Are My Worms Too Dry?
I know, I know, that sounds like the worst kind of click bait headline, designed to lure you into a swamp of ads with some kitty videos on top, BUT…. In fact, this is a very real issue that has come up a lot lately, and may cause your colony to die out or, at the very least, fail to thrive. I’ll give you the bottom line before we get to the TL;DR blah, blah, blah…. - WETTER IS BETTER!
In general, it’s always better to err on the side of adding too much water vs. too little. In any kind of properly designed worm bin, any excess water will drain out through the bottom. You can’t ever really drown your worms, as long as you have drainage holes in the base and you check the catch basin occasionally to be sure it’s not flooding up over the level of the base. In fact, your worms can actually live for quite a while even completely submerged in water, as long as there is oxygen in the water.
The number one reason why worm colonies fail is drying out. Believe me, I’ve had plenty of customers come back to buy more worms and sheepishly tell me, “I kinda forgot about ‘em and they were dried out and dead when I looked!” I know it’s hard to believe when you’re all excited about your new project and are checking your bin religiously every day, but in reality, plans go wrong, life happens, and worms die.
Just like in humans, worms will die if they don’t get water regularly, and the bigger hazard is long term dehydration. Over the course of time you’ll be throwing in some food waste, covering it with some paper and giving it a little spritz of water. That’s great, but if you consistently under water, over time the bin will dry out and you might not even notice until it’s too late. In general, the bigger and more mature a colony is means that they will have a reservoir of nice, dark, moist soil/compost to retreat to when things get dry, but new bins are especially vulnerable to dehydration because they have no place to go yet.
Recently I had a client call to purchase worms. After some probing, I discovered they wanted the worms to add to a bin they’d had for a long time because, “…there’s just not a lot of worms on top when I look in…” I explained that just adding more worms to a colony that was fading would not solve the problem unless the underlying problem was fixed. In this case, it was a hanging cloth bin and very little or no leachate was dripping from the bottom, and I suggested that they try adding more water and let the water drip! Sure enough, they called a week later and said water did the trick and the worms were back up to the top and working away.
In another case, it was a new colony and the client was worried that there were hardly any worms left in the small amount of bedding and food waste. After digging around in the bin, we could see there were still some worms hiding in the bottom crevices where there was still some moisture. I advised adding a lot more bedding and adding a ton more water.
Just remember, more water is always better than too little! Feel free to reach out to us if you have questions or concerns about your your existing (or future) worm colony.
