How to Create a Worm Farm
If you want a natural and organic fertiliser or soil conditioner for you garden then you can’t beat worm castings. It’s the easiest way to have a successful organic garden. Worm castings are rich in soil nutrients. They significanctly improve the soil structure as well as increasing its water holding capacity. Regular use of worm castings in your garden will result in stronger, healthier, more drought resistant plants.
For best results, worm castings, or worm compost, should be placed around plants and then covered by mulch. Worm castings can also be mixed with water to produce a liquid fertiliser which works well when sprayed on flowers or vegetables during their growing season.
Vermicomposting is the perfect way to turn your household waste into something useful. Vegetable waste, animal droppings, and other organic waste can be turned into high quality soil. The great thing about vermicomposting or worm composting is that it’s really easy to set up, it’s low maintenance, and it doesn’t require a lot of space.
The easiest way to set up your own backyard worm farm is to buy a ready made plastic worm farm. These are available at most garden centres but can also be purchased at a subsidised rate from some local councils. You can make your own worm farm using broccoli boxes but these ready made ones are really convenient and enable you to get started quickly.
Place the worm farm in a cool area of your garden, out of direct sunlight. Place a few sheets of newspaper in the bottom of the worm farm and then half fill it with moist soil or compost. Add around a 1000 worms (depending on the size of your farm) and then add some vegetable scraps to get started. Always cover the organic matter you add with a couple of sheets of newspaper to create a balanced compost. If you don’t add newspaper your vegetables may rot and create a very strong odour. Something your neighbours are unlikely to appreciate.
As the worms munch through the food you give them, you will be able to remove the worm ‘juice’ and use it on your garden as with any liquid fertiliser. Once the worms have finished doing their thing in the lower bin, remove it and place the compost on your garden and then place the empty bin on top of the worm farm so you can start adding more food scraps.
The following items can be placed in a worm farm and converted into worm castings:
- fruit and vegetable scraps
- egg shells
- grass clippings
- leaves
- cut flowers
- coffee grounds
- shredded newspaper
- sawdust
- wood ash
Items to avoid:
- meat
- fish
- dairy
- oil
- bones
- animal droppings
A worm farm can provide you with a constant supply of free fertiliser. It will also reduce the amount of rubbish you throw out which would otherwise end up in landfill. It is an easy way to help the environment and your garden.
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Please can you help me. I have a plastic four tier worm farm and recently it has become infested with cockroaches. I have nice healthy worms but these cockroaches are everywhere. Can i use cockroach baits without killing my worms, can you please please help me John
There are a couple of things you could try to get rid of the cockroaches.
1. Make sure your worm farm has a lid on it or else cover it with a hessian bag.
2. When you put vegetables in the worm farm, cover them with a few sheets of newspaper and then put the lid on firmly.
3. You might have a lot of cockroaches as your compost is too acidic. Try adding water and lime and see how that goes.
4. Avoid putting meat and dairy products in for composting as they can attract pests.
To get rid of the cockroaches without using baits you could try a 1:1 mixture of baking soda and sugar. Spread it around the worm farm. You should see a reduction in cockroaches after a few days and hopefully they’ll be gone in a couple of weeks.
Hello:
Two questions. (1) What would be the minimum depth of material to place in the box? (2) Do worms go into somethink like hybernation during colder weather?
Thank you
Hi Larry,
I would think you’d want at least 10cm of material to start with but it’s not really important. Just put whatever food scraps you have into the worm farm and add to it every day or two. It’ll soon build up and your worms will be happy!
As for worms in cold weather… From what I’ve read, worms like their soil cool and moist so depending on where you are located they should be fine as the temperature drops. However, if it gets really cold you might want to move your worm farm to a warmer, protected area and cover it with carpet or something similar to retain warmth.
Continue to feed the worms during winter as this will encourage them to stay active.
Worms may go into a type of hybernation known as estivation but I don’t know too much about how that works.
Hi!
I have recently aquired a worm farm, it had a lot of water in the bottom part which I have drained through the tap into a bucket. Please tell me how to use the water as fertiliser…do I need to water it down?
