ARKANSAS DEPARTMENT OF

ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY

AS THE WORM TURNS

INSTRUCTIONS FOR SETTING UP
AND MAINTAINING A WORM BIN

R E C Y C L I N G / M A R K E T
D E V E L O P M E N T B R A N C H
5 0 1 . 6 8 2 . 0 8 1 2

Step 1: Bedding
Moist bedding provides the medium that worms need to
survive. Shredded newspaper is the best bedding mate-
rial because it is readily available and provides excellent
moisture retention. Plus, preparation is simple and fun.

Materials Needed:
• newsprint - colored inks are okay, but don’t use
“slick” paper ads
• cool tap water
• garden soil - do not use potting soil; it is sterile and
may contain chemicals
• bucket or sink for moistening paper
• worm bin, vented for good air flow - an opaque
plastic bin works well if you drill some air holes
Shred the newspaper by:
1. fully opening sheet and tearing it lengthwise down
the centerfold,
2. gathering the two halves and tearing them length-
wise again, and
3. repeating the process until you have strips ranging
from 3 to 1 inch wide.
Fill bucket or sink about half full with cool water and
dunk shredded paper. Remove paper and wring it out.
The bedding should be about the consistency of a
wrung-out sponge.
Fluff wet paper strips and fill worm bin. Paper should be
loosely placed, not packed, into the bin. Sprinkle a
handful of soil over the paper.
Add red wiggler worms to the top of the bedding. It is
best to leave the bin in a lighted area with the top off for
the first 24 to 48 hours until the worms get used to their
new home.
Step 2: Feeding
Worms are not picky eaters. They like most organic
waste but will not eat anything inorganic, like plastic.
They will only eat food after natural degradation softens
it. Do not be concerned if it takes awhile for food, espe-
cially hard foods, to disappear. You can help the process
by chopping or pureeing food before adding it to the bin.
Make sure to bury food under bedding to eliminate
odors and avoid attracting fruit flies and other pests.
Red worms do not have teeth. Instead, they digest food
material in their gizzard. The gizzard needs a small
amount of grit to grind food. That is one of the reasons
you added a handful of garden soil to your bin.
Many variables will affect how much your worms will
eat. For example, they are more active at room tempera-
ture than at 40 degrees. A general rule is that worms
will consume up to half their weight in food waste
per day. If you start with 2 lb. of worms, you can ex-
pect them to eat up to 1 lb. of food per day. Start with
small bits of food until the worm population increases.
Do not overload the system. Overfeeding can lead to
odor problems.
 Let’s Eat! Step 3: Harvesting
Suggested foods for your worms: Before long you will notice increasing amounts of worm
castings. Besides the educational benefits, this is one
Apples Honeydew natural reward for your composting efforts. Casting
compost is the best natural plant fertilizer available. You
Artichokes Kiwi
can compare plants and vegetables grown with compost
Bananas Lettuce to those grown without as another educational opportu-
nity that you can explore with your class. It completes
Beans Molasses the recycling loop and illustrates how important worms
Beets Oatmeal and other organisms are to the balance of our ecosys-
tem.
Bran Onions
Bread Pasta How to Harvest Castings
Broccoli Pancakes Dump and Sort Method:
Cabbage Papaya • Prepare fresh bedding as described earlier.
• Empty the contents of your container onto a plastic
Cake Peaches sheet or tablecloth.
Cantaloupe Pears • Add fresh bedding to the container.
• Position a light source over the compost pile. The
Carrots Peas worms will move down into the compost.
Celery Pie • Carefully scrape layers of compost from the pile,
working toward the bottom center of the pile. Place
Cereal Potatoes compost in a separate container.
Coffee Filters Raisins • Continue this procedure until there is only a small
pile of compost with worms beneath it.
Coffee Grounds* Rice • Add this pile and worms to the fresh bedding in
your worm container.
Corn Spinach
• Use the harvested compost for a classroom horticul-
Corn Meal Tea Bags* ture project.
Cucumbers Tomatoes Split Harvesting Method
Eggs Turnips Move everything to one side of the bin. Fill the other
side of the bin with fresh bedding. Feed only on this
Egg Shells Waffles side. The worms will slowly migrate to the new bed-
Grapes Watermelon ding. When most of the worms have moved, remove the
compost and fill that side with fresh bedding.
Grits Zucchini
As an alternative, you can place a screen on top of your
*Acidic Foods: Feed in small quantities only. compost. Put new bedding and food on top of the screen.
May produce odors and attract pests. The worms will slowly migrate up through the screen.
Then you can lift the screen and remove the compost
from the bin.
Do Not Feed:
Quick & Easy Method
1. Meat and dairy products, as they will cause odor
If the above methods seem like too much trouble, you
problems.
can simply add 2/3 of the compost (worms and all) di-
2. Heavily salted foods such as salted peanuts, potato
rectly to your garden. Add the remaining 1/3 to your
chips, etc.
fresh bedding. This will inoculate the bedding and pro-
3. Manure from dogs, cats, or horses as they may con-
vide some worms to get you going again. The worms
tain wormers or antibiotics that will kill your
will reproduce fairly quickly, but this method does de-
worms.
plete your worm population for awhile. Remember to
4. Animal feeds as they may also contain antibiotics.
reduce the amount of food you put in the bin until the
worm population has increased again.