Wormeries

A wormery can be used to compost kitchen waste. Worms eat the waste and produce a fine compost and a liquid rich in nutrients that can be used as a plant food. Wormeries are easy to maintain, don't cause nasty smells if used properly and are fun and educational as well.

There are several types of wormery available on the market, or you can make your own.

Local suppliers include:

How to make your own worm compost system

Vermiculture, or worm composting, allows you to compost all your food waste faster than you ever thought possible, producing the highest quality compost and fertilizing liquid. Best of all wormeries are not only clean, odourless and self contained, they can be easily constructed from reclaimed materials from re-use organisations in Herefordshire and Worcestershire. This web page explains how to make a fully functioning wormery, for little cost.

Check out the Home Wormery fact sheet (700kb pdf) provided by the Oxfordshire Community Action Group (CAG)



Drilling hole for tap (this was slightly too high! try and get the hole close to the bottom of the container)	tap fitted in base	shredded newspaper inserted in bottom bin


cardboard added on top of shredded paper	finished bin with lid and tap fitted- raised on bricks

Escaping worms!

When you put new worms in a wormery, they like to explore their new home. If you don't ensure the lid is firmly closed, they might escape! We suggest you keep the wormery outside in a sheltered shady place, just in case!

Feeding your worms

Worms will eat most vegetable and fruit scraps, as well as small amounts of meat scraps. See our ingredients list for full details. They don't like lots of strong food such as onion, garlic, chillies or citrus peel. This is especially true in the first few weeks after setting up a new wormery. If you need to give them a boost, you can add 'worm treat' which is a mix of worm friendly food. They will also happily munch through small amounts of cardboard and newspaper too.