"Worms do what!?!"
Yep, they eat my garbage! Worms transform our food scraps into rich, even-better-than-compost "vermicompost" – compost made by worms.
Why do it?
The first question people ask is, "Why do you do it?" There are many reasons. I have to admit that we think it’s fascinating and fun, but there are practical reasons as well. We have a garden and use the rich vermicompost to enrich the soil. It’s an important part of a healthy soil ecosystem.
In the winter, it’s an easy way to dispose of our food scraps without throwing them in the garbage or onto the frozen "regular" compost pile. Also, worms can handle food scraps that wouldn’t typically be added to a suburban or urban compost pile – things such as cooked foods or leftover pizza. It complements our "regular" compost bins, which we now use mainly for yard wastes.
Worm composting has other advantages as well. People who have produced compost in an outdoor compost bin are familiar with the routine of turning the compost so it will process faster (although if you’re patient, it’s not absolutely necessary.) When you compost with worms, the worms do most of the work; in fact, they’ll do even better when they’re not disturbed. No heavy lifting and turning!
We raise worms in order to recycle our food scraps into compost. Fishermen look at the process the other way around: they use their food scraps to produce worms to use as bait.
Worm composting also fills the bill for apartment-dwellers who may want to produce compost for their houseplants or even for the plants on their apartment’s property. They also might just want to experience the fascinating process of transforming their food waste into rich compost – one of nature’s miracles.
Generally, it's recommended that you bury the food so that you're less likely to get fruit flies. We've tried to experiment with finding the easiest way to do things - just dump on the food scraps - and we were fairly lucky. Only occasionally did we get fruit flies. When we did, they've pretty much stayed down in the cellar. Flypaper hanging above the bins helped as well.
It's best to bury the food scraps, though, if you don't want to take a chance on fruit flies. This is what we started to do. It's not that much trouble, and it does prevent fruit flies.
How-to
To begin worm composting, the first thing you need is worms. But don’t use just any worms, certainly not nightcrawlers or the earthworkers living in burrows in your garden. You need worms who are composters, the kind found in compost piles, manure piles, or in decaying leaves – the worms known as red wrigglers (Eisenia foetida). We bought our worms over the internet, but Baltimore Woods now sells these worms. Start with 1,000 worms, which is a pound. A thousand worms can process about 3½ pounds of food scraps a week. They’ll soon reproduce, and the population will self-regulate based on the amount of food they’re given.
Once you have worms, they’ll need a place to live. Plan on providing about one square foot of surface area for each pound of garbage you produce per week. You can buy commercial worm composting systems, of course, but they’re fairly expensive. We’ve found that simple plastic 14"x20"x8" storage containers have worked well. We have three of these plastic bins and two old wooden drawers that total about ten square feet of surface area, ideal for our average weekly total of ten pounds of garbage. Like all living creatures, your worms will need air, so drill some holes in the sides of the containers.
Fill your containers with bedding. Bedding can be shredded non-colored newsprint, peat moss, or a combination of unfinished "regular" compost and shredded leaves, which is what we use.
Worms need to be in a moist environment, so moisten the bedding. Most food scraps have a certain amount of moisture in them, so maintaining a moist environment isn’t difficult. In fact, you’ll want to drill some holes in the bottom of your containers so excess moisture can drain. Collect this "compost tea" and use it to water your houseplants.
Worms do best when the room temperature is between 59º and 77º, but any temperature between 50º and 86º will do. Most basements fall within this temperature range.
Once you have worms and a place for them to live, start feeding them. You’ll be amazed at how many food scraps you produce in a week. We have produced a weekly average of about 10 pounds of fruit and vegetable peelings, coffee and tea grounds, eggshells, spoiled or moldy food from the refrigerator, and plate scrapings. The worms’ special favorites seem to be melon rinds and banana peels. I’ve read that they also like leftover chocolate, but isn’t "leftover chocolate" an oxymoron?
Worms will eat many things, but there are some things you should not give them: hot, spicy foods, highly acidic foods, citrus, onion and garlic. It’s best not to add meat products since they might cause odors, and for health reasons, don’t use pet feces. Of course, non-biodegradables won’t work. Interestingly, garden wastes, such as grass clippings, are not recommended since they would heat up and harm the worms.
