xenar14•8d agoProlific Poster

My worm bin got way too wet and started smelling like a swamp

So I got a bit too excited with my new worm bin about a month ago and added way too many fruit scraps at once. I'm talking like two whole melon rinds and a bunch of soggy lettuce from cleaning out my fridge. I didn't add enough dry browns to balance it out. Fast forward to last Tuesday, and I opened the lid to a gross, wet mess that smelled awful. The worms were trying to crawl up the sides to get away. I had to do a full rescue mission. I took the whole thing apart, picked out all the worms, and mixed in a whole bag of shredded paper from my home office. It took me over an hour to fix. Now I'm super careful about how much wet stuff I add at a time. Has anyone else had to do a full bin reset like that? What's your go-to 'brown' material when things get too soggy?

2 comments

2 Comments

wade_hall8d ago

Been there... shredded cardboard is my go-to fix.

coleman.karen8d ago

Cardboard can work in a pinch, but it breaks down way too fast to be a real fix. For a long term solution, you need something like straw or wood chips. @wade_hall, I tried the cardboard thing last season and had to redo the whole bed by July when it turned into a soggy mat. A thick layer of wood chips lasts the whole year and keeps the weeds down better.