Gnats in my worm farm

by Nicolene La Grange
(Parow)

Hi There

I have a big problem with my worm bin. It seems to be a breeding ground for gnats.

How to i manage this?

Another problem I have is the fact that there is no worm tea at the bottom tray after more than a month.

What am i doing wrong?


Answer:

Hello Nicolene,

nice to hear from you.

First of all I am sure you are doing a good job with your worm farm and you will become an expert worm composter in no time.

Fungus Gnats - are members of the fly family.

Their black slender body distinguishes them easily from Fruit flies that are more plumb.

Gnats are attracted by fungi and moisture and can be often found in and around compost heaps and worm bins.

If you want to reduce the number of gnats in your worm farm
try to reduce the moisture level on the surface area of your worm bin but be careful and remember that worms are breathing through their skin and need a moist environment to live in.

Another thing you can do to reduce the amount of gnats is to reduce the levels of food that you add to the worm farm. Your worm farm is still young and with time your worm herd will multiply and you will be able to recycle more food waste in your bin.

We never really had a major problem with gnats and if some of them appear from time to time we usually just ignore them.


The reason why you don't see any liquids in the bottom tray of your worm farm is due to the fact that worms don't pee. They only produce poop which is called worm castings.

To produce some liquids in your worm farm you will have to add some water to the system. You can pore about 1 to 2 liters of water over the surface of your worm bedding. The water should ideally be without chlorine. If you don't have access to pond water or borehole water, fill a bucket with tap water and let it stand in the sun for one or two days.

The water will add needed moisture to your worm bedding and the excess water will absorb nutrients from the worm castings in your worm bin and you will be able to collect them in the bottom container half an hour later. There is some more information about worm tea and worm leachate on our pages.


Kind regards and happy worming

Stephan
Editor of
www.worm-composting-help.com

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Nov 15, 2014
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by: Stephan

For more information on worm composting go to the site map of www.worm-comkposting-help.com and look at the many articles that are there to make your worm farming experience fun and easy.

Kind regards

Stephan
Editor of
www.worm-composting-help.com

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