How To Make a Wormery in 8 Easy Steps

A wormery, or a worm composter, is going to serve as a fertilizer, will recycle your waste in the kitchen while saving you from the unpleasant smells.

This wormery will not take up much space and is a great way to add greens to your kitchen or elsewhere around your house. 

While there are plenty of wormeries’ options out there in the market ready to go but to hand-make yours can be really fun and rewarding, especially if you do it with your kids, as you will introduce them to the world of worms, as well as educate them on recycling and being eco-friendly.

What You Will Need

To make a wormery you won’t need much. You can even use some recycled material. 

Here is a list of all that you need to build a wormery.

1. Worms 
2. Worm bedding
3. A large plastic box with a lid (you can use a recycled paint box or else) not see-through preferably because worms like darkness.
4. 2 bricks or pieces of wood to make it stand on (better if recycled).
5. Some old newspaper or cardboard. 
6. A drill

In addition to all of the above, you will need a shady place to place your wormery in, like underneath a table or a bench or simply indoors, so that the worms could live.

Steps To Make Your Wormery

First Step

Take your box of plastic first, preferably a box that can endure the weather changes, especially hot summy days, so that it would last longer.

You do not want your wormery to be all messed up and damaged because of the sun, that you will have to replace it soon after a few weeks.

When it comes to sizing, -there is not really an ideal minimum or maximum size since you are just keeping it home or in your personal  – but the larger the surface part of your box, the more food waste you will be able to feed. 

Make sure your box has a lid. If it doesn’t have one, then you can customize it. For more fun tips keep reading.

Second Step

Drill holes at the bottom of your box. The worms within your box need to breathe and live, just like any other type of species.

So having a good sustainable airflow is a necessity for such creations to live in there. 

Ensure that the holes are neither too big that the worms would fall down, nor too small that it will get blocked.

Third Step

Place your plastic box on the bricks or the wooden pieces that you have picked before.

Using the bricks as stands to lift the box from the ground lets the air get to the air holes.

No bricks or wood?  you can stand it on anything else you can find to be useful –might as well be some old thick books- as long as it allows air to flow through the holes.

Fourth Step

Put the newspaper or any kind of paper you are using, at the bottom of your box covering the holes from within, to ensure the worms don’t fall out of the box!

But do not worry, the worms will not try to escape as long as you are taking good care of your wormery.

Fifth Step

Drill more small holes in the lid, the sides and at the top of your plastic box. If your wormery is indoors, then there isn’t much to worry about, you can simply drill a lot of holes in the lid to let air in.

But if you are planning to place it in the garden, balcony or outdoors in general, and it will be at risk of being exposed to the rain, just drill enough not make your worms swim in the water after a rainy day.

You can add more holes to the top sides of the box instead. Whatever you do, allow the worms enough airflow, without letting the light in. 

Sixth Step

Fill in about 2/3 of your box with worm bedding, then add in the worms. The bedding is what your worms will bury themselves in when you first put them into the box and live in. 

So, it is preferable if your place some bedding from another wormery- worm compost- to make it easier for worms to settle in.

The worm compost, however, is not necessary, as there are numerous alternatives- available in the market- such as coir (coconut fibers).

Seventh Step

Add a small portion of food “waste” to the box: vegetable peels, fruit skins, coffee grounds, and tea leaves can all come in handy. If you chop it up, the worms will be able to process it even quicker. 

Eighth Step

Shelter the surface of the worms using an old piece of cardboard, an old newspaper or useless notebooks, and old towel or tissue or such.

Covering the worms with that paper will prevent the light from getting in, and keep the moisture from getting out.

Add and finish up the box with the lid, be it one that came with the box or a customized lid, to keep the whole thing from soaking in the rain if placed outside.

One More Thing

Now you have pretty much all that you need to build your own wormery. You can decorate the plastic box for a better view if it is recycled or does not look good in your indoor environment. 

That’s all. What you need to do is to place your wormery in a shady spot where there’s enough airflow and not much sunlight. Avoid leaving the wormery direct sunlight or rain and strong wind. Feed it frequently but do not add too much food at once or it will become smelly and unpleasant to the worms (it putrefies) and therefore you might lose them all and fail your wormery project.