I put tiger worms in my compost bin which is a plastic barrel with a tap in the bottom will they be OK? I Can't see any and the recently added scraps don't look touched.
dannydonut,
Oct 11, 4:27am
How hot does your compost bin get? Could you have accidentally cooked them?:(
instantly,
Oct 11, 4:33am
not very hot it is haded for part of the day
dannydonut,
Oct 11, 4:42am
When you say it's a compost bin, do you mean you are adding grass clippings? Or is it a worm farm? Because as soon as you add grass clippings, it will become a compost bin- and they get really hot, regardless of whether they are in the shade or not. A successful compost bin will generate heat. Or perhaps if you added too much green stuff you may have caused composting to happen, as opposed to adding just enough food for the worms?
owen106,
Oct 11, 4:46am
Thrilled National has recognised worm farming as a high risk activity.
dannydonut,
Oct 11, 5:01am
Oh that's right! Maybe the worms are in hiding, planning an attack?
paix1,
Oct 12, 2:08am
I would NEVER put grass clippings in my worm farm (I have one with the tray for worm castings & tap for worm tea at the bottom.) Worms don't like being cold but they don't like being too hot either. I have mine in a place in total shade, and feed them only stuff like peelings, old fruit & veges that are past their use-by date (I cut them up), banana skins, tissues etc. I have gazillions of worms. I keep my compost bin for green grass clippings, small branches, shredded paper, a bit of untreated sawdust and add a sprinkle of lime every now & again. Just emptied it yesterday and had enough to use on most of my gardens (excluding vege garden - already done that)
wendalls,
Oct 12, 5:19am
I read that the worms can't eat scraps till they've decomposed to quite some extent, which is why they recommend chopping up scraps as small as you can be bothered. If it got hot they would dig down wouldn't they. ? Hope there was somewhere cooler down there.
peter148,
Oct 14, 6:52am
Worms take a while to get started, they need a wet environment, but one that free drains into a container out the bottom of the unit. You can give them a litre of water a day or a lot more if it is all green weeds and grass clippings . Don't give them green compost, give them food scraps, coffee grounds and watermelon skins. Also give them the fluff from your washing machine and vacuum cleaner to give them something to lay their eggs in. They won't live well on green compost, but they will help add to the nitrogen biomass when you go to recycle it.
bluefrog2,
Sep 1, 5:09pm
Worms in your compost pile will be somewhere towards the bottom, and centre of the pile. If you turn the pile, you'll find them in the black, well rotted stuff. They don't usually come to the top to get food scraps. Worms in a worm farm bin hang around just under the food scraps because a worm farm is designed to compact worm castings (worm poos) towards the bottom of the bin. Use a garden fork to stir up the scraps on top, and you should find worms around the area between the starter soil and the food scraps.
EDIT: Also, if your compost pile is too new, without enough well rotted stuff, the worms may temporarily migrate elsewhere. They'll come back again later. With a new worm bin, the worms will try to escape. Weigh down the lid for a couple of weeks and check every evening to see if worms are trying to get out.
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