Thanks
KJ
Kiren - you can use the ‘worm juice’ directly on most plants although you might want to water it down for use on seedlings.
If in doubt, just use a little at first and see how that goes.
hey- im about to start up a worm farm out of an empty foam fruit & Veg box.
do i just add soil from the garden?
can i just add short thick garden worm about 50 of them and let them breed?
wen i put the scraps in do i just lift up the hesain bagg and put them on and then put soil over the top then in a week do the same thing?
I WANT MY WORM FOR FISHING
Matthew - so you want to start a worm farm to breed worms for fishing, rather than to get the worm castings for your garden? I haven’t heard of someone doing that before!
To start with, I’d advise against using a foam box and instead recommend a purpose built worm farm. This will give you better control of the farm and the worms. This way you can remove the worm castings from the bottom and then put more scraps on the top.
If you have worms in your garden then, yes, you can use them.
I suggest putting the scraps on top of the worm farm, then a couple of sheets of moist newspaper and then put the hessian bag back on.
hey- thanks andrea for the info. we just decided to buy a worm farm box thingo so mum can have her fertilize stuff and i can hav worms for fishing.
Hi, concerning the “3 door composting famiily bins”, How does one collect the “juice”?
also could you give me some comparison benifits/negatives between the ‘Bins” and the ’stacker stand type of Theworman.
I only have a small garden area and can’t decide which would be more suitible for me. .
Thankyou,
Nick
Hi Nick - some worm farms have a tray at the bottom which collects the worm juice. You can pour this into a watering can or others have a tap which you can turn on to get the juice. I prefer the kind with the tap.
If you have a small garden then go for something which won’t take up too much room and is reasonably priced. So long as your worms are well fed and taken care of, they’ll produce worm compost and you’ll have plenty of fertiliser for your garden.
Hi, is it okay to take out some worms from the worm farm, like if there’s too many, and put them in my garden?
Of course, that’s fine. You must have a pretty healthy worm farm if you have so many worms. Care to share your experience?
Hi,
I’ve had a worm farm for about 6 months but the worms are eating really slowly. I’m pretty careful to stick to the foods they eat. Also, I now have an iflux of soldier fly maggots so it’s become more like a maggot farm. I’ve tried putting lime on them but there’s always new maggots after a few days and I’m conscious of putting too much lime in the farm. It’s a can-o-worms farm so it has a lid. Do you have any suggestions of how to get rid of the maggots and help the worms to eat more efficiently?
Thanks
Naomi
Naomi - do you have any meat or dairy products in the worm farm as these can be a cause of maggots.
Try adding a few layers of moistened newspaper between layers of food and see if that helps.
As for the slow eating, you might just need more worms. Maybe buy a plastic bag full of worms and add them to the farm and see how that goes.
Let me know if you have some success.
Hi,
I also have a massive cockroach problem with my worm farm and it was suggested to use a mixture of 1:1 baking soda and sugar “around” the worm farm. Is this inside or outside the worm farm??
Thanks
Kim
Outside, around the base of the worm farm. Let me know if it works for you.
Hi All
I too have a worm farm / compost that has been invaded by Maggots and like many others of you I don’t put meat scraps in the bin. I haven’t tried to get rid of them yet as the lime doesn’t seem to work and I too am conscious of over doing it with the lime. The compost book I got with the work bin suggests loaves of bread soaked in milk placed on top of the food then when it is full of the maggots through this out after 2 to 3 days. Apparently the Maggots love the bread and all go into it instead of the other food in the bin. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Thanks Bree
That sounds like an interesting solution. I’d love to know if it works or not.
Hi.
I found this website after trying to find problems with my worm bin. I do not use meat or dairy, but there are a few maggots in there. I have also noticed that there are less worms, but there is still plenty of food. Would maggots start killing the worm population even when there is plenty of food?
Plus, on another website, I read that the maggots will simply go away after a period of time. Is that true? If so, when would that be.
Thanks
I think it makes sense that the maggots will disappear over time. Give the worms a chance to do their job! If the worms are producing worm castings then everything is fine. Don’t worry about the maggots.
