I dont think my worms survived the winter… no worms in tha avocado I put in there… guess I need to order more. 
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@ReikoX that’s too bad. It took me twice ordering to get live ones and I think get established.
So I emptied a good portion of fresh compost and stacked it around the outside of the bin. Watered the outside of it until the bottom started getting soggy and threw a half cup of oatmeal on top. Added an inch of brown paper after it had been in the shredder and using some LITFA for a few days.
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I’ve had this bin for a couple of years. Noticed less worm activity this winter.
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Cold or too much LITFA?
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Likely both. I’ll order more and see how they do.
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Good colony of mites there @ReikoX ! Have ya looked at them closer with a loupe?
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No, why? Do you think they are the reason for my MIA worms?
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Not sure ? I doubt it but how often do you harvest your bins?
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Maybe every three months or so… its stacked five tall so the bottom castings are around a year old. I did find some dead ones in the sump at the bottom. Like I said, I’ll order more.
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@newb2.0 when you re-start, just use some kind of mesh cover(insect screening for windows, cheesecloth, etc) & make sure the vents are screened too. no flies in, no larvae, no prollem… 
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I have been thinking about this the last few days, my plastic worm bin is not cutting it, I was thinking of getting a 150gal smart pot.
I am trying to drop my plant numbers, so I was trying to think how to store my soil, and keep it working as well as keeping the worms alive.
I found a 150 gal pot, on Amazon for 25$. So I think I will get that and use it as a soil rejuvinatore as well as a worm bin/composter. It will be cooler in the summer for the worms and I can put straw bails around it in winter and tarp over the top to keep it warm.
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That would be like a worm penthouse ! Your numbers would get so large not a bad thing IMO . Yeah like iv stared before smartpots are damn cheap IMO think I could get 1 maybe 2 pots for the cost of A 30-45 gallon tote at Wally World for the same price
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Perfect for recharging your soil maybe add a bit of peat moss and some rock dust and you’d be golden! Tree leaves this fall and some straw come winter
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Something to consider is depth/height; More than 18" & they won’t work the whole thing. Another thought is where it drains to-- you might want to collect the leachate.
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Thanks @cannabissequoia. I do have a screen over the vent holes, I think the bugs were already on some of the food I fed the worms. But I wasn’t keeping everything well covered with bedding so I did that already today after I dumped everything out to check it all out. Everything is going pretty good, worms seem really active and happy, with just big chunks of green food and bedding the only things that persist for too long. I stopped adding egg shells bc they seemed to not really break down or get eaten and its probably what the houseflies were after.
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Yeah, the pots are 22 inches high, 46 inches across, I was going to start half full, I was thinking more about keeping the worms alive over winter, figured a bit more depth would stop them freezing solid.
I thought about capturing the worm leachate, I can put it on a palette, with a tarp wrapped around and over it. It’s just getting it out when I want it.
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Sounds good. A layer of straw should be good for insulation on top & even around the sides. 
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Yea, I could build a little pallet box for it, and stuff the pallet centers with straw.
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Well I was going to work on my truck yesterday, but as it was raining most of the day I upgraded my worm bin.
From this
To this 
I have to down size atm, I have loads of weed and oil, and the power bill just went up another $120 this month to $523, so I need to cut some costs. I don’t want to lose my lovely soil and worms, so its going into storage where it can get aged better and improved on.
Added a cross bar and tarp, to keep the rain and winter snows off it, and to control moisture content. Its 44x44 inches square and 2 feet high. There is 60 gals of soil in there atm with another 30gals to go in, in 2 weeks time and another 20 gals 4 weeks after that, and then another 55 gals when the autos finish mid September. Then I will add some manure and vegetable peelings and stuff as we go along. Maybe the alfalfa and clover will continue to grow in there as well if it doesn’t get buried too soon. I have some basalt I will add, and gypsum, seaweed, not sure I want any fishy stuff, that will attract rats or bandits. I need to get some pallets for the sides so I can stuff straw in there to keep my worms all warm and toasty over winter as we can get 12 inches of frost into the ground here. Come next spring I will grow some cover crops on it.
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