(obviously) there’s a lot of different mites. the rumor mill (?)myth is that the red/brown mites will attack small worms or spawn. i too had a bin where the mites were thriving more than the worms & it got me concerned, so i did the melon-mite-trap thing & reduced them way down (80-90%).
there’s probably a species issue too…i.e. some worms are affected/predated/parasitized but others aren’t.
the fungus gnats were the first big problem though.
i’ll try and remember to my worm pile. i recently re-distributed it & discovered less wormy people than i’d hoped.
Hi everyone. Just came across this thread and have a fresh pics of my set up. It is not very pro at all, but I get good results. At least the beast are alive and reproducing. They are in a baby’s bath tub since the last two years and, have to say, I was very lazy to make a proper one with three different parts
To avoid excessive sun the bath tub is semicovered with the plants and one of them, the malawi, right next to the bath, is getting all the black dropping gold. As I said not very pro
The only problem is that it needs to be crushed into very small pieces for the worms mouth to take in. Composting worms don’t have “teeth” but “proto-teeth”, 3 small calcium deposits that help them “suckle” on material. Because an eggshell dissolves & decays slowly, crushing them is also a good idea for adding to soil or compost.
Thanks for the info I use to throw the eggshells to the ground and after some days I crush them when they are dried by sun. I will do also with those in the bathtub.
And now let’s see how they are and if I can sleep after
I thought @Tinytuttle started a “Show us your compst” thread but I’m a stoner, so I guess not.
Thus I respond to said non-request with a journey into my compst heap, a 3 week tour of funky shit, literally.
10/15/18
This pile was begun 3 days ago(forgot the camera ) and is a mixture of shredded live plum branches, semi-dry pecan leaves & nuts, sunflower stalks(dried & partial), 3 weeks worth of household/kitchen waste (including coffee grounds & filters, banana peels, paper towels, etc. but those are the main offenders), and a week’s worth of dog shit. manyyyuuuuure, OK? It all got blended, saturated with the hosem & the dogdoo slurried in a bucket, tamped with a shovel(to reduce drying), then pierced to the center every 6-8" or so. I cover it with these scraps of polycarbonate clear plastic… because it was free scrap.
Then today (3 day intervals) I will hose it down, and move the outer 8" or so to the side of the pile, maintaining contact, and attempt to “invert” the whole mixture(from inside to out), water it again, add another week(maybe 4 lbs) of slurried dog shit, and re-pierce the thing (again) to the bottom-center(this is important). Then cover it over again & wait 3 days at which point I’ll repeat the process…normally would not add manure at this point but the Carbon to Nitrogen ratio is very high in C because of the wood proportion/component…but probably will.
And I’ll take pictures & post them with each rotation & write you another wonderfully lovely story about death & decay.
I’d keep Fido’s dog poo out of compost from anything I’v ever read I’v heard this is a big No no! Dog and cat scat is known to have pathogens whether or not 150 degrees would kill them I don’t know I believe they go in a spore form when only autoclave type temps would kill them ! Then again will probably do the trick as well.
I had chickens for years until recently & need a Nitrogen source beside storing my own (eww). You’re right to be wary & I know what goes into my dog & what her health is like… we don’t go anywhere much. The other factor reducing my fears is that this end product (after 3 weeks or so) goes to my long-term outdoor worm-pile and sits for a year or more.
That should really lower the risks, imo.
I’m going to actually get the worm pile in pictures here soon, too. It’s about 8’w x 20’l x 1-2’h.
One of the soil books I read had section describing the rehabilitation of soil at a former gas station. After 9 months of vermicomposting (there may have been some manual turning too, can’t remember), the toxin levels dropped from “super-fund” to “not-too-bad”. That’s fast, imo. And I’ve heard hemp was used at Chernobyl for remediation but I suspect also for testing. Wouldn’t wanna smoke that.
FWIW compost should be about 50% moisture the in the field measurement would be to take a handful and squeeze to see slight drops of water coming inbetween the fingers try not to go over 160 degrees F
I’ve achieved 150F but not often, usually 130s or 120s. Theoretically, if this were “waste management” and truly mixed garbage, I wouldn’t mind an engineered digester hitting 180F+ to really whack the nasties from meat/dairy/etc., but that’s more for municipal crap than my selected inputs. I have seen the dumps here watering their heaps with fire-hoses to prevent genuine :fires.
They have a BADASS chipper/grinder that takes full stumps up to 3’. Very cool, imo. I think it’s called “the woodhawg” or something.
Yes had to edit that TY 120-130 F is quite active probably won’t kill weeds seeds ! Anything above 160 F I’d stay away from like your municipal recycling anything above that your off gassing and losing important things in compost plus killing off lots of important microbes and creating anaerobic conditions which invites all sorts of nastiness.
my worm pile. i recently re-distributed it & discovered less wormy people than i’d hoped. 
The only problem is that it needs to be crushed into very small pieces for the worms mouth to take in. Composting worms don’t have “teeth” but “proto-teeth”, 3 small calcium deposits that help them “suckle” on material. Because an eggshell dissolves & decays slowly, crushing them is also a good idea for adding to soil or compost.
I use to throw the eggshells to the ground and after some days I crush them when they are dried by sun. I will do also with those in the bathtub.
) and is a mixture of shredded live plum branches, semi-dry pecan leaves & nuts, sunflower stalks(dried & partial), 3 weeks worth of household/kitchen waste (including coffee grounds & filters, banana peels, paper towels, etc. but those are the main offenders), and a week’s worth of dog shit. manyyyuuuuure, OK? It all got blended, saturated with the hosem & the dogdoo slurried in a bucket, tamped with a shovel(to reduce drying), then pierced to the center every 6-8" or so. I cover it with these scraps of polycarbonate clear plastic… because it was free scrap. 
will probably do the trick as well.
“Outside goes to the inside, inside goes to the outside.” 
day but today I woke up feeling sick, so WTF.
fire-hoses to prevent genuine 
I think it’s called “the woodhawg” or something. 