When you put food in the bin, cover it with a couple of sheets of damp newspaper and forget about it.
I’ve never noticed maggots in my worm farm but I’ve never really looked into the bin to see what is happening. I’m sure there are often maggots in there but seeing I always cover food scraps with a couple of sheets of newspaper, I probably just can’t see them.
I think everyone should forget about the maggots!
The point is to end up with some nutrient rich worm compost for your garden. If your worms are producing that (which takes time) then there is nothing to worry about.
Thanks for the heads up.
It’s hard to simply forget about the maggots, because they are quite disgusting.
What I am actually going to start doing is get a bigger bin and make holes that are covered with an old shirt. I think that will take care of the issue since the maggots are coming from the flies.
THanks
what kind of worms do i need to get started?
how many per square inch?
thanks for the help.
reading the other comments have already been really helpful. look forward to hearing fron you.
You need composting worms which are different from regular worms which you might find in your garden. There are 3 common types of composting worms. You can use Red Wrigglers, Tiger worms or Indian Blues. This may vary depending on your location.
You can get the worms from garden centres or worm farmers. You should be able to buy your worms online.
Start with a bag of worms as they breed fairly quickly. The number of worms should double in size within 3 months or so.
Don’t add too much food at the beginning as the excess food will just rot. You can add more food as the worms start to breed.
If you start to see pests such as flies, maggots, and slugs, sprinkle a little lime top of the worm farm but don’t worry too much about the pests.
I hope this helps.
Hi everyone,
An update on maggots - I have placed a piece of hessian over the scraps underneath the lid. Whilst there are still a few maggots and flies, it has significantly reduced the numbers in there!! It also seems with less maggots, more worms are coming to the surface to eat.
I’ve limited the amount of lime I’m putting in since too much lime can cause very basic conditions which could affect the fertiliser going onto plants.
Hope this helps people having similar problems!
It looks like covering the worm farm with a hessian bag or newspaper is the key to getting rid of or limiting the maggots.
Thanks for the update Naomi. It’s much appreciated.
Sounds like a great idea. I will try the hessian bag and lime and let you know how it goes.
Thanks
TIm
I’ve got a round plastic worm farm and it was doing really well but now there are heaps of spiders in there and the food doesn’t seem to be getting eaten. I don’t know if the spiders are eating the worms. Thanks,
I have had my wormfarm for about 10 years now. The pests come and go, slaters, small spiders (they breed very well in there and I just take the silky egg sacs out and throw them away, it keeps the population down), those tiny white worms (which incidently my fish love to eat), a few slugs and cockroaches and of course the ants will always try to populate any area where there is plenty of free food.
None of the pests bother me. I just pick a few out now and then. I get plenty of worm juice and the castings are great for the garden.
Hi
I live in Darwin in an apartment, we are starting to grow some herbs and veges on our veranda, and want to do something with our food wastes.
Would a warm garden be okay on a deck, what are the chances of all these potential insects crawling inside
from a kiwi who is only just realising how big insects can get
Tania
Hi,
I’ve had a worm farm for 5 years and it’s doing really well. In the last few months though it has become infested with red back spiders. I have tried removing them and the egg sacks, but they keep reappearing. Other spiders don’t worry me, but because they are dangerous I want to get rid of them. Does anyone have any ideas?!!
Thanks, Tahnee
Tania,
I think the best way to find out if you can have a worm farm on your deck is to try it and see how you go. I suspect it’s not a good idea but it won’t hurt to try.
Tahnee,
Red Back spiders love dark, warm, dry places to live so it’ll be difficult to get rid of them. I think the best option is to wear protective clothing and gloves when you use the worm farm.
Don’t worry too much, Red Back spider bites are rarely fatal
Good luck!
We have a worm farm with a tap at the bottom. The worm juice used to be clear and black and we’d get about 1 litre each week. Over the last few weeks, production has dropped off (500ml per week) and the tap seems to be blocked by little white bugs (?vinegar fly maggots) just about 2-3 mm long.
Are these vinegar fly maggots?
What do I do to clear this problem up?
