Emma Cooper

A tray of finished worm compost from the Can-O -Worms

When I went out to feed the worms some kitchen waste this morning, I discovered that there had been a breakout. Worms are not the brightest of creatures, and when it rains they head upwards. If they find a way out of the worm bin in the process they will crawl out – even though most of them will be freeze dried before they make it to safety or can be rescued.

Rain aside, when a settled worm population starts trying to get out of the bin it usually means that there’s a problem with the environment. My problem is that I don’t know which of my two wormeries they tried to escape from. So I decided to stop putting off cleaning out the worm bins and just do it.

I have long since stopped trying to rescue every single worm when I empty the bin, and started trying to ensure that I just leave a viable population. The worms in the Can-O-Worms are supposed to move upwards through worm compost, leaving finished compost largely empty of worms. Unfortunately, mine don’t seem to have read that memo.

The Can-O-Worms has a tendency to collect sludge in the bottom, which I had to wash out. I put it on my garden compost heaps, where it will add nutrients, act as a compost activator and be a nice new home for the composting worms that were living in the sludge.

The Can-O-Worms is easy enough to empty if you don’t try and separate all of the worms from the compost, and since any unfinished trays just get stacked up again, it’s very easy to get it going when you’ve finished.

The Waste Juggler after emptying

I hadn’t tried emptying the Waste Juggler before (which is saying something when you consider that I began using it in February 2006) and it was getting quite full. It also stopped draining a few weeks ago, which is definitely something to sort out.

The Waste Juggler is one large container, so I took off the top few layers where the worms were still working (and congregating) and put them aside. I then dug out a considerable volume of worm compost and put that into an old dustbin where it can stay until I need it. There were still worms in the finished compost, but the majority had come to the surface and been rescued.

The worms and compost in a Waste Juggler are held in a porous plastic sack, so once I could lift it I simply emptied it out. I then drained off the remaining liquid, made sure the tap was working and put the whole thing back together with the worms and kitchen waste I had put to one side. Easy peasy.

So now I have two healthy worm environments, a bin that is mostly full of worm compost for use as and when I need it (it’s nutrient rich and not to be wasted) and a few more litres of worm ‘tea’ (hubby calls it worm wee!) to use as liquid fertilizer in the spring.

By the time I finished I was covered in sludge. It doesn’t smell, but it’s very grubby stuff!