Topic: Adding worms to compost - good idea?

[sally_cinnamon]

I have just got a compost bin from the the council about a month or two ago and it is beginning to fill up nicely (okay, so the bottom is covered!).  I just wondered, I have lots of regular earthwormy type worms in the garden - would it be a good idea (and would the worms mind) if I relocated some into my compost bin?  I've read that they help break it down? ???

[sandersj89]

The worms you need are brandlings (small and red), not standard earthworms. With time they will find the bin of their own accord but you can add brandlings if you wish. You can often get them at your local fishing tackle shop as brandlings are used for bait.

HTH

Jerry

[tim]

In my Dalek bin, they soon filled it.

But the expensive, bought in things in a new, bigger bin, did nothing that you would notice.

[sally_cinnamon]

Thanks guys, think I will go for the time and patience option! ;D

[MikeB]

You can capture brandlings, to collect the worms, place a piece of corrugated cardboard on a grassy area, put a brick on top to stop it blowing away.  Leave for a week, pick it up and turn it over and you will find brandling worms on the underside.  They are attracted by the glue in the cardboard, put worms in compost and replace cardboard in a different spot.

[artichoke]

When I'm digging I keep a bucket for worms and tip them all into my compost bin at the house, which is mainly kitcchen waste. When I turned it out last week (after about a year) it was crammed with vigorous leaping worms. I don't think it matters what sort of worm you put in as long as you put in lots. It's wonderful how they multiply in the bin and get going on all the nasty kitchen rubbish we put in, turning it into the authentic crumbly brown stuff.

[Common_Clay]

I don't think it matters what sort of worm you put in as long as you put in lots.

As far as I know, earthworms will not cope with household waste as it's far too rich for them (hence the use of brandlings).

[artichoke]

Well, I promise it is ordinary earthwoms that go into the bin, that they multiply, and that they seem extra active and happy. They get veg trimmings, tea leaves, leftover rice and other things (not meat or bones), a few weeds and bits and pieces from small back yard, egg boxes... and seem to love it.

[sand]

My local fishing shop doesn't stock brandlings, they said you have to dig them up yourselves(?) but they did sell me tiger worms - little red wriggly things that soon dissappeared down into the depths of the  compost bin.

Is it me or does anyone else have an irrational revulsion to the compost heap?  Don't get me wrong, I love the stuff that comes out at the end but I cannot stand looking inside, that job is my husband's I'm afraid. 

Yuk.

Sand

[artichoke]

It's my husband who can't bear anything to do with the compost bin - he hates the bucket under the sink (behind a door) and the sink tidy that initially catches the veg trimmings. I have pointed out to him that the stuff in the bucket is more or less the same as what we swallow, but it doesn't help. I love it.

[redimp]

Seem to remmber researching this last year and discovering that tigers are in fact brandlings by another name.