How to Build a DIY Worm Farm Bin
Construct a multi-tier vermicomposting bin using plastic totes to recycle kitchen scraps into nutrient-rich organic compost with red wiggler worms.
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🧰 Required Tools & Equipment
- ✓ Cordless drill
- ✓ 1/4-inch drill bit
- ✓ 1/16-inch drill bit
- ✓ Water spray bottle
📦 Materials & Supplies
- ✓ Two 10-18 gallon opaque plastic storage totes with lids
- ✓ Two small plastic spacers or empty plastic cups
- ✓ Shredded non-glossy cardboard and newspaper
- ✓ 1 lb Red wiggler worms (Eisenia fetida)
- ✓ 1 cup garden soil or finished compost (for grit)
- ✓ Chopped fruit and vegetable scraps
⚠️ Safety Checkpoints & Warnings
- • Wear eye protection when drilling plastic to guard against flying plastic burrs.
- • Support plastic bin walls on a solid wood block or scrap board while drilling to prevent cracking.
- • Ensure totes are completely opaque; red wigglers are photosensitive and will not thrive in translucent bins.
📋 Step-by-Step Guide (5 Steps)
Drill Drainage and Ventilation Holes
Take one bin (the top active bin) and drill 15-20 holes across the bottom using a 1/4-inch bit for drainage. Switch to a 1/16-inch bit and drill a row of ventilation holes spaced 2 inches apart along the top rim and across the lid. Keep the second bin intact to act as the bottom catch basin.
- • Even grid of 1/4-inch drainage holes across the active bin floor.
- • Line of tiny 1/16-inch air holes below the rim and across the lid.
- • Undrilled, intact bottom reservoir bin sitting beside it.
- • Drilling the bottom reservoir bin by accident.
- • Using a large bit on the lid, allowing fruit flies in and worms to escape.
Nest the Bins with Spacers
Place two upside-down plastic cups or 2-inch wood blocks in the bottom of the solid reservoir bin. Set the drilled active bin directly inside the reservoir bin on top of the spacers. Verify that a 2- to 3-inch gap exists between the floors of the two bins to catch drainage liquid.
- • Drilled bin resting securely elevated inside the solid base bin.
- • Visible clearance gap between the bottoms of both totes.
- • Nesting the bins tight against each other without spacers, blocking drainage and air flow.
Prepare and Moisten Bedding
Tear unbleached cardboard and newspaper into 1-inch strips. Submerge the strips in water and squeeze them out firmly until they have the moisture consistency of a wrung-out sponge (damp to the touch, no dripping water). Fluff the strips apart as you drop them into the top bin until it is half full.
- • Bin filled roughly halfway with loose, fluffed, damp shredded paper and cardboard.
- • Squeezing a handful of bedding releases only 1 or 2 drops of water.
- • Soaking the bedding so much that standing water pools at the bottom.
- • Using glossy printed magazines or bleached office paper containing toxic inks.
Add Soil Grit and Introduce Worms
Sprinkle one cup of outdoor garden soil or compost evenly over the bedding to provide the grit worms need for digestion. Gently distribute the red wiggler worms across the center surface of the bedding. Leave the bin under ambient room light for 15 minutes so the light-shy worms burrow down into the bedding.
- • Thin dusting of garden soil across the moist paper layer.
- • Worms naturally migrating down out of sight beneath the bedding surface.
- • Using earthworms or nightcrawlers instead of surface-dwelling red wigglers (Eisenia fetida).
- • Immediately closing the lid while worms are stressed from transit, causing them to try escaping upward.
Add Initial Scraps and Secure the Lid
Dig a small shallow pocket in one corner of the bedding and deposit 1 to 2 cups of chopped raw vegetable or fruit scraps. Cover the food scraps completely with at least 2 inches of damp bedding to prevent odors and fruit flies. Snap the drilled lid onto the top tote and place the system in a temperate location between 55°F and 77°F.
- • Food scraps fully buried beneath damp shredded cardboard with zero exposed food.
- • Lid firmly snapped onto the bin rim.
- • Overfeeding during the first two weeks before the worm population acclimates.
- • Adding meat, dairy, oily foods, or heavy amounts of citrus and onions.
Credit: inspired by an original tutorial by Brave Wilderness — watch the original on YouTube.
Don’t have everything?
- No Cordless drill? Soldering iron or heated metal skewer to melt clean ventilation holes
- No Red wiggler worms? European nightcrawlers (Eisenia hortensis) for composting bin setups
- No Water spray bottle? Perforated water bottle cap or gentle hand sprinkling