Now, regarding what to do with your current system. Apart from the fact that the worms need oxygen, the flow of air into and out from the system can help to prevent any toxic gases (such as ammonia) from building up.

Finely chopping everything up, freezing it, letting it age for a period of time (mixed with bedding) in a separate container, and mixing with “living materials” (earthy-smelling mostly-decomposed stuff like leaf mold, compost etc) can all help.Īir flow is another important consideration – especially if there isn’t enough bedding in a vermicomposting system (since bedding tends to encourage more air movement) and you are using some sort of enclosed plastic bin. If food scraps are ending up covered with a lot mold when there are plenty of worms in the system (not sure if this was the case with you, but worth mentioning anyway) it typically means too much has been added at once and/or it has not been optimized for being processed by the worms. Very often with new vermicomposters there is a tendency to add too much food and/or not enough bedding, which can lead to the deterioration of the worm habitat before too long – especially if you continue to add more food. If the worms have mostly disappeared on you it likely means you have not provided them with ideal living conditions. What is wrong? Where did my worms go? I started with a full order. I just checked my worm bin – been going for about a month – and the food scraps are molding and I see some flies and only a couple of worms.

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