The Mighty Mites

by Paula
(Martinsburg,West Virginia)

I have an enormous amount of tiny dark red 'spider , or 'crab' like mites invading my bins....they are too many in number, and I am sure anything in this quantity must be annoying my red's. Secondly, I also have other mites that are white, very tiny, and are generally found floating on top of the compost tea I siphon off. My questions are, are these both bad news? And how can I get rid of those pesty things? Should I get rid of them? I tried airating with vermiculite, to no avail., I thought it might help...no such luck.

I vermicompost with a store bought 4 tier composter. I have quadrupiled my worm population, and harvested about 3 full bins of 'poo' in aprox. 3 -4 months....but am not pleased to be fighting this pesty issue. (I believe they bite too, I have had to resort to wearing surgical gloves). I attempt to rescue my worms by meticulious removal of some of the mites, as many as I can mash in one sitting...but they are very prolific, and I am sure this is a task done in vain.
Please help my poor red wigglers !!

Gratefully,

Paula

Answer from BigTex worms
Those mites sure can be a bother! They are not a danger to the worms but I have seen them cause us humans a terrible rash. Yuck!
Mites are usually an indication of the bin being too wet. And your post tells me indeed it is too wet. In my opinion, when you are doing everything right and not overfeeding you will NEVER have any leachate/liquid draining out of the siphon. Yes NEVER. It is not compost tea, it is water runnoff called leachate from fruit and veggie scraps. I know the brochure says otherwise but my years of experience begs to differ. Your bedding should be moist like a wrung out sponge. I bet the bottom layers of your bin are fudgy.

There are some things you can do to rid the overabundance of moisture and thus mites.
1. Wipe down the sides and top of your bin with papertowels and toss them. They usually lay eggs there.
2. Mix in some DRY bedding like peat moss, coco fiber or paper shreds. Into each layer of your bin.
3. Take the lid off your bin for a few days. If you have multiple trays working take each tray out and let it air out for a few days.
4. Do not feed any produce scraps for 10-14 days.
5. When you do start feeding again. Put a bunch of shredded paper down in the drip pan and once a week check to see if there is any moisture/runnoff making it to the drip pan. Toss the paper and replace it.
6. if you are feeding primarily produce scraps, squeeze out excess moisture before placing in the bin AND make a "nest" out of dry bedding to place the scraps upon in the bin. That way the dry paper/peat will absorb alot of the leachate as it decomposes.

All in all, a few tweeks and you will be happy. Worms actually LOVE the wet environment, mites and all so you may see your multiplying go DOWN when you dry out the bin a bit. But that is ok, gotta be manageable for humans too.

Liz
BigTex Worms