Vermiculture, can I just add worms to an already existing compost bin?

[nayeli]

I am looking at buying a lb of worms but I want to ensure the conditions of the compost bin will be okay for them so I don't waste the money and kill them.

I put hay, quail poop, rabbit poop, and vegetable scraps into the bin not to mention any rabbit/quail food that falls down. Will this be okay for them in a rubbermaid tub?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

If it's too toxic (i.e. excess nitrogen, too hot, etc.) the worms will come out of it. Scrape away a bit of the compost, put the worms in and cover them up lightly. Watch it. If they go down, it's OK, If they crawl out, not.

 

[lazy gardener]

Unless you live in the desert, you don't need to buy worms. They will migrate into your compost, and will move about in the pile to be where the nutrients and temperature are right for them. If you want to attract them, put some cardboard down on the ground. They love the microclimate under cardboard!

Last year, my vermiculture died because I let it get too cold. I let it set all summer, hoping that it would come back to life... it only produced one living very tiny little worm. So, when I was cleaning up the fall garden, I found a pile of red worms that had moved into some compost. I scooped them up and put them in my worm bin. They stayed put, and are going strong now. (I had tried harvesting native red worms in the past, and they migrated out of the bin! What a mess that was! I was scraping dried worms off the garage floor for weeks.)

 

[nayeli]

I barely have any worms in my soil actually, and no red worms.

 

[lazy gardener]

If you give them some mulch, they will come! I was just reading a thread on the DIY site about water conservation, and they were telling about a guy in the desert who started using gray water and lots of mulch, and his desert orchard started growing earth worms! Now, here's just an other thought for you. If your soil does not support a healthy population of worms, adding worms won't change that. Otherwise, you'd already have lots of worms. But, if you provide the environment that worms like, the worm population will sky-rocket.

 

[nayeli]

@lazy gardener I have been adding peat humus and I have planted some things... I was asking about an indoor bin, I'm trying to make compost to add into the soil.

 

[lazy gardener]

Got it... Indoors? You're talking about an indoor vermicomposting bin? I don't know if the quail poop would be too hot for them. I think the rabbit poop would be to their liking. I bet if you did a google search regarding vermicomposting, You'd find some answers. I use shredded newspapers in my bin.

If you want to save the expense, and don't mind starting slow, you might go into a wooded area and check under the leaf litter. I bet you'd find a lot of red worms hanging out there this time of the year. It all depends on how quickly you want to get your bin seeded and how big it is.

 

[aggiemae]

Compost gets to hot for worms they will either die or escape out the bottom. I have a worm bin under my kitchen sink. it's just a 5 gallon bucket inside another five gallon bucket. There are some vent holes in the top and a few drainage hole on the bottom of the inside bucket. I brick of tow in the bottom bucket will keep the buckets for sticking together. the "worm tea" will collect in the bottom (out side bucket. Empty it once a week, it's great fertilizer. As long as you feed then the worms will not "escape". Put wet ((not soaking) newspaper in be bottom and add worms, then put you food waste into the can. Worms don't like citrist fruit or onions. read :"worms eat my garbage" for more detail information.

 

[nayeli]

Thank ya'll. I have read up and from what I'm reading they should be fine since my compost is mostly rabbit droppings, hay, and pellets. I have them in 2 gal. totes.

 

[aggiemae]

Give then some crushed eggshells too.