Worm Bin Update

The good news is that the worm bin seems to be maturing. It is full of worms and they are munching through the bedding and edibles at an impressive rate. I have not added any new paper to the bin since adding the worms; but the worms are so efficient that I will have to add more bedding. I am considering adding dried leaves (happen to have a yard full at the moment) instead of paper. However, I've read that you sometimes get tag-along bugs when you use leaves- so I'm considering running the leaves through the stove first. Does that sound too crazy? I don't mind a little crazy, but too crazy is just going too far. Plus, I'm not really all that eager to provide my children with yet another "remember when Mom..." story. Know what I mean?

The bad news is that when I opened the bin last night a fruit fly flew out. Just one. But where there's one... I am pretty sure I can tell you how that fly entered the bin. The day before, I added a tub of food scraps I had been keeping in the freezer for a number of days- maybe even a week. (Remember that post about freezing and microwaving food before it goes in the bin to avoid fruit flies?) That tub of scraps had, prior to the freezer, been sitting out on the counter and I remember seeing a couple (evil) fruit flies lurking about. So, the lesson here, I think, is that freezing alone is not a cure-all for the fruit flies. I will switch to nuking the scraps and see what happens. Fingers crossed that there are no more signs of fruit flies when I next open the bin... Stop laughing. It's possible...