How to Raise Red Worms for Composting

Red worms, more commonly known as red wigglers, adapt well to indoor worm bins. Unlike nightcrawlers, which make deep burrows in the earth, red wigglers in the wild nestle in leaf litter, manure and the top few inches of topsoil. Thus you can raise them in shallow boxes or totes, where they will happily munch your kitchen leftovers and convert them into castings (worm poop). These castings contain minerals and valuable bacteria content, and are much more valuable to your plants than regular compost.

Things You'll Need

  • Worm bin
  • Kitchen scraps
  • Bedding
  • Red wiggler worms
  • Spray bottle with unchlorinated water
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Instructions

  1. Raising Red Worms

    • 1

      Set up a worm bin, either homemade or commercially made, about a week before your red worms arrive (typically by a mail-order supplier or a neighbor who practices vermiculture). Place the bin ideally in an area of your home where the temperature stays in the 60s. Add bedding such as torn newspapers or cardboard and junk mail and envelopes with the plastic windows removed.

    • 2

      Place several cups of kitchen scraps in the worm bin as soon as you set it up. Allow bacteria to begin to break down the scraps so that the scraps and the bacteria themselves become food for your red worms.

    • 3

      Place the worms gently on the top of their new bedding, removing them from their packaging and spritzing them with water that you have let sit overnight in an large-mouthed container to remove its chlorine.

    • 4

      Keep the worm lid on firmly so that the worms can explore in darkness. They are photophobic and need dark conditions to thrive. If you need to check on them, do so at night with a piece of red cellophane acting as a filter on a flashlight. Keep a work light on at all times near their bin to deter the worms from escaping and exploring.

    • 5

      Feed the worms two to three times a week. Keep your kitchen scraps in the freezer until feeding time. The freezer temperature breaks down the scraps' cellular structure and makes it easier for the worms to eat with their small mouths.

    Harvesting the Compost

    • 6

      Stop feeding the worms temporarily in the lowest tray or tier of your compost bin after three to four months. Feed the worms in the middle and higher tiers only.

    • 7

      Harvest the compost from the lowest tray or tier of your compost bin after the worms move to the areas with the newest food.

    • 8

      Dump the contents of the lowest area of the bin system on a sheet of plastic, piling it into mounds and skimming the top and sides of the mounds for worm-free castings.

    • 9

      Return any worms and undigested compost to the worm bin.