The natural environment for a worm is happily burrowing through the fertile ground or hungrily digging through a local manure pile. Putting them in a box and then harvesting their castings is not natural. They do adept well to a composting environment if the worm composter follows a few basic rules.
The most common reason to call on the worm composting troubleshooting guy is because of odors. If your bin has too much wet green waste it will start to produce nitrogen to speed the breakdown. The nitrogen combines with free hydrogen and the result is ammonia, a highly pungent chemical the smell of which will burn your eyes and sting your nose.
The cure is simple. Cut back on the food, remove the old food and add more bedding to absorb the liquids. When adding new food material add it deep in the bedding. The bedding will help absorb some of the odor and it will keep the food smell away from predators.
If your worms start climbing the sides of the bin to get away from the bedding and the food it is another job for the worm composting troubleshooting guy. Worms leaving the bin will be caused by the conditions not being right for them in the bin. First check the holes in the bottom to insure that the bin is draining properly. If the moisture seems alright, the bedding may be too acidic. A common cause of this is citrus peels or other acid food. The cure is to add some garden lime and cut back on the acidic treats.
The worm composting troubleshooting guy says that white fly problems can be annoying at least and a nuisance at worst. Always bury the food in the bedding to keep the white flies from having contact with it. If that doesn’t work try covering the bedding with a sheet of plastic or some old carpet. Spiders are great white fly catchers and eaters. Encourage a few to take up residence in your bin. If all else fails, move the worm bin to a place where white flies will not be a problem.
Rodents need not be a problem says the worm composting troubleshooting guy if the worm food is put in beneath the bedding material. The bedding will mask the order of the food and keep the rodents at bay.
Did you notice a trend here? Most of the trouble that might be associated with the proper handling of the food. Always putting it under the bedding material will alleviate most of them.
