Red Wigglers reproduce quickly when the environment is ideal. Access to food needs to be steady. The temperature should be maintained between 55 degrees F and 79 degrees F., and the moisture level should remain consistent. The bin or café is their home, so conditions need to be favorable for reproduction. Egg stage to mature worm is about 3 months. Ideally, your Red Wiggler population should double every three months.

There is no specific number of worms that are considered too many in vermicomposting bins. When worms multiply to a specific density according to your bin’s size, their reproduction rate reduces. The result is a maintained population level that does not exceed what is manageable for your worm bin, café or other system.  

When worms die in the bin, their bodies decompose and are recycled by other worms, along with the food scraps. However, if all or a majority of your worms die, you must clean the bin, evaluate what happened, and start again. Connecting online with worm bloggers is a great way to learn from situations other worm farmers have experienced.

To the worm beds, add chopped vegetables that have begun to decompose. Also add fruit waste, tea leaves, and moderate levels of coffee grounds. Chopping the fruits and veggies enables the worms to voraciously feast. You will discover composting worms do not like raw onions and hot peppers. There is a debate about citrus. If you are feeding combinations of vegetables, some citrus is okay to mix in. Don’t feed citrus by itself because it’s too acidic.

DO NOT feed your worms any of the following: meat, dairy, bones, grease, human feces, pet feces, or horse feces.

The Red Wigglers will eat 25% to 35% or more (up to 100%) of their body weight per day. Using this information, one pound of composting worms will roughly eat 1.75 to 2.45 pounds of food per week. While you are getting used to your worms, check on them to see how fast their food is disappearing. Feeding one time per week is an easy schedule. (Check the specific directions on your worm system about where to place the food within the bin or tray.) If you have additional appropriate food scraps, you can feed more often, but do not over feed. Overfeeding will result in a food pile up and start to smell. This event will also negatively affect the worm bin pH.

Because Red Wigglers have no teeth, it’s common practice to give them a little extra help to digest food. Various organic matter with a gritty texture, such as eggshells and coffee grounds, is added to the worms’ food. During digestion, the worm’s gizzard breaks down the food into smaller particles. The rough texture of the grit makes this process much more efficient. As what goes in must come out, Worm Nerd’s Premium Worm Grit is a nutrient-rich, proprietary blend that not only aids in worm digestion, but helps maintain pH levels and vastly improves the resulting worm waste loved by plants.

You can use eggshells; they just won’t translate into the same level of elementally- and minerally-rich worm castings and tea. Eggshells must also be washed and left to dry completely or put into a low temperature oven and then pulverized. Eggshells add calcium and reduce acidic levels. If you use eggshells, add ½ cup of the eggshells to your worm bin every few weeks.

Worm Nerd’s successful worm farming operation uses the Premium Worm Grit because that’s what works best for our worms. The grit is special because of the proprietary formula in which it’s made: volcanic rock and other rock dust elements collected from around the world are blended, forming a nutrient-rich mixture with a neutralizing pH effect. The blend contains 77+ minerals and elements that pass through the gut of the worm and result in pure, superior quality castings and tea. Spreading the Premium Worm Grit on top of the food helps it to break down faster so it is readily accessible to the worms. This proprietary blend of grit enables us to provide extraordinary worm products purchased for safe and productive gardening.

Add moisture to your composting worm beds by using a misting or light spraying method with non-chlorinated water in frequent applications. (Chlorine kills the living microbes, bacteria and fungi that are necessary to accomplish everything you are trying to achieve with the worms – such as superior castings.) You never want to pour water into a worm bed because worms breathe through their skin. Don’t drown your worms. The worms are epigeic, shallow feeders, so it’s best to keep moisture near the top where worms are. Worms prefer to be moist, not wet.