Maybe it just needs a good clean to unblock it?
I seem to have lots of tiny white wrigglers - are they harmful? Also have got fruit fly when I tried to add the 2nd level and forgot to keep the hessian top matting damp. How can I get rid of the fruit fly?
hi, ibought a foam worm kit from bass pro shops with a pack of canadian nightcrawlers. it wasn’t soil it was some kind of mixture ofpaper or somthing. but i had enough moisture and everything it was plenty of food. but nats got in there and the worms dissappeared. oh , wat is worm casting
Hi, I have just started a worm farm and am too having problems with vinegar flies. Millions of vinegar flies are in and around the worm farm and there are so many maggots - mainly in the bottom bin where there should be worm wee. Should I dispose of the maggots? How? Also as I have given the farm leaves from my veggie garden which must have had cabbage moth eggs on them and so, there are now lovely green caterpillers living in the worm farm. What would you suggest I do? Do these need to go too? I am unsure of the lime you talk about - is that a powder you get from garden centre or is it the fruit?
Thanks
Well at least I feel better knowing I’m not alone with these issues. I also thought I had maggots, however, they never turned into flies they seem keep growing and are white up to 1.5cm L & a few mm width - what are these? Will lime do the trick? I have wet newspaper over the top layer & they seem quite comfortable in between the paper layers. They are always at the top.
Re: the lime question - yes go to a garden center & they will be able to help you (not the juice of the fruit).
I still feel that if your worms are eating and producing worm castings then you don’t need to worry about anything.
I keep finding my worms in the bottom, liquid collecting layer of my worm farm. I scoop them out and put them in the top, but they always end up back there. The farm is exposed a little bit to the rain, but I don’t think it’s enough to wash them down there. Any suggestions?
I have just started a worm farm. I have a tray to collect the liquid and then another tray on that which I lined with 3 sheets of newspaper and then a bunch of shreaded newspaper….all a little damp. Then I put the worms in and then some scraps ontop….then the lid.
Firstly, do I need to add soil as well or will the shreaded newspaper do?
Secondly the worms seem to either climb up to the lid or a load are in the bottom tray….am I doing something wrong? Some worms are in with the food but doesn’t look like they are eating much?
Any advise is greatly appreciated.
Hi Brett, glad to see another person setting up a worm farm.
I think what you need to do when starting out is:
* Place a few sheets of newspaper in the bottom of the worm farm.
* Half fill it with moist soil or compost.
* Add around a 1000 worms.
* Add some vegetable scraps to get started.
* Cover with damp newspaper.
I hope that helps.
Not sure if what I have is strictly a worm farm (more a compost bin) but I’ve seen questions similar to mine posted previously and I just wanted to see if the same suggestions apply…..I have one of those rectangular compost bins where the waste is in contact with the ground and there’s a lid that sits on it loosely and some side panels that open where we get our compost out of. We don’t really stir our compost - basically just add scraps and grass clippings to the top. We don’t use any hessian
Last night I went to the compost bin to dump our kitchen scraps and got totally freaked out by the top layer of the compost being entirely covered deeply by cockroaches. Here’s my questions:
- Is it possible I have a cockroach nest in the compost bin?
- With what I regard to be an extreme infestation of cockroaches - is adding lime into or around the compost really likely to get rid of them?
- Do I need to start again?
- Although we do get a yield of compost out of the bottom I’ve never actually observed worms - should I add some?
I’ve had a Can O Worms worm farm for about 2 months now mainly because I needed to dispose of my kitchen waste as I live rurally and don’t have a garbage collection service. I have had a soldier fly infestation and my worm population has dwindled dramatically. The maggots seem to be doing a more efficient job of reducing the waste though (they eat EVERYTHING) and I don’t care who’s eating the scraps as long as it doesn’t smell and the farm is still easy to maintain. Are there any reasons why I couldn’t just leave them to reproduce and have a maggot farm? (I know that sounds gross) Do they still produce something I can safely put on my garden? Do they have a limited/seasonal life span? What sort of impact will this have on the environment regarding the adult flies produced? Or should I remove them and start again?
