Maze Worm Farm

Yes, we offer free standard shipping for orders within the UK. Additional charges may apply for deliveries to remote areas or international locations.

Fruit and vegetable peelings, cooked vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, crushed eggshells, beans, pastry, biscuits, cereals, cakes, fresh compost, rags and old clothes made from natural fibres such as cotton and wool, flowers, nettles, nuts, vegetarian pet manure, paper napkins, dampened cardboard, paper and newspaper, plant remains, paper coffee filters, non-plastic teabags, tea leaves, sawdust, woodchips, small amounts of bread, rice and pasta.
The following items take longer to disappear so should only be added in small amounts - nutshells, hair, fur, feathers.
Foods to avoid: Onion, garlic, chilli, dairy, uncooked potato skins, citrus fruit or peel, meat, fish, bones, oils or grease.
Also avoid salty foods – worms breathe through their skin and need to stay moist. Salt will pull moisture from their bodies and can kill them.

Cover food waste with a 2-3cm layer of slightly damp shredded newspaper or vermicompost (worm-made compost); this will soak up the moisture that fly larvae need. It will also deprive adult flies of egg-laying areas.
You can also open the lid and allow the surface to dry out to discourage adult flies and kill the larvae.
The microscopic eggs of fruit flies may already be present in the skins of fruit and veg and then hatch out inside a composter – to prevent this happening you can freeze or microwave food waste before adding it to the bin.

Little and often is best. Start with a handful every few days. Gradually increase this as you notice the worms eating more. Once the wormery is established and the worms are breeding, they will consume more food scraps.
As a guide, as long as you can see a few worms working in the top layer of waste, you can add more. If you can't see worms looking for food, don't feed them.
It will take a few months for the worms to make their first usable batch of worm compost.

Ants are a sign that the wormery contents are too dry. Gently sprinkle the waste materials with water to keep them damp and deter ants.
If your wormery has plastic legs, stand it in water, or smear the legs with Vaseline, to deter ants. If the legs are wooden, stand the wormery in linseed oil.
It also helps to gently disturb the contents with a fork for a few days.