My worm farm has cockroaches in it
Cockroaches are not a danger to your worms. Harvest the castings and check how many worms survived (a couple of hundred is enough to restart), add shredded paper with every feed and keep the food covered, grind egg shells, and deter roaches with bay leaves, lemon peels around the bin, or a moat under the legs.
We eat a lot of eggs and have a lot of eggshells in the top two layers. I, unfortunately, have not been adding paper items to our worm farm when I add kitchen waste (didn’t know about it until reading your website).
Should we start again, empty all layers and buy more worms? There may be a few worms in the middle tray but can’t be sure. I suppose I have not been doing the right thing with our worm farm…
Stephan answered Beryl, and later another reader, Colleen, whose worm farm was overrun. Their questions and Stephan’s full replies are in the reader comments archive below. Here is what he advised, step by step.
What to do, step by step
1Don’t panic: roaches don’t harm the worms
Cockroaches turn up in worm farms from time to time but are not a danger to the worms at all. They like compost for the food and the warm, mostly dry conditions.
2Check the bins and save your worms
Mud in the middle bin may well be compacted worm castings (dark brown to nearly black, holding moisture well). Worms stay near the food, so if the middle bin has had no food for a while, most should have moved up.
Harvest as many castings as you can and look out for surviving worms while you do. If you still have a couple of hundred, start again with them. If only a few are left, it is probably best to get new worms and start from scratch.
3Fix the bedding, moisture and food
Add shredded paper or cardboard with the kitchen waste, and cover the food (a soaked newspaper and a plastic sheet on top work well; see starting a worm farm). Never let bedding and food dry out, and prepare the farm for hot weather.
Grind egg shells before adding them; otherwise they are too large for the worms to swallow.
4Make the bin less attractive to roaches
- Bay leaves in and around the bin; roaches seem to be repelled by them.
- Lemon peels around (not in) the worm farm; don’t rinse them so much that the citric acid washes into the bedding.
- A moat: stand the legs of the worm farm in a large shallow container filled with water mixed with equal parts sugar and baking soda.
5Boric acid: only outside the bin, with great care
Stephan’s warning: boric acid is poisonous. If you use it, only in a shallow container below the worm farm, never in the bedding or food, and keep it away from children and pets.
Stephan never had a massive cockroach infestation in his own worm farms, so these are possible solutions; use the ones that suit your situation, or a combination. Have you tried one? Tell him how it went via the free helpline.
Writing down feeding, moisture and checks each week makes problems like this easier to spot early; the Easy Worm Farming Planner has printable logs for that.
Reader comments (archive) 5 comments from the original page · comments are closed
Add needle granules to your worm bins once a month
Hello Colleen
thank you for your inquiry and I can see your problem.
Roaches can sometimes be found in compost and worm compost as they enjoying those areas for food and the warm and mostly dry environment.
There are quite a few things you can try to reduce or even completely get rid of cockroaches in your worm farm and keep them away from it and or your home in the future.
I will mention a few things below and suggest you use the steps that suit your personal situation the best.
1. Place bay leaves in and around your worm bin as roaches seem to be repelled by it.
2. Place lemon peels around your worm farm making sure you don’t rinse them to much and wash their citric acid into your worm bedding. Roaches dislike lemons and should leave your bin.
3. Place the legs of your worm farm in a large shallow container and fill that container with a mix of water and equal parts of sugar and baking soda. This should make access to or out of your worm farm more difficult and the mixture of sugar and baking soda should kill the roaches that come in contact with it within a few days.
4. Boric acid (IT’S POISONOIS) so be very careful with it. Place it in a shallow container below your worm farm and any roaches that come into contact with it should die quickly. (Once again be CAREFUL with it)
As we never had such a massive cockroach infestation in any of our worm farms before I can only give you these steps as possible solutions to your problem and hope that one of them or a combination of them will help you in your situation.
There are as well other natural remedies mentioned at different sources around the Internet that can deal with cockroaches and might interest you.
I trust that you will manage to deal with those roaches and would love to hear some feedback from you about the effectiveness of the methods you decided to use.
I wish you and your family health and Gods richest blessings.
Kind regards
Stephan Kloppert
Author of “How to star a profitable worm business on a shoestring budget”
Editor of www.worm-composting-help.com
Our worm farm doesn’t have just a few cockroaches in it, it seems to be overrun with them. They have made their nests in there. They seem to find their way from there into the house on a regular basis. We only have a small yard so we can’t move the farm any further away from the house. Plus it’s a rental property so they are becoming a real problem. What can I do to get rid of them? Or would it be better to get rid of it all and start again?
Our worm farm doesn’t have just a few cockroaches in it, it seems to be overrun with them. They have made their nests in there. They seem to find their way from there into the house on a regular basis. We only have a small yard so we can’t move the farm any further away from the house. Plus it’s a rental property so they are becoming a real problem. What can I do to get rid of them? Or would it be better to get rid of it all and start again?
I like to know what I can use to kill cockroaches in my worm composting. Please help
Hello Beryl,
cockroaches can be found in worm farms from time to time but are not a danger for the worms at all.
The mud that you have found in the middle bin of your worm farm might very well be compacted worm castings. Worm castings are usually dark brown to nearly black in color and can hold moisture very well.
It would be quite normal for the worms to be near the layer of worm food in their bin. So if there has been no food in the middle container of your worm farm for quite some time most of your worms should have moved upwards into the next container that is holding food for them.
You can harvest any worm castings that you find in your worm farm even if they are in the bottom container of your worm farm.
Exposure to hot weather as well as dry conditions can be fatal to compost worms that’s why it is always good to prepare your worm farm for hot weather and make sure the bedding and food never dry out.
Egg shells are a good addition to a worm farm but it is best to grind them down. Otherwise, they will be too large for the worms to swallow.
I would harvest as many worm castings from your worm farm as you can and while you do that look out for any worms that have survived. If you find that you still have a couple of hundred worms in the bins start with them again. If there are only a few worms left it would probably be best to get some new worms to start your worm farm from scratch. This happens to many people and I am sure you will be successful next time around Beryl. For some inspirational advice have a look at the articles in the beginner’s guide of worm-composting-help.com. You should find many helpful articles there that might make your worm composting project run much more smoothly.
Kind regards
Stephan Kloppert
Author of “How to start a profitable worm business on a shoestring budget”
Editor of www.worm-composting-help.com
This is an archive of the comments from the original page, shown exactly as published (star ratings dropped). Reader comments are the readers’ own experiences, not Stephan’s advice. Questions? Ask Stephan.