Lori, a maggot farm? Hmm, I’m not sure that’s a great idea.
I don’t really know what to say but if you are willing to try it then why not and just see what happens. Record your results and let us know in a few months what the result is. Good luck
Hi
We have a worm farm but I want to know if it is ok to add kitty litter to it? We use the type that is pure lockyer Valley rolled pellets anyway - would be a great way to recycle cat waste!
Joanne
Sorry - that is rolled pellets of lucerne hay!
It’s not recommended to place animal droppings in a worm farm.
Andrea I never got a response from 7th Jan 08 entry?
I suggest you double check that you are adding the correct kinds of materials to your compost (see original article) and that you follow the standard method of covering your scraps with damp newspaper and hessian bags.
Also try adding a couple of handfuls of lime every now and then.
Plus as suggested previously: To get rid of the cockroaches without using baits you could try a 1:1 mixture of baking soda and sugar. Spread it around the worm farm.
Maybe stop adding food scraps for a while until you see a reduction in the number of cockroaches.
Hi RE: REDBACK SPIDERS ON WORMFARM, I recently read spiders in general hate lemon so i have made up a mix of rind/juice and water and sprayed it around the doorways and windows and outside toys and it seems to be working. maybe you could try that on the redbacks.
Hi,
A really good way to increase your worm population is to get a watermelon and put an entire slice whole in the top tray or the current feeding tray. The worms will love it and swarm to it, everytime they touch they procreate (make babies). I buy local watermelons for $4 and cut strips out of the middle for the worms. I started with 500 a year ago and now have well over 10,000 worms.
Redback spiders like a dark DRY spot, if you add wetter products it should disturb the redbacks, even pouring 1 litre of liquid into the kitchen scraps and adding to the worm farm should frustrate them enough to drive them out. The other benefit of this is you will get more worm wee for your plants.
Great tips Aaron!
So who’s going to try the watermelon thing and report back with their results?
I’ll try the watermelon and let you know.
Hi I’m in a community gardens. And we have a worm farm in a bath tub. I have recently check the worm farm and there is no worms. But lots of cockroaches and spiders. I just want to know. Can cockroaches and spiders eat the worms.
Hi,
I have read the above posts and am concerned about the small white jumping insects that have infested my worm farm. They are present in the worm ‘wee’ and previously when I have put this on plants believe that they may have killed the plant. There are thousands of them, and since they arrived the number of worms has reduced dramatically.
A friend suggested that they might be white fly - which I have heard is bad for plants, I am scared to use the worm wee in case it kills plants, and am trying to decide if I should start again.
Any suggestions if I should start again or try and get rid of them. I have tried lime in the past and am worried that I am using too much - as this also seemed to reduce the number of worms.
Suggestions welcome…
Thanks,
Carly
There is good news, the cockroaches are omnivores, they dont generally eat anything that can fight back. As in they will eat dead meat and vege scraps. John I am just wondering how much paper / cardboard you have in your wormfarm as this creates the ideal conditions for cockroaches. They like to hide whilst having something touch both their feet and backs, as in a crevice. You might want to just take all the coverings off the worm farm (depending on the tempature and weather in general in your area) for a week or so. The worms will dive down to the lower trays and the cockroaches and spiders should move on to another dark spot.
good luck
let us all know if it works as I have not had this issue (yet) and may need it myself one day.
Carly.
You could be talking about a sprintail, they are great to have in compost bins but not generally in worm farms as they will eat the same food source the worms do. However they like a wettish (is that a word?) environment. So you could do as I suggested for John and let the bin dry out a little, the springtail from my assumptions cannot dig and therefore would not survive on the dry surface. Give it a go, the worms will be in there somewhere and whilst it may take a little while to get the population back up it is still better than starting all over again.
Sorry Andrea, I feel like a tyrant…. taking over
)
however I love the worms and what they can do to help fix what us humans have done to the earth. (bet you cannot say that sentence five times
I’m more than happy for you to take over
I have never had most of the problems described here so I can only give limited advice.
Your help is much appreciated!
