I just started a worm bin and new to this. I havent came across a worm bin youtuber do a video about this. Im glad u did because just last week i happened to see a springtale i believe wasnt sure at the time what it was or if it was bad or not. Now I know thx for the great content keep up the good work thx
Hi tmoney g! Congratulations 🎊 on beginning the worm bin! Exciting times! I’m glad the video helped. I had white mites and springtails for quite some time before I realized it. I thought they were bits of eggshell 🤣. All I found online was how to get rid of them aka they were bad for the bin. It’s just recently that I was part of a conversation with some really knowledgeable wormers and I got the info on chitin and worms and mites and that whole beneficial circle of life cycle. I came up with the drying them out idea to get them ready to put back in a bin. So easy! Thanks for watching!
Hi Jayne, Excellent information. I didn't think about the mites being a source of Chitin and actually good for the worms. I was lifting the Can-O-Worms lids every morning and allowing the mites hours to dry out and die, then I would rinse the lid. Now I will just tap the lid at the end of the day and allow the dried mites to fall back into the bin 👍🪱👍 ❤Peggy❤
Hi Peggy! That’s essentially what I was doing too. Rinsing the lids, drying them off and repeating. Now I let them air dry - or on a sunny day (which we’ve not had many of lately) I put the lid out and it’s minutes later I can tap the bugs back into the bin. I found out this trick by accident. I had my casting bucket with me in the garden planting seedlings. Took the lid off (with the mites on it) and set it aside. Shortly later when I picked the lid up, they all slid off! Light bulb! Thanks for watching!
Thanks for the info on worms having chitin as part of their makeup and that the mites provide chitin. I thought worms just had chitinous mouthparts to hold the intestinal wall. I got on this subject because I was adding black fly frass (a source of chitin) to my worm bins and was concerned that the chitinase that worms generate to digest the chitin could be too much for them and too much chitinase could kill the worms. My thinking comes from a discovery of high chitinase compost tea dissolving the exoskeletons of bark beetles and other pests when sprayed on them. I think my concern about it harming the worms could be wrongthink. Here's a quote from a discussion I had last year on the chitin being used as a useful pesticide and plant strengthener: "Adding insect frass/chitin to composting worms makes the worms generate chitinase -the enzyme that dissolves chitin-. That is what has been used to destroy tree borer beetle larvae and other pests while also strengthening the plants. The company that made that claim was sued by pesticide companies, but after years of litigation the pesticide companies lost and the company is still in business."
Hi James! It’s a case of moderation or alternatively, too much of a good thing is a bad thing! So I wouldn’t recommend dumping a big pile of dead mites into a worm bin 😆. One good factor is that cardboard is heavily cellulose which offsets the chitin. If you have plenty of bedding in the worm bin the chitin from dead mites won’t be enough to be harmful. All that said, I am NOT a scientist or expert in this field so please do your own research as you apparently have! Excellent job! I have mealworms too. Their shed is almost pure chitin which is great as a plant strengthener. If some of the shed finds it way into the worm bins via moving veggies from mealies to wormies, I don’t worry about it. It’s not that much given the whole rest of the bedding composition. Great topic - I’m so glad you added to the conversation ❤️.
Great info about the chitin! I love my little springtails, don't mind the mites (to a degree), but it's the pot worms that I really don't like. I work my bins barehanded, and feeling the little pot worms squirming around on my hands gives me the ick real bad. 🤢 Most of my "mite bloom" happens when my bins are still young. They ease up once the bins are more established. No idea why, as pH and moisture readings are solid... I've just accepted it as part of the natural process. Usually the numbers are manageable, but the one time I fed pumpkin they went WILD. I used DE, and it seemed to take care of that in one application. Might play with the bread trick if it happens again - for science. 😁
Hi Evelyn! It amazes me how these critters just show up. Well, for me, I use sifted cow manure and leaves so I know I’m adding in some bugs and it only takes one pregnant bug to set the stage but many people use much more sterile bedding and do freeze the foods first. And they still get the mites and pot worms and such. Nature finds a way 🤣. It’s all about balance and like you said, accepting it’s part of the process.
Hi Jane, I am asking a few RU-vid wormfarmers to do an experiment for me. You obviously don't have to, but here goes. Since many people want to save as many cocoons as possible, I was thinking of a way that would be easier. If you sift out your castings and have some cocoons, could you just take a handful of the mix and put them in a dish with water, agitate the mix in the water and see if the cocoons float or sink? - My thought is that, if they float, we could skim them off the top, and use the water and castings as a tea for plants. - If they don't float, and they sink to the bottom, we could seperate them as well. Thanks for reading if you got this far!
Hi! I think that’s a really cool idea to try! If it works then awesome! That would be a game changer!! If it doesn’t work then nothing lost whatsoever. I absolutely love the innovativeness of the idea ❤️. I’ll try it as soon as possible. I’m working in the garden today - have harvestable fruits that need picking today. Do you mind if I make it into a video?
@@etruedus Fantastic! Thanks for the permission 👍. I’ll work on it in next few days and see what happens and get a video up with the result. I’m excited to give this idea a try! I almost (almost!!) don’t care if it works or not as the out of the box thinking is so inspiring 😍.
@@etruedus Hi! I want to get back to you on this idea. My enthusiasm has once again outpaced my ability to act 😟. I’m swamped and can’t get to experimenting on this as I’d like. HOWEVER, 2 things: I did a bit of googling and found a very few references to the floating idea and basically the report was it doesn’t work 😬. The 2nd thing is my hubby and I talked about the idea at length and may have a modification that might work. I just need the time to test it out. Unfortunately that’s going to be awhile. Garden coming in so lots of canning and freezing on top of the regular crazy day stuff. I’ll get to trying out the new idea sparked by your question as soon as I can and report back! Again, sorry for the delay on testing your original thought 😟.
