Homemade Wooden Worm Bins

Homemade wooden worm bins--shallow containers designed for composting kitchen scraps with the help of red wiggler worms--offer advantages to commercial versions. You can design your own bin to fit a specific area of your home. Salvage the wood from a construction site or a discarded pallet. Wooden worm bins offer better insulation and ventilation than plastic bins. Use your ingenuity to match materials to an appropriate design.

  1. Size

    • Fine-tune the size of your wooden worm bin based on the amount of kitchen scraps you intend to compost. For every pound of waste produced weekly, you̵7;ll need 1 square foot of surface area for your worm bin. Mary Appelhof, author of ̶0;Worms Eat My Garbage,̶1; recommends weighing your kitchen scraps for three weeks to deduce an accurate weekly average. If you find you generate 6 to 8 lbs. of compostable garbage a week, a bin 2 by 4 feet will provide the needed 8 square feet of surface area.<br /><br />Appelhof recommends creating a box no deeper than 8 to 12 inches to allow worms to feed on the surface and maximize air exposure, thus minimizing anaerobic conditions. Other plans developed by agricultural extension services go slightly deeper, to 16 inches.

    Materials

    • Use a 4-by-8-foot sheet of exterior-grade plywood for the bottom, lid, sides and ends of the worm bin. Appelhof recommends against using treated woods due to chemicals that may affect the worms and the finished compost. Alternatively, use rot-resistant redwood boards or a cheap dismantled pallet for the sides in lieu of plywood.<br /><br />Numerous extension services have provided plans (see Resources) to create a shallow box that efficiently uses a single sheet of plywood. The sheet can be cut to create a simple lidded box 16 inches high by 2 feet wide and 4 feet long. Create a base and lid 2 by 4 feet, sides 16 inches by 4 feet, and ends 16 inches by 24 inches. Trim two-by-fours to create cleats and screw them to the inside corners of the sides and ends. Cut additional cleats to fasten the resulting box to the base and to align the plywood lid on the box.<br /><br />Variations include shallower wooden boxes that can be stacked in the style of commercial worm bins (see ̶0;DIY Stackable Worm Composter̶1; in Resources). These can be 6 inches deep, separated by a ½-inch hardware cloth screen that allows worms to migrate upward as they fill lower boxes with finished compost.

    Ventilation and Drainage

    • Drill about a dozen 3?8-inch drainage holes in the bottom of the bin. Construct legs to raise it above the ground or mount the bin on bricks. ??Monitor your bin for adequate ventilation after you have added bedding, scraps and worms. If you notice an excessive odor, add three ¾-inch holes in each of the sides and ends, covered by 1/2-inch hardware cloth. Add a plastic sheet or tray underneath to collect any leachate that drips from the bin to prevent damaging your floor.