Worm Bin Tip # 1 – Enthusiasm can be your enemy
The worms have done such a great job over their first week, I thought OK it is time to add more food. I added what I felt was sufficient to have time to break down before the worms finished what was already in the bin.
About 24 hours later a strange odor came wafting from the direction of the worm bins. I ignored it at first because the smell didn’t seem to be in the bins. And nope, I didn’t “open” them just to check, I just went on my merry way.
A few hours later I was in the back yard again and noticed all these kamikaze worms that had died on the hot concrete in the Florida heat.
You’re probably wondering are my worms in the sun … nope. We have them under the shed so no direct sunlight. But it is just plain hot out side. That, added with the heat from the chemical decomposition of the food the bins were just hot.
TIP # 1 … add less food then you think they need for a while. Many sites have said it takes the worms a little while to get acclimated and up to eating half their body weight a day.
So this was my solution. I have an old milk crate around here and dumped the bin and with my trusty rubber gloves started stirring the bin. It was very hot. Hotter than I have my shower water. YIKES no wonder the worms were taking their own lives.
I stirred and stirred until it got cooler and then divided the worms and food up into other worm bins that we have set up.
Then we had a shredding party and added damp newspaper to the top of each bin. Put the cover back on and called it a night. I’ll check back on the worms again in the morning and see how they’re doing.
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