1 Vermicomposting Part 2

In Part 1 I covered how to get started with your vermicomposter and how to harvest it.  So let's talk about what problems you may run into and what you can do about it.

Fruit Flies

Place a jar with beer in it beside your vermicomposter. Make a tightly wrapped cone out of paper (with a very small hole in the center) and place this over the opening of the jar. Fruit flies love beer so they will come away from your vermicomposter and travel down the cone of death into your jar of beer. When the fruit flies are all gone just empty the jar out.  You can also try my apple cider vinegar and dish soap method. 

To prevent fruit flies from returning to your vermicomposter make sure that you cover the food completely when you add it.

Mold

If you have mold in your composter it is because you have too much moisture. Remove all the mold from the composter, including any foods with mold on them. To soak up the extra moisture add thin, dry strips of newspaper to your bin. Rotate the bedding in the bin.

To prevent mold growth ensure you don't add any additional moisture when you add your food scraps.

Odour

If your vermicomposter smells it is probably because you have not buried the food properly, have too much water build up in the bottom or the composter is being overloaded. To get rid of the odor drain any water that has accumulated in the bottom (make sure you don't lose any worms!) rotate the bedding and cover all of the food.

Overloading

If you find that your composter is smelling and food is not breaking down fast enough stop adding food to the composter so your worms have a chance to "catch up". They just need to let that top button out before they continue on with the buffet!

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