Tales from the Wormery.

I bought (not made) my wormery from a firm called Wiggly Wigglers.  As the name suggests they specialise in wormeries (mine is their Worm Cafe) can make your own but worried I'd get it wrong.  The cafe was great in that it has a number boxes you can layer it up with + a tray at the bottom for the compost liquid that can be diluted and used for plant food.

.

The Worm Cafe can have a total of four
 layersin nested boxes.

and they stock everything you need to either start up or maintain.  Of course you

Well to cut a long story short it arrived, it worked, it was great and then it filled with rats.

I'd run another compost bin on bare ground about 10 yards away and early last year detected the tell tale signs of an infestation. Kitchen compost disappeared really quickly, lots of droppings and then sight of a tail wagging fiercely at the bottom of a run its owner had made as it scurried from the feastly top on my arrival.  I wasn't too bothered, to be honest.  I just stamped a little harder on the ground as I approached it so I wouldn't actually get to see one, but that's all I did.  It became more problematic in the (late) spring when I wanted to empty the content to use it.  I pondered what to do and how to approach what was obviously going to be a nest, preparing myself for an explosive migration when I knocked the bin over.  Having worked myself up to it for a few weeks, however, the issue went away on the arrival of my daughter from uni who innocently asked if there was anything she could help me with.  Job done.

As it happened the rats had already gorn.  I'd stopped feeding the bin knowing I was going to empty it so they'd left for pastures new.  The pasture they chose was the wormery.  I found this out on an attempt to dispose of some teabags.  I took off Gollum, the stone gargoyle that weighed the top down, and there

The Worm Cafe, featuring
Gollum the Gargoyle

beneath were THREE FAT REALLY REALLY REALLY FAT rats.  Lid down, scream, run - the whole thing.  Couldn't work out how they'd got there.  Gollum was certainly ugly enough to discourage even the most determined rat, but his main feature was his weight!  We thought they must have chewed their way in from underneath.

I usually manage to fill two of these
trugs from one emptying of the
wormery.

Well a few days ago it was time to empty it.  Worm compost is gold. Black gold, Texas Tea (Ok this is lifted straight from the old American sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies.  If you aren't familiar here's the theme tune).  I use it to bed in or mulch plants I can't afford to leave without a bit of TLC.  I lifted Gollum away and with the help of a 300ft pole (spot the hyperbole)  nudged the top off.  Nothing there.  Oh the drama!

So... emptied the compost as usual, drained off the liquid food

Liquid compost on
bottom tray. All free!

 and stored nicely in old plastic milk cartons.  This is really great stuff.  Smells like nothing alive on earth but great for liquid feeding both veg and flowers. Not a sign of any chewed plastic of any kind!  All we can surmise is that the rats nudged the top off a few inches with Gollum still in residence and did the deed under him whilst still on duty.

All is restored now.  I may need to dig up some more worms but other than that sorted for the next cycle.

Liquid feed ready for
action.