the newspaper so it was damp but not wet.

Our poochie Aussie was a very big help. :) After a layer of newspaper bedding we added a layer of leaves and then more newspaper.

Enter Stage Left - Worms

I really didn't want to pay $50 for a pound of worms so I was lucky enough to find someone online who had completed a harvest and was giving away some worms and compost. I have no idea how many worms I got. There weren't many - perhaps two dozen, maybe less. I noticed lots of bugs in it, too, but we just went with it. Once we added the worms we covered them up with more bedding.

After a few days we tried feeding the worms.

Within a few days I noticed there were only a few worms left it seemed, and they were not a bright red like they were, and they also moved rather slowly. We left them for another week or so and then we noticed lots of little black specks (poop?) and that the worms were brighter and faster! Yay!! :)

Now that stuff has been "stewing" for a while, I've noticed some critters that I'm not sure about.

We still have lots of tiny white worms. Some websites say they are baby red wigglers, but others say they are pot worms. I'm not sure. If they are pot worms, and we've had them for a month, why are all of the adult worms red? What are these worms??

You can see them in this picture, too, but I should note the compost you're seeing here wasn't produced in my bin - it's in my bin but it's what the worms came in.