Red Wiggler Worm Harvesting

After 8 months in the same media I determined it was time to harvest worms out of the two worm beds I had started in order to provide new bedding material for the worms to grow in.  I had read somewhere that you really need to provide new bedding for your worms every three to six months as worms, like people, do not like to move around in their own poop. So I set out to harvest both worms and castings for use in some of my potted herbs. I had to build a worm sifter in order to separate the worms from the castings. I did this by building a frame out of 2x2 lumber and attaching 1/4" hardware cloth to it using staples.

This proved to be labor intensive as the smaller baby worms would fall through the openings after each load of material was sifted and I would have to pick them out of the castings. Larger worms were not an issue and usually stayed on the wire mesh after which I could dump them into a 5 gallon bucket. This took me approximately 8 hours to finish using my sifter, and wheelbarrow as a catch all.

I was able to retrieve approximately 3 lbs of worms from both beds, which was good considering that we have had 100+ degree days and the soil in the beds was rather warm.

That being said, I made up two fresh beds using peat/sphagnum moss and newspaper, layering both several times. This built up media accounted for about 1/3 of the plastic tote.  I came to find out that as a new bed the worms would try to leave; and out of one bed they did just that.  I came back after 3 days only to discover that one of my beds was completely devoid of worms, they had crawled out. Lesson learned, shine a light on the opening of the bed 24/7 for several days to keep them in until the worms get used to the new environment. I also, lost about half of the worms out of the other bed, but I have enough to continue with my composting. I will probably build a larger outside bed next spring and purchase more worms.

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