Green Living
toadstool
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Composting with worms
in Green Living
If you compost with worms...
How did you make your bin?
Where do you keep your bin?
How do you deal with flies if you keep your bin indoors?
Do you find that it's as easy and hassel free as a non-worm compost pile?
Re: Composting with worms
1. The blog post with directions for how I made my bin is gone, so I'll explain the best I can. I have two Rubbermaid totes with holes drilled in one of the lids, and both of the bottoms and top few inches of the sides. The non-drilled lid is on the ground, then one bin with a brick inside, then the active bin (with my worms and compost) and then the lid. When I'm ready to "harvest" the compost, I'll switch the position of the two bins and start putting food scraps in the empty one; the worms will come up through the holes, leaving me ready-to-use compost.
We keep it outside by the trash cans.
Not indoors, so I ignore the flies.
I've never had a non-worm compost pile, so I guess I can't really say. I have killed two batches of worms, though...the first got really hot due to where the bin was located at our old apartment, and the second I left out on the sunny porch for a few hours just after buying them. I felt terrible both times!
I made a bin from a biggish rubbermaid
I keep it in the laundry room now that I have one. Previously, it sat beside the kitchen cupboards on the dining side. Not gorgeous, but practical.
If you bury the scraps, you don't get flies. It doesn't have much of a smell - it smells like damp earth when you open it. I've never really had a problem with pests.
Right now, I actually have both. My worm bin could never keep up with our lawn and garden scraps now that we have a yard. The outside pile takes longer to break down. The upside is I can throw whatever I want into it - the worms are a bit pickier. I decided to keep the worm bin going to use in the winter. I know I could just let my compostables freeze on the pile outside, but it seems nicer to keep the worms going.
I went to a seminar on worm composting with a friend but I haven't tried it yet. The instructor said the same thing about temperatures...you need to keep them cool. He suggested putting the rubbermaid bin on a concrete garage or basement floor. In our cold climate you can't keep a bin outside or they would freeze. Like the pps said if you bury the scraps you shouldn't have a fly problem. The speaker had an traditional outdoor compost pile and he said the worm compost he was able to "harvest" twice as fast as the outdoor one. HTH.
I made my bin out of a large rubbermaid bin and a drill. No holes in the top, lots on the sides. there are lots of websites that teach you how to make your own. I keep it on the patio. In my 5 years of composting, I have had two insect outbreaks: Had an ant outbreak once, fixed it by adding lime. Had a fly outbreak once, fixed it by adding more newspapers. Never had a smelly problem.
GL!