We add food when it’s convenient for us – generally, two or three times a week. Just dig a hole, dump in the food scraps, and cover it with a little bedding. We cover the bin by placing a plastic garbage bag loosely on top.
As the composting process continues, the worms excrete castings – worm poop! Every three to four months, the concentration of castings relative to bedding increases so that it’s time to harvest the vermicompost and provide new, clean bedding. This can be done in a number of ways. Our usual method is to dump the contents onto an old table, shine bright lights on it, wait for the worms to escape the light, scoop off the vermicompost, and keep repeating the process until we are left with little mounds of worms. We used to scrupulously save every tiny baby worm and even all the "eggs" (called cocoons). We have become a little less compulsive about this after realizing that the population self-regulates and that many of the cocoons and babies that escape our notice seem to do okay in the bags of vermicompost that we’re saving for our garden.
We’re also experimenting with some other methods. For these methods, stop feeding them for a week or two before harvesting. One method is to push everything to one end of the bin, putting fresh bedding in the other half. Then put food only in the new bedding. After a few weeks most worms will have migrated to the fresh end, and you can scoop the finished vermicompost out of the other end. Another method is to put some of their favorites in a mesh bag (like a big onion bag). They’ll migrate into the bag after a few days, and then you can lift them out, gather the vermicompost, and add new bedding.
NOTE: Here's an UPDATE on an EASY harvesting method we've found!
Larger scale operations
Vermicomposting isn’t just for the home. The EPA estimates that about 25% of our waste stream is yard and food waste. Large-scale vermicomposting is an ideal way to process these wastes, and some communities and businesses are doing just that.
Locally, Toad Hollow Farms is developing a vermicomposting facility to complement their existing composting operation. They’ll be selling the resulting "Worm Dirt" as premium compost in addition to their current product line, Toad Hollow Farms Natural Compost.
Can you think of any place that has more food thrown away than a school cafeteria? Some schools have successfully implemented vermicomposting, minimizing waste and saving money. A comprehensive how-to manual called The Worm Café: Mid-Scale Vermicomposting of Lunchroom Waste by Binet Payne can be ordered at www.wormwoman.com.
Worm composting around the world
Many countries around the world are serious about worm composting, both as a way of handling waste and as a way of creating important soil amendments. Here are just a few examples of what other countries are doing.
Vancouver, British Columbia’s Office of Urban Agriculture subsidizes worm bin kits and even provides workshops at the Vancouver Compost Demonstration Garden. Worm composting is an important part of their overall waste-reduction program.
An organization in India has helped more than 2,000 farmers and institutions switch from conventional chemicals to vermicompost. It has also developed methods to convert biodegradable industrial waste like pulp waste from paper mills into vermicompost. Three facilities are producing 30 tons of vermicompost each month from this type of waste.
Cuba, with reduced availability of imported fossil fuels, pesticides, and fertilizers, has made earthworms a key to their agricultural sustainability. Cubans have found that vermicompost performs better than protein for animals.
Japan has three 1,000 ton per month facilities that vermicompost the wastes from pulp and food processing companies. The sale of vermicompost and fish bait helps pay for these operations.
More than just a hobby
We think worm composting is fun, but it’s more than a hobby. It’s part of our stewardship of the earth. For us, it represents respect for natural processes and an appreciation of the need to care for the finite resources of the earth. Our 10 pounds of food scraps a week yields a yearly total of 500 pounds of material that is transformed into life-giving compost that enriches our soil instead of being added to landfills. There are about 178,000 households in Onondaga County. If just 1,000 of these households do the same, it would represent more than 200 tons a year! Perhaps you can be one of the thousand!
To learn more . . .
If you want to know more about vermicomposting, read the classic book on the subject, Worms Eat My Garbage by Mary Appelhof, otherwise known as "Worm Woman." The Onondaga County library system has multiple copies of this book, and it’s also for sale at Baltimore Woods. As a former biology teacher, Ms. Appelhof provides a lot of fascinating information on the process as well as a wealth of practical information. It can answer any question and solve any problem you might have.
Believe it or not, there is a multitude of websites on the subject as well. For example, Cornell has a website that has useful information. You’ll be able to find many others.
