I get to have a worm bin in the basement!

[so lucky]

ksacres, you wouldn't need to spend the money for a special container for worms. A rubbermaid tote, as described by Ariel72, will do just fine. To harvest the compost, if you aren't too worried about losing a few worms or eggs, this method works pretty well: About two weeks before you want to take compost out, stop feeding your worms. Make sure there is not still a bunch of uneaten food in the bin. They will just redigest their compost if there is nothing fresh to eat. Then after a week, give them something they love, like half a baked sweet potato, cut side down, or half a rotton peach, cut side down. They will all migrate to the tasty food, and congregate there within a week. The rest of the bin will have few worms in it, and you can take compost out to use. You will see a few worms, but not nearly as many as if you didn't do the feeding routine. Experts say worm compost tea is especially beneficial to the plants, and must be made and used fresh. (Not for human comsumption!) When you use the compost, be sure to mix it with something...soil, leaf mold, dirt. By itself, it tends to get hard and inpenetrateable by water, if it dries out. Kinda like spagnum peat moss does.

 

[backintime]

Have you ordered your worms yet? I've always raised Eisenia Foetida (red wigglers) but they are REALLY tiny for fishing, unless you are using them to catch small panfish or trout. I just got 500 Eisenia Hortensis (European Night crawlers) from Speedy Worm online for $38.00 and they arrived super-healthy. They are an AWESOME size for fishing - much larger than red wigglers, and about half the size of a Canadian night crawler. I was worried they wouldn't produce as much "output" as the wigglers, but the bin is just LOADED with castings and it's only been a week now. Be sure your bin is ready at least a week before you order worms. Bedding nice and moist, a light layer of rotting food under the top inch or two of bedding so there is some microbial activity before the worms arrive. Otherwise, it's like they're sitting down to a nice restaurant, only the food isn't ready! Hee hee. I love having my worm bin in the basement. No odors - just earthy - but watch out for fruit peels which can harbor fruit fly larva. Either stick to veggie scraps, or freeze your fruit scraps and thaw before adding to the bin - it'll kill any fruit fly eggs.

 

[so lucky]

If you always bury the fruit scraps you put in, there won't be a problem with fruit flies. I did accidentally bring in some roly polys with some rotting leaves. They are multiplying in the worm bin, but don't seem to be hurting anything.

 

[RickF]

We've actually got a bin like the one shown in this link which is where we got it.. It works well as long as you take care of them.. Our first batch died when we had some issues at home with people being in the hospital,etc.. We've since bought another batch of worms from the farmers market and are slowly repopulating the bin. I suspect, if I tried, to get sufficient worms to sell, we could probably sell them locally if we wanted. They seem to sell for about $15 for a small container.. I've used some of the castings in the past but never made worm tea from their castings.