There’s Ants In My Worm Farm! (13 Scary But Common Worm Farm Questions Answered)
G’day Green Thumbs!
“There’s Ants In My Worm Farm!” Gah, don’t worry.So you’ve gone to all the effort of setting up a successful worm farm and then suddenly you’re in the backyard wondering all these common worm farm questions!
We will help you get rid of the ants and save your worms.
It’s hard to know sometimes if it’s ok to find other little bugs and grubs in your worm farm. You might have maggots in your worm farm or fruit flies in your worm farm. Perhaps your worms are escaping or drying out?
There’s many questions you might have, especially if you are just starting out on your worm farming journey. Don’t stress, we’ve covered 13 Common worm farm problems today.
My husband has been a horticulturalist for over twenty years and I am passionate about educating children in the garden.
Scroll on down and we trust your burning worm farm problems will be solved.
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Table of Contents
There’s Ants In My Worm Farm! Is This Bad?
Ants live in most normal garden spaces so a few ants here and there are nothing to worry about. However if you have a large ant infestation in your worm farm they will be eating your worm food, and also could be killing your worms.
If your worm farm is positioned right near an ants nest you can easily relocate it and try and prevent more ants moving in.
If you only have a couple visible ants you can manually pick them out.
If there’s more than that you will want to read on for some easy and natural tips to get rid of them.
How Do I Get Rid Of Ants From My Worm Farm Without Using Pesticides?
Great question, you will not want to use pesticides to try and kill your ants as you will also kill your worms! We recommend the following natural solutions to getting rid of ants in your worm farm.
- Add moisture. Worms can breathe in damp spaces and in water. Ant’s cant! We recommend flushing your worm farm till water runs out of the tap. Ants will try and escape, or they will drown. Your worms will be unharmed.
- You can sit your worm farm legs in little buckets of water. This should prevent ants making their way up and into the farm.
- If this isn’t stopping them, rub vaseline quite thickly around the bottom of your worm farm legs. They won’t make it through the vaseline!
- Cut the worm scraps up smaller to speed up the decomposition process.
- You can halt feeding for a week or so, your worms will be fine but the ants will be looking for greener pastures!
Is My Worm Farm Too Hot?
If your worm farm gets too hot, your worms can die.
You’ll know if your worm farm is getting too hot because the worms will all move down to lower layers, seeking cooler areas.
Worms basically like a comfortable temperature (much like humans) so if they feel too hot they will slow down on eating and therefore won’t produce the castings and worm wee you’re after.
In order to keep your worms cool enough, don’t position the worm farms in full sun. Especially not in our hot Australian summers. You can move them to a shaded area if you need to.
Ensure you keep moisture in the worm farm. Give it water every now and then to keep the soil moist and cool.
If your worm farm is a dark color, consider putting a light cover over the top of it (like a polystyrene lid) to deflect some sunlight.
It’s important not to add too much food in the summer months as your worms have likely slowed down their digestive process and too much food can create heat as it decomposes.
Is My Worm Farm Too Wet?
Look, worms don’t mind moisture. So wet is ok. You just don’t want pools of water or puddles.
If there’s water pooling and it can’t drain away it can cause your worm farm to become anaerobic. This means there is no more oxygen available and it’s bad news for your worms!
If you feel like your worm farm is too wet there’s a few actions you can take.
- Check your drainage and turn the worm wee tap to open.
- Add more dry bedding like shredded paper, cardboard or straw
- Stop watering for awhile
- Add less foods with high water content (like cucumber)
There’s Other Pests In My Worm Farm, Is This Ok?
It’s super common to find fruit flies in your worm farm, maggots in your worm farm, slugs in your worm farm and many other little critters.
This is honestly not a huge problem as they all aid in the decomposition of food waste.
We individually pick out slugs when we find them but maggots and fruit fly we don’t consider to be a problem.
