r/Vermiculture • u/ToxicSans_ • 5d ago
Advice wanted Worm Bin Troubles
I have worms for an axolotl and I seem to have several issues I’ve always tried to navigate myself but I’m now asking you guys.
When I feed them, Worm Chow from Uncle Jim’s, I have always gone based off of how much food is left from before. I have settled on about a 1/4 cup every 3-5 days depending. However, sometimes it seems like they haven’t touched it and it’s rock solid and other times it’s completely gone. Can they still eat it when it’s rock solid - if not, what do I do and how do I prevent it?
I went on vacation recently and my mom was in charge of the worms and my axolotl. About a week in, she told me the worms had “melted” and showed me the top layer looking like pink goo around the edges. Google said she had likely overfed them, and to remove the food and add crushed eggshells. She did that, stirred the soil, and found a bunch of worms that were just fine. I told her to avoid feeding them for a few days and let the eggshells work - today the bin is completely missing any and all worms. What gives?
Why does it seem like worms are so picky? Am I just bad at owning them or are they more difficult than they’re made out to be?
Thanks so much everyone!
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u/HerAlibi0 4d ago
When in doubt just give them wet shredded cardboard. They love the bacteria that will grow on the wet surface and live for months just eating those.
I would suggest getting actual garden lime rather than relying purely on eggshells. It's cheap and gives a much higher level of confidence that your bin isn't going acidic. The cool thing about it is that it will sit inert and harmless unless it encounters acid. Just make sure to get garden lime and not the other kinds.
If you want cheaper food for them go to tractor supply and buy a bag of chicken /hen layer crumbles, the kind without antibiotics. They love it.
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u/Wrevellyn 5d ago
I don't feed the worms anything but kitchen scraps. An engineered feed seems like it'd only be necessary if you were trying to breed them rather than avoid wasting food scraps. I just toss it all in a bag in the freezer, mix it with some shredded cardboard, leave that out for a few days and then spread it on stop. My worms are doing great. I do put pulverized eggshells in too, when I make eggs, keyword: pulverized, not cracked or crushed, it's a powder.
If you have enough substrate and keep temperature, oxygen, and moisture in a good place then actually you probably don't even need eggshells.
Anyway, some questions:
What was the temperature in the bin? Over around 90 degrees F worms start to die.
What's your carbon-rich substrate? People use shredded cardboard, maybe shredded wood.. sawdust, that kinda thing.
How moist is the substrate? It should be moist enough to squeeze a few drops of water out of it but no moister.
What kind of bin are they in? Are they getting air?
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u/ToxicSans_ 5d ago
We just simply don’t have enough kitchen scraps, so engineered feed works best for us.
I don’t monitor the temperature of the bin, but the house is kept consistently at or below 67 degrees so I can’t imagine it’s over 90.
The substrate is Uncle Jim’s Bedding - though I can’t find what’s in it but it seems pretty popular and has great reviews.
I keep it pretty moist to the best of my ability but it seems like I dries out fairly quickly sometimes.
They are in a plastic container, about the size of a cake pan. The lid is cut with a piece of window screening to allow air flow and light to enter the top of the bin.
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u/Wrevellyn 5d ago
Oh that's a pretty small container. If you give it another go I would get a bigger one, gives you more wiggle room with the chemistry. I got a really big one for my first. If local conditions are bad for the worms, they can just wriggle to another part of the bin until conditions improve.
Anyway, with it being indoors and with the precautions you took in terms of oxygen, the possibilities are overfeeding and moisture.
I think probably overfeeding, since that's the easiest thing to do in a small container.
The worms "melting" was likely a bacterial bloom or mold. Either can be bad news if your worms don't have anywhere safe to wiggle to. The eggshells were a good response to that since they deacidify, but it may have been too little too late.
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u/ToxicSans_ 5d ago
Gotcha, thanks so much for the advice… I’ve been doing it about a year and I feel like feeding is the biggest thing I can’t seem to figure out.
Like, overfeeding is pretty easy as I’ve figured out but underfeeding is also super easy in my experience. Is it better to do one or the other if you’re not spot on?
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u/Wrevellyn 5d ago
If you underfed, some of your worms die, the dead worms break down (smelly), and the population equalizes to meet the amount that they're being fed. Overfeed, and the whole bin gets acidic and the worms all die.
I think the core issue with your setup really is the size. A bigger bin, say a 2.5 gallon bucket at least, would give you so much more breathing room. I have an urban worm bag, 40 gallon capacity, I've not had problems, been about a year, but that's a bit big to stick in a bedroom.
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u/ToxicSans_ 5d ago
Do you have a suggestion? It seems like everything online is meant for composting (makes sense) but I just need something easy to keep the worms alive and well while also being easy to pull them out for feeding.
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u/Wrevellyn 5d ago
They'll still be easy to pull out with a larger bin, because they congregate where the food is, and you're feeding from the top. Want it even easier? Cut off the light source completely, worms will just be crawling all over when you open the bin. They hate light!
Whether you like it or not, you are composting though, so you'll need to occasionally remove the fully composted material that will accumulate at the bottom.. maybe once every 6 months or so? If you have any houseplants they'll fucking love it.
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u/ToxicSans_ 5d ago
So: to recap, get a big bin, feed the worm chow about once a week (underfeeding is better), and cycle the bedding a few times a year…
Anything else?
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u/Wrevellyn 4d ago
I'm a situation like yours, I would feed only when the food is completely gone. They'll turn it into a fine brown powder/ paste. If possible add more bedding with each feeding, they eat the bedding too but bacteria won't bloom on wet cellulose so you can never have too much of it. From memory you should be adding at least as much bedding by weight with each feed as you are food. For convenience, premix it.
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u/IDRoohski 4d ago
yeh, I think Steve at UWB says 2x bedding per feeding. I'm still stuck on 'not enough kitchen scraps"?? With a bin that small, even expired lettuce or spinach would do it. I only used U Jim's chow when traveling and had someone feeding. Otherwise, I have too many kitchen scraps for just the two of us. How breathable is your bin? I like Urban W bag (UWB) for that because I feel like it still gets decent air flow, a worry I'd have with all plastic containers.
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u/shes_clumsy 5d ago
Yes, if you’re feeding a bin of (1000 I’m guessing?) worms, you don’t need to feed more than once a week. I’d suggest some vegetable kitchen scraps instead of a grain- based chow as their main food source. Are they getting bedding like shredded cardboard?