Aaron,
Do you have any advice about soldier flies?? I know they are also meant to be beneficial to the breakdown of waste but they have invaded my worm farm. The worms have moved deeper into the farm and do not come to the surface any more. When I put waste in there is an immediate influx of soldier fly larvae and it appears they are the only things eating the scraps. I don’t mind that so much but I wanted to use castings on my plants and the soldier fly larvae do not leave castings. Also, my worm farm has been invaded by ear wigs. I have tried leaving a container of vegetable oil to attract and trap them. It worked a little bit but not efficiently enough to erradicate the problem. Any suggestions are most welcome!!!
Thanks
Naomi
hi
i’m in NZ - and have a “can of worms” set up. I have lots of worms but they just don’t seem to want to move up the layers. The bottom layer looks like pure worm cast - dark brown and quite moist - but still lots of worms. ?any suggestions to get them to move up?- might try the watermelon trick. Am i over feeding? do i just need to pick them all out and put them in the next layer?
Naomi,
Nice can you send some my way. Soldier flies actually break down scraps quicker than worms, their deposits / castings are then eaten by the worms making vermicast. I have never had these however, thinking about it they would most likely speed up the breakdown process. Can you clarify this? Basically from what I have read they will just disappear in time so just leave them be if you can.
Earwigs,
Is the bin dry. Keeping a moist bin will reduce most bugs and critters from the bin.
The soil in the bin should be like a moist cake (apple and cinnamonbut without the icing as this will attract ants), this is the ideal environment for the worms and you will have very few “unwanted visitors”.
One thing I have not been doing is adding carbon to the bin, as in leaves and roughage for the worms. This will aid the bacteria which the worms feed on and love, it also helps reduce the unwanted critters. The other benifit is it allows you to bury the food scraps under a pile of leaves (dry leaves are better as they are carbon rich, where as green is nitrogen, think of the compost bin). This masks the smell of rotting scraps and reduces the attraction to / for fruit flies and the like.
Pumpkin is also very good for the bin, worms love it as much as watermelon.
Please let us know how you go Naomi.
Really interested in your observations of the soldier fly and how fast they break down the scraps.
They are ugly, they are creepy but they are good.
Angela,
Is the bin in the sun, mind you it is winter their now, was thinking it might be getting too hot for them and they are keeping in the depths out of the heat. Surprising enough this can happen in extreme cold as well. What are you putting in the bin?
They will move up in time, maybe the food scraps are not rotting down quick enough, add more roughage to help this and be patient, before long they will be swarming in the upper layers. How long have you had the bin for and what number of worms did you start with?
Angela,
Is the bin in the sun, mind you it is winter there now, was thinking it might be getting too hot for them and they are keeping in the depths out of the heat. Surprising enough this can happen in extreme cold as well. What are you putting in the bin?
They will move up in time, maybe the food scraps are not rotting down quick enough, add more roughage to help this and be patient, before long they will be swarming in the upper layers. How long have you had the bin for and what number of worms did you start with?
This format is great! I am starting a worm farm soon, here in Colorado. I am wondering about problems with flyies and spiders. How do they get in? The worm farm products I’ve looked at seem to have air tight drawers/lids. Thanks for all your help!
Hi Guys
I subscribe to this post and when Aaron mentioned feeding the worms watermelon to increase the worm population i thought i would test it.
I just wanted to report back to every one this really seams to work.
It took a few days for the worms to get started on it but they love the watermelon when I’m feeding it to the worms they seem to all congregate mate and eat i can pick them up by the hand fulls when they are eating the watermelon.
So i thought i would test other fruit as well, they seem to like all the fruit I tested with but nothing like the watermelon in fact seeing them eat it is so neat now i have to fight the temptation to put nothing but watermelon in there
Great tip Aaron every one else i suggest you head to your local markets and pick up watermelon cheap and watch them go.
Have Fun
Bree
That’s amazing that they like watermelon more than other fruit.
Thanks for reporting your results, I’m sure that will help a lot of readers.
I too have tried the watermelon and have had similar results. I was worried about my worms and thought I might have to purchase more, but since trying the watermelon - I have a large population!