I’m glad it helped you understand 😊. I like to manage my mite populations to be on the low end. Non existent would be my preferred - and I do have that in the majority of my bins. But I do have a handful of bins where the mites can get out of control at times 🙄😡. It’s not the end of the world but like I said, a preference. One added thing. The better your bedding is, like more-compost, the less you need mites as helpers to turn food and bedding into worm food. The heavy biota load in pre-compost will do that work instead 👍🪱
Haven't noticed any issues with mites. Massive issue with maggots. Limiting moisture seems to be the most crucial step, but the worms need moisture as well. Biggest issue with the maggots is that they chew stuff up so small it passes through the holes in the bottom of the bed so it doesn't build up enough to put another bed on.
Hi Scott! Maggots?! Oh yuck! I haven’t heard of maggots infesting a worm bin before. Where are you keeping your bin? From what you said it sounds like you have a cft? Worms absolutely need moisture to breathe and therefor live. But they don’t need as much as we (me!) tend to think or have in our bins. I find worms in the sections of bins I’m drying down for sifting and the material is quite dry. They could vacate if they wanted to but it must be moist enough that they stay. I guess I’d first try to determine how they’re getting into the bin. Are they in the food you’re feeding the worm? The bedding? By identifying the vector we can start to figure out how to stop the invasion. 🪱❤️🪱
@@RockinWorms I think they're coming in through the vent holes. I grind a lot of kitchen and garden waste for them, but I also throw in old bread. It tends to absorb the moisture. By keeping added moisture to a minimum it seems to keep the maggots down. Maggot poop composts too but I really want my worms to do the job. I finally flushed out my beds again and rescued a few worms to start over. My daughter has some ducks so I spread the maggot infested leavings out for them and they had a party. When it dries I will add it to a bucket I'm saving to make compost tea. The food I prepare is frozen. I learned to let it fully thaw and warm up before giving it to the worms because condensation from being frozen is enough to attract the maggots.
@@ScotttheCyborg thanks for the added context. Can you add fine mesh screen over the vent holes? I watched a video a ways back where guy made a worm bin out of a freezer (love that idea! Wonder if the built in insulation will keep it cooler during the brutal summer heat??). After he took out all the guts he plugged the holes he didn’t want and covered the holes he did want with double layer of fine mesh screen - I think it was window screen. I think he used epoxy or silicone to adhere the screen to the freezer walls. Anyway, the point is maybe try to screen the holes you think the maggots are coming in thru and see if that helps as well….? There’s going to be times when you want or need increased moisture so solving the issue from another angle might help. If you try it please report back as it can help others ❤️. I’m glad you were able to save some worms and restart. I just bet the ducks went crazy!! Good use of a bad thing 👍. And the same for the (formerly) infested bedding - compost tea! You’re making the best of the situation - good on you 🤗. This last time I fed all my bins frozen veg it took a few days - so it totally defrosted. There’s was a LOT of liquid. So I started squeezing the veg hard before placing it into the bin. The liquid went into jugs to use for pre-composting and veg slurry for dehydrating. I have to feed the bins again in the next few days so I’ll see how the less wet veg worked. Thanks again for sharing your situation!! It doesn’t always go well and we all face issues on a regular basis it seems so sharing helps us all respond quicker and better to what pops up 🪱❤️🪱
@@RockinWorms I use a Worm Cafe, kept in my barn. The hole in it are pretty small, but I think I can glue some gauzy fabric over them. Ought to let enough air in and keep the eggs out. THe maggot poop will still make compost tea, just different. They make poop that falls through the holes to the bottom pan, so it never gets tall enough for me to add the next pan. And they eat much faster than the worms. It makes a usable product but not what I intended. I put it all in a bucket and I'm going to store it somewhere to completely dry out. Then I'll put a little in a covered bucket to ferment a bit into good tea.
So would my worms benefit from some dried mealworms as a treat? I already grow birdseed and they love eating that, it's something that passes across my hands regularly as my mum has garden birds and a hedgehog to feed.. maybe whizzed into powder? I have so many little babies right now
Hi Eleanor! I’m sure the worms would eat them and benefit from the fat, protein and chitin boost dried mealworms would provide. I haven’t intentionally fed them to my worms yet. I’m still establishing my colony. I’m now in the 2nd cycle - lots of little babies too! Do you vacuum the sheds off? That’s the real chitin boost. I literally just finished feeding all the mealworm (and one beetle) bins before I read your comment. 2 mealies bins desperately need a shed vacuum but I didn’t have it in me to do it tonight. I’ll wait a few days for them to work the feed down and then vacuum. I’ll add the shed to the worm bins. Nothing goes to waste! Also… how are you drying your mealies? I haven’t done that yet.
Very informative, thank you. I saw the wet bread method used by an OG last year @vermicompost (Vermicompost - Learn By Doing) . He just did bread and water. Works wonders and he sometimes just leaves it for a couple hours and they're on it. I never knew about the Chitin. Great nugget of information to feed the geek in me. Thanks again
Hi Tolga! I’d seen several OGs (❤️ that shorthand!) use the bread method but none ever said anything about feeding them back to the bin that I recall. I’d been rinsing all that good chitin down the drain 😟. I’m very grateful to the OGs I was chatting with for educating me and now more wormers know! I have to check the bread! I was so busy over the weekend that I didn’t get the chance. It’s great that something (mites) that kinda annoyed me are now something I’m kinda happy to see 🤣. Thanks for taking the time to watch!
