Stinky worms !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sean n dad]

Hi All,
Well I am in China on business, and I get an e-mail from my wife saying that the worms my son & I are growing stink!!!
After a few phone calls & questioning my son, he removes a few of the worms and we have figured that the smell is from the medium the worms are in.
We are growing them in a soil/peat mixture. We add veggies & friuts like zucinni, squash, carrots, spinich, apple cores, watermellon, cantalope, banna peals and a whole other assortment of greens to the mix. Plus fish food & newspapers.

Question:
What are we doing wrong?
Is there some way to deal with this or is this just the natural process of the worms creating compost?
Is there another growing medium that would not smell? Or is it the worms????

Mike Shrom, feel free to jump in here, I don't remember your worm culture being "stinky", whats your secret?
Thanks,Ed

 

[Kaysie]

You're probably adding more food than what can be broken down, and the food is rotting. I suggest cutting back the amount of organic matter you're putting in and see if that helps.

 

[luvmycreatures]

A worm bin should never smell, it's likely too wet or too much food. If it seems to be an issue of too wet, add dry shredded paper to absorb some of the water. If it's too much food, you have 2 options, if it's only "a little stinky" stop feeding and give them some time to eat up, or move the worms to a fresh bin. You should also make sure that food is as small as possible. The smaller the food the faster they get through it. Also make sure that the food is buried under the medium.

 

[Jennewt]

I agree, it shouldn't smell. It's almost certainly too much food. Also, what kind of fish food did you put in? Fish food may contain meaty ingredients (fish, etc), and this could stink worse than veggie material.