the visual evidence of bear activity during the last snow, combined with the advice of locals, served to convince us that we should not compost food scraps in our backyard. we don’t need to invite the bears in.

however, our kitchen garbage is stinky and we don’t like that. we had grown accustomed to composting in our new jersey backyard which keeps the garbage can less stinky, makes for less going to the dump, and creates good stuff for the garden.

so, after debating our options for almost a year, we finally decided to go for “vermicomposting,” the indoor worm composting system. we’ll see how it goes!

hopefully it will keep a bunch of worms warm and happy, and will keep our garbage from being so gross.

oh, and i just started playing around with imovie on my computer, so you get this little treat (there’s even sound!):

youtube made it a little grainy, i’ll have to see about that…

I’m a teacher in Northampton who just got into vermicomposting this past year for the same reason as you- we have had bears on the front porch of our school, holding us hostage! Indoor vermicomposting totally works- no smell, no bears and thousands of instant pets!

i’m so glad to hear that your worms are working out! ours seem happy so far, too. and, holy cow about your bear encounters…we have had them in the back yard at night, and have seen them crossing the street. but so far, no intimate encounters.

How cool!!! Now we have to come up and visit again, I want to check this out!! I’ve always had a thing for worms! (I know, odd!) ;-)

OMG! you crack me up!

I just finally watched the video! I almost fell out of my chair laughing! I love the music! And the worms!!! Tommy just couldn’t stop playing with them! ;-) Are they just “common earth worms”?

They are not your run of the mill earth worms. They are a species called Eisenia fetida, more commonly know as Red Wigglers or Red Tigers.

They are surface feeders and have the ability to convert about half their own body weight worth of organic matter into compost every day. We got two pounds of worms (~2,000 worms) to start and the setup that we are using will support about 10,000 worms when the system is running at full capacity.

boy, i am glad you handled that answer, tommy!

but, i am not sure we should be advertising the fact that there will eventually be 10,000 worms in our house, if we want any friends/family to visit in the future.