My Worm Farm Is Not Producing Worm Tea

A lack of worm tea/liquid can sometimes indicate a problem. It is important to take a closer look and figure out what is going on.

Before we start, I want you to think of the ground beneath our feet. The earth in which earthworms are naturally found. It’s dark and it’s moist.

Moisture levels are very important when it comes to maintaining a healthy worm farm. If left untreated, a dry worm farm can eventually send your worm friends to wormie heaven. Earthworms breathe through their skin and when their skin dries out, they die.

In saying that, it is important to remember, worm tea takes a little while to start flowing and the amount of worm tea produced by a worm farm does vary from farm to farm.

A lack of worm tea is not necessarily always a bad thing. Sometimes, a lack of worm tea can simply mean that your worms are working in a well-balanced environment that is not too wet or too dry. This means that no “excess” moisture is seeping down into your bottom layer, but the worms are still happy.

It is important to note, that not only is a dry worm farm detrimental to your worm’s skin, but a dry worm farm may also attract infestations of other bugs such as ants and springtails. If you are seeing ants or teeny tiny white bugs in your worm farm and you are not producing much worm tea, this is a sure sign that your worm farm is too dry.

In my experience, heat and a lack of moisture, are the top 2 worm killers!

It’s All About Balance

Maintaining a healthy worm farm almost always comes down to balance. The balance between wet items and dry, moisture-absorbing items.

Examples of “wet” items (Nitrogen rich)

Fruit and veggie scraps
Grass clippings
Spent flowers
Leafy plant trimmings
Foliage of weeds
Coffee Grounds
Tea leaves

Examples of “dry” items (Carbon rich)

Paper
Cardboard
Wood shavings/sawdust
Dried leaves
Cotton fabric (it’s hilarious to pop a pair of jocks in the worm farm and let the children see them eventually disappear)
Newspaper

How to check moisture levels in a worm farm

Find the bravest member of your team or family, who doesn’t mind playing with some good old worm poo. That might be you!!

Next, pick up some worm castings or soil and squeeze it together. Does it clump together? When squeezed, does a little bit of moisture ooze out? If not, this means your worm farm is too dry.

Quick Fixes

Check for a blockage or draining issue. The first step I recommend, when working with my clients, is to check your worm farm for any blockages. 1 layer at a time. Scoop the worm castings to the side until you see the bottom of that specific layer. Is the liquid draining through well or are there pools of liquid anywhere? Is the worm tea able to pass through all the layers relatively freely? Remove any clumps of food, avocado pips, blobs of paper etc. that may be causing the blockage.
Once you have checked for blockages, give your worm farm a good water (about 2 litres). Make sure to keep the tap open so that you can see if the worm tea is slowly flowing through. If your worm farm contains a liquid tray, or a “toilet” as the kids like to call it, excess liquid will drain through. There is no need to worry about the water getting logged or drowning your worms. If after you’ve added a big splash of water to your worm farm, and you’re still not seeing worm tea, you may need to add a little more. It is likely that the moisture-absorbing items in your worm farm absorbed all the water that you just added in.
Buy a worm blanket. A worm blanket is usually a piece of hessian fabric that is placed over the food scraps in your top working tray. As mentioned previously, worms love dark, moist environments. A worm blanket helps to lock in that precious moisture. I like to tell my clients that their worm blanket should always feel like a wrung out tea towel. It’s a great way to check moisture levels quickly and easily.
Add some “wet” items to your worm farm. Fruit and veg waste is almost 90% liquid. Your worm farm may need a good old veg boost! As your worms break this food down , by eating it and pooping it out, the liquid will eventually percolate through the worm poo and end up in bottom layer.
Find Shade. Worms enjoy living at temperatures of about 15 to 25 degrees Celsius. If the worm farm heats up to 30 degrees or over, they will try to escape and end up in the toilet (bottom layer) or even start to die.

If you are looking for resources to support learning about Earthworms, my resource packs are fantastic!

Anyone who has owned a thriving worm farm knows that earthworms aren’t the only creatures you’ll find in there from time to time. Just like a decomposing forest floor, thousands of bugs, microbes and bacteria all play a role in breaking down organic matter and forming a wonderfully diverse ecosystem. This rich tapestry of life is what we call biodiversity and is the very reason our Earth is alive.

Snails, slugs, ants, cockroaches, fruit flies, springtails, slaters and more may be present in your worm farm right now or may have been in the past. While they, admittedly, look a bit gross and worrying it is important to remember that , generally, they don’t interfere with the worms or pose much of a threat.

When these visitors start to present in MASSIVE numbers, or become a total infestation, only then do they tend to cause problems.

What are these little white bugs?

So, you have noticed hundreds of tiny white bugs in your worm farm. Should you worry? Well, 9 times out of 10, the answer is “NO”. As mentioned above, most little creatures found in your worm farm are simply helping your wormies.

So…what could they be? Well, they could be a lot of things but below are the most common.

Springtails

Chances are these little white bugs are just moisture-loving Springtails. These are common isopods that enjoy the same conditions that make your worms happy. They are excellent decomposers, just like earthworms, and are nothing to worry about. They help worms break down rotting food in your worm bin. Springtails do not bite or sting and are generally harmless to humans. Springtails are fast-moving, elongated and rice shaped.

Close up image of a Springtail.
Notice how elongated their bodies are.

Mites

Mites come in an array of colors. Brown, red, white and more. White mites are not predaceous (they don’t prey on other animals) and tend to feed only on decaying or injured worms. Having said this, during huge infestations, these mites can eat massive amounts of food in in your bin, depriving worms of needed nutrients. This results in very hungry worms, poor growth and poor reproduction rates.

But wait… How do you tell the difference between mites and springtails ?

Mites look like you’ve spilled a bowl of sugar or rice on the floor. They are creamy white, small, round and slow moving. Some types of white mites are often mistaken for worm eggs. Springtails are faster, elongated (rice shaped) and can jump.

White mites in a worm farm.
Notice how round their bodies are.

Maggots

Most of the time , maggots in your worm farm are the larvae of the black solider fly or the fruit fly. Should you worry? The answer is no. Apart from giving you the heebie-jeebies, maggots play a fairly positive role in the composting process. Just like mites and springtails, they eat rotting organic matter in much the same way earthworms do. In fact, black soldier fly larvae process food quicker than earthworms do and their poo is actually edible to earthworms. Yummy!

Maggots love very wet and warm environments and will often present themselves when the worms are being over fed.

Fruit Fly Maggots.
Basically, baby fruit flies.

So how do we deal with them ?

If there are just a few and it does not look like an infestation then do nothing. These little guys are super helpful and will actually speed up the entire process.
Reduce food and water input until mites, maggots and springtails start to leave.
Place potato slices, melon rinds, or damp newspaper on the surface of the bedding, then remove when these bugs have collected there.
For maggots, try adding a piece of bread soaked in milk on the surface of the worm farm and remove after a couple of days. Repeat this until numbers have decreased significantly.
Bury food when adding it into the worm farm or loosely place a piece of fabric or a sheet of newspaper inside the bin on top of the worm bin contents. A worm blanket is a great idea too.