my worm farm has cockroaches in it

by Beryl Triebe
(Brisbane Queensland Australia)




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...

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Oct 01, 2023
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starstarstarstarstar 		Roaches in the bin? Here's the solution...(sort of)
by: Anonymous

There is no way to prevent roaches from entering your worm bin. Diatomaceous earth does NOT work because worm bins are moist, which moistens the DE and renders it useless. Once you have the buggers, you are stuck with them. Ask me how I know. I had to get rid of my enormous worm bin because of this. Roaches are not easy to get rid of in general, but trying to get rid of them without harming the worms is futile. We kept a roach free bin for YEARS, then it was our COMPOST bin that drew roaches for some reason (again, years roach-free), and once they were in the compost bin, they spread all over the garden, living in the SOIL (nope. they don't need 'food' scraps to survive on. they can live on organic matter in the ground), and the only way to get rid of them from the compost bin and the garden was to completely douse it with boric acid. For your information, boric acid is not some insanely toxic substance. It's actually used in vaginal health care. You obviously don't want to eat it or breathe it in because it's a fine powder, but it's not like some massively toxic substance that will kill anything including you. I know this because jewelers us it DAILY in their work, touching it, torching it, and none of us die from it. It's a naturally occurring substance, and it kills roaches like nothing else. However, your worms will try to escape the bin if you try to put it in there with them, or sprinkle it on their food to try to kill the roaches. My advice to you is to learn to live with the roaches, or 86 your worm bin. Because once you have them, especially if you live in a warm climate, there is no getting rid of them without getting rid of the worm bin, the compost bin, and then taking to the yard with boric acid in all the cracks and crevices you can find, and sprinkling it in various areas of soil/dirt. If you can do this, boric acid will destroy any colonies because what happens is, one of them gets it on its body, and because they are incessant groomers, they lick it and die, then other roaches cannibalize the body and THEY die, eventually wiping out the whole colony (any any colonies your neighbors might have). Boric acid does not break down, so, it's a perpetual cycle, and once you target and kill all of the colonies, if another colony tries to move it, they will come into contact with the boric acid since it never disintegrates or deteriorates. Use it sparingly around plants, but in small doses, all that is required to kill roaches, it won't affect your plants. And unlike diatomaceous earth, it does NOT need to stay dry to work. If you can do this, spend the better part of a year getting rid of the roaches for good, you can try to start another worm colony, this time making sure you contain it to prevent roaches from finding it again. The idea of putting it on legs and then keeping a tray around the bin constantly dusted with boric acid should do the trick. But be vigilant with the boric acid. Do prevent any dogs from coming into contact with it however. You don't want them ingesting it! Hope this helps. I'm sorry for anyone who gets roaches in the worm bit. It's a bummer.
Dec 09, 2020
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starstarstarstarstar 		Re: Cockroaches nesting in worm farm
by: Stephan

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. Pore some water over your worm bedding to make it wetter for a while. The roaches don't like the moist environment and should try to escape the worm farm.

2. Place bay leaves in and around your worm bin as roaches seem to be repelled by it.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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?
Dec 08, 2020
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starstarstarstarstar 		Cockroaches nesting in worm farm
by: Colleen

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?
Aug 27, 2019
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starstarstarstarstar 		How to get off the cockroaches from my worm composting
by: Ana Maria

I like to know what I can use to kill cockroaches in my worm composting. Please help
Jan 29, 2019
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starstarstarstarstar 		Re: cockroaches in worm farm and other questions
by: Stephan

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

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