If you don’t fancy these insects, bugs or mites in your worm farm you can usually deter them by ensuring food waste is cut up small so it decomposes faster.
Covering your food waste with worm bedding also helps.
If you keep your worm farm generally well maintained and your lid is secure you shouldn’t have too many pesty pests inhabiting it.
My Worm Farm Is Stinky! What Do I Do?
If you’re catching a whiff of something stinky as you pass by your worm farm it means you have too much decomposing matter in there.
You are probably over feeding your worms. There’s a few ways to overcome this.
- Stop feeding them for a little while and let the food that’s in there break down.
- Operate two or more systems so that you can rotate where you put your scraps
- Place bedding, newspaper or cardboard on the surface and dampen.
- Mix the food waste in to the soil to help it break down faster
- In warmer months, worms slow down their consumption so feed them less when it’s hot and you shouldn’t experience any unpleasant odors!
If you think you’re feeding them the correct amount and your worm bin is still stinky it probably is too acidic.
If your PH levels are too low (below 6 or 7 generally for worms) your worm farm or worm bin will smell vinegary and rotten.
This is why it is generally recommended not to add too much acidic food to your worm farm such as citrus fruits.
To balance out your PH levels and get rid of the stench you can buy alkaline products safe for worm farms from specialized suppliers, bunnings, or most garden nurseries.
Remember, a healthy worm farm smells earthy, not stinky!
I Can’t Get Any Worm Tea, Why?
If you’re turning your tap to open and no worm tea is coming out it could be one of two reasons.
- You have a blocked drain!
- Your worm farm is way too dry and needs some moisture
Luckily these are both simple worm farm problems that are easy to overcome.
- If you have a drainage issue you will know, because your worm farm will collect water in the bottom level.
This can be quite detrimental to your worm farm if you don’t solve the problem. Stagnant water in your worm farm can become anaerobic and your worms can die.
The easiest way to solve a draining issue is to identify where it is blocked and then flush the tray or tap with a hose to clear the blockage. Generally it would just be a build up of worm castings so should flush easily.
- If the lack of worm wee is because your worm farm is too dry, you need to add moisture. We usually add a layer of bedding and then wet it down with a shower spray on our hose.
Alternatively you can add water to a spray bottle and spray until you’ve reached a desirable moisture level.
Remember, worms can breathe underwater so don’t stress too much! They’ll be fine if you flush your farm with water.
My Worms Are Escaping, Help Me!
If it’s a new worm bin, worm farm or just new worms they might try and escape.. Give it a couple weeks and they’ll adjust to their new home.
If you have just a couple brave worms setting out for adventures. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t act if there’s minimal escapees.
However if your worms are charging out of their bin in droves, there’s something they aren’t liking. Usually it means they’ve run out of food or air or sometimes even the opposite, too much food!
There’s a couple of ways you can deter them from doing a runner.
- Adjust their environment accordingly. If there is a lot of surplus food, remove some or turn it into the soil. If there’s not enough, add scraps more regularly.
Hot tip! Schools, daycare centers or old folks homes will usually happily keep scraps for you to collect and use!
- Put a light source over the top of the bin. Worms naturally bury back down away from light so this can keep the wiggly adventurers at bay.
So there you have it folks!
13 of the top worm farm questions, answered. We hope you’ve learned a bit more about vermicomposting, worm farming and some common worm farm problems.
Ultimately worm farming is quite forgiving. Usually there’s already eggs and babies even if something does affect the adults badly. Keep an eye on your colony. Try and keep the food consistent and your worm farm at a balanced PH.
This will all help to keep your worms healthy and happy and reproducing. And by now we all know, happy healthy worms give you the ultimate return. Nutrient rich worm castings and worm wee to really push your garden along.
As always, we’d love to hear from you and welcome you to our growing community. You can tag us @kidsthatdig.
Don’t forget! Read more on worms here Worm Castings Vs Compost, Which Is Better? (Our Verdict in 2022!)
So, Let’s Get Digging!