“We’re using the worms’ worst enemy to help them,” said my son. And indeed we were. We were separating worms from compost. Clamp lights with halogen bulbs shown down on them, forcing them through hardware cloth to a new bin.
This has been the quickest way to separate worms and compost that I’ve found so far.
- Simply spread the compost with worms about 1″ thick across the hardware cloth. Shining light from above, forces the worms down through the cloth.
- You can help the worms by gently pulling them through from the bottom
- And by gently shaking the cloth
Compost will filter through the hardware cloth into the new bin. You can leave it or pass it through a finer cloth. I usually just leave it.
Keep the layer of compost on the cloth as thin as possible, so the worms have nowhere to hide and are forced down.
I find this method to be somewhat quicker than the standard light harvesting method, but still leaves a lot to be desired.
Other methods to separate worms from compost
Feeding a corner of the bin
Clear out a corner of the worm bin and fill with fresh food. This is a good method for getting concentrations of worms. For example, if you’re going to need worms for a worm tower or to give to someone. It’s not a good method for getting compost by itself.
Fill a potato or citrus bag with food
This method is pretty much the same as the above method except that you will collect worms in a bag, making for easy removal. There will be a bunch directly under the bag as well.
Classic light harvest
I opened with my personal variation of this method. Basically, light is used to drive worms to a target area and out of the compost.
The idea is to make piles of worms and compost and slowly brush away the compost as the worms continue to move down until worms are separated from compost.
This is a very tedious and slow method. But, it will separate worms from compost.
Using a Mechanical Harvester
There are mechanical worm harvesters available. I’ve never used one because they are quite pricey. If I ever get one, or build one, I’ll let you know how it goes.
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