Your worm farm should smell as sweet as a Richard Marcs love song, be a writhing mass of wrigglers happily munching through food and be free of any form of little black flies.
If your worm farm is full of smelly, slimy uneaten food which is attracting hordes of little black vinegar flies your worm farm needs a makeover.
This video will show you how you can quickly fix it up so that it becomes a lean green wriggling composting machine.
Trickiness rating: Easy
Fact Sheet
Fact sheet
If your worm farm isn't operating at peak performance or your worms aren't winning awards at the local show check out these trouble shooting ideas and check out the video.
- Too hot: Move to a well shaded area. Cover worm farm with wads of wet newspaper or some wet hesian or carpet. They like to be cool.
- Too wet or too dry: Worms breath through their skin and need their world to be moist. Make sure their bedding material is damp but not dripping wet. If too wet add dry leaves, straw or newspaper. if too wet add wet leaves, straw or newspaper.
- Too much to eat: Feed worms enough food for them to get through. If they are not eating it quickly it starts to ferment, turn acidic and attract little black vinegar flies. Worms don't like acidic conditions and don't eat this food. Remove the slimy stuff and refeed them with a small amound of frest scraps. You can also add eggshells or garden lime to get the pH balance right.
- Wrong food: Don't feed worms onions, garlic, citrus, acidic foods (pineapples, salads with vinegar dressing etc) meat or dairy. They will eat almost anything else.