LET WORMS EAT YOUR GARBAGE

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SETTING THINGS UP

Your home vermicomposting system will require a worm bin . . . some bedding . . . one or two handfuls of soil . . . a sheet of black plastic to cover the surface of the filled bin . . . a bathroom or utility scale . . . a gallon jug . . . a large plastic or metal garbage can (for mixing the fresh bedding) . . . and, of course, the worms.

Once you have your materials, you'll need to prepare the bedding by adding the proper amount of moisture. A worm's body consists of 75°7o to 90°7o water, and its surface must be damp in order for the animal to breathe. If you prepare the bedding with approximately the same moisture content as the worm's body, then, you'll alleviate any stress caused by a too wet or too dry environment.

It's easy to get 75°70 moisture with any dry bedding: Weigh the material, put it in the clean garbage can for mixing, and add three times as many pounds of water as there are pounds of dry bedding. It took 5-113 pounds of dry bedding to set up the 8" X 2' X 2' box shown, so this required 16 pounds of water. (Since the old saying "a pint's a pound the world around" is close to accurate, this weight is roughly equal to 2 gallons.) Once you've watered your medium, add one or two handfuls of soil to it to provide grit for the worms' gizzards. Then mix the whole thing until the water and soil are well distributed throughout the bedding, and toss the entire contents into your worm bin.

Next, dump the worms on top of their freshly prepared home and gently spread them around on the surface. Worms are photosensitive, so they'll gradually move down into the bedding to avoid the light. Once they're "gone", dig a hole in the bedding large enough to hold the amount of garbage you want to bury. Drop the leftovers into the opening, spread about an inch of bedding over it, and then place a sheet of black plastic on top of the surface to retain moisture and to keep out light. From then on, rotate burial spots around the bin whenever you add more garbage (I bury mine about twice a week).

UNDESIRABLES

Adding large quantities of meat and bones may present problems in a worm bin because such substances are likely to create a good bit of odor . . . which is not only disagreeable, but apt to draw rodents to the box. However, small amounts (plate scrapings, for example) can be incorporated without fear. Be sure, of course, to keep out anything nonbiodegradable, such as plastic bags, bottle caps, rubber bands, foil, glass, or sponges. And if you have cats, set a screen or other shielding device on top of your "wormstead" to prevent the felines from using the bin as a litter box!

Active worm bins have little or no noticeable odor. The light, fluffy bedding . . . the aeration holes . . . and the presence of earthworms all help to make oxygen available to the decomposer organisms that assist the worms in breaking down the organic waste into humus. However, if conditions occur to prevent oxygen from circulating, other (anaerobic) organisms take over . . . and their end products smell quite unpleasant. If this happens, add more bedding, try to increase air availability, and don't put in any more waste for a while. Assuming that the worms survive the trauma, the situation should, given time, correct itself.

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