Worms escaping into bottom bin?

by Wynand
(Villiersdorp Western Cape)

Hi There,

I have two worm farms running. The one I bought, the other home made. The one I bought has been up and running for about a year now and the second one for about 4 months.

I have, in the past 2 months, noticed that my worms, in both farms have a tendency to escape into the bottom bins and end up in the worm tea. Some of them drowned but I check on a daily basis now and most days I recover worms from the bottom bin.

It stated with the new bin first and I thought I had made to many holes in the bottom. I've been contemplating taking everything out and placing a piece of mesh (Shade cloth) on the bottom to still allow the liquid to drain but the worms will not be able to escape.

The bins get some afternoon sun. Could it be that they heat up too much?

I cover the surface with cardboard or newspaper which I keep moist by spraying it with water every morning.

Why is this happening? Are my bins overcrowded or am I doing something wrong?

Regards
Wynand

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Aug 23, 2024
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starstarstarstarstar 		Re: Worms in the tea bin in large numbers
by: Stephan

Hello,

generally, compost worms love to stay in the upper regions of a worm bin and only a few might end up occasionally in the bottom bin of a worm bin.

To prevent worms from migrating into the bottom bin you might want to place a few pages of old newspaper over the holes in the bottom of your worm bin but if larger quantities of worms escape through the bottom of the bin this is usually a sign that there is something wrong and the conditions inside the worm bin bedding are possibly harmful to your worms.

Can you send us a picture of your worm bin and explain a little more about the kind of worm food you are adding? Are there possible unwanted invaders inside your worm bin like Black Soldier fly maggots which will cause the contents of the worm bin to become soggy and force the worms to either leave to the bottom of the bin or escape out of the top of it?

Has the content of your worm bin become too acidic?

Is it overheating?

There could be quite a few reasons for the worms to migrate downwards, so the more information you give us the better the chances we might be able to identify the problem.

Let us know and we will try to assist you further.

Kind regards

Stephan Kloppert

Author of "How to Start a profitable worm business on a shoestring budget"

Editor of www.worm-composting-help.com
Aug 18, 2024
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starstarstarstarstar 		Worms in the tea bin in large numbers
by: Anonymous

Hi! I've had my worm bin (homemade) for about 4 months now.
Recently, I've noticed that there are large numbers of worms in the tea bin. I drained out the tea bin a few days ago and got all the worms back in the bin with the compost.

Today, I checked again and there were at least 50 worms in the tea bin again. Is there something wrong with my bin?
Sep 21, 2016
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starstarstarstarstar 		Re: Why are my worms escaping into the bottom bin!
by: Stephan

Hello Wynand,

it's great to hear that you got 2 worm farms going and are part of the worm composting community for some time now.

Although compost worms are usually feeding near the top of their worm bin they are moving nearly constantly through their bin and it is not uncommon for a few of them to end up in the bottom tray of their worm bin that is meant to store the worm tea. Worms do breath through their skin and are able to live for quite some time submerged in water or worm tea as long as the liquid contains enough oxygen. Good ways to prevent worms from drowning are to make sure that most of the produced worm tea is drained of as soon as possible leaving only a little of it in the bottom tray. An easy way to achieve this is to place bucket underneath the tap of the worm bin and leave it always open. This way there won't be any build up of worm tea inside the bin.

Alternatively one can place some stones or a brick in the bottom tray that will act as a safe island for worms should they be stranded for some time in the bin with a lot of worm tea in it.

To reduce the number of worms that will crawl into the bottom bin its a good idea to cover the floor of the bin that is containing the worms with one or two sheets of newspaper, which will still let the excess liquids drain into the bottom tray but will act as a barrier for the worms. Shade cloth could obviously do the same job as long as the mesh is fine enough. Worms can squeeze themselves through tiny openings if they get a chance.

Morning- or afternoon sun should not be a problem as long as there is enough bedding inside the worm bin to shelter the worms should it really become very hot.

Moist cardboard or newspaper are good as as covers of the worm food. They act as natural barriers against unwanted pests, keep the food and bedding longer moist and allow the worms which don't like light to crawl right to the top of their food to feed.

As long as there are only a few worms ending up in the bottom of your worm farm you shouldn't be alarmed but if they migrate in big numbers into the lower parts of your worm farms it could indicate that there is something wrong inside the bin and you might have unwanted visitors like black soldier fly maggots in your bin.

But the way you described your set up and maintenance of your worm bins it sounds as if your bins are running smoothly.

If you need more information have a look at the article

https://www.worm-composting-help.com/starting-a-worm-farm.html

and some of the other articles that can be found in the "worm composting basics section."

Kind regards and happy worming

Stephan Kloppert
Author of "How to start a profitable worm business on a shoestring budget"

Editor of www.worm-composting-help.com

Regards
Wynand

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