Indoor Composting/Worm Bin

I’d like to have an indoor worm bin and get worm castings from home as opposed to having to buy commercial brands, as well as an indoor composting bin. I am worried about it attracting roaches and bugs tho? I live in an apartment and these are a worry of mine. Can anyone tell me if they do this indoors and if it is a worry?

TeamnWitTrichs said:

I’d like to have an indoor worm bin and get worm castings from home as opposed to having to buy commercial brands, as well as an indoor composting bin. I am worried about it attracting roaches and bugs tho? I live in an apartment and these are a worry of mine. Can anyone tell me if they do this indoors and if it is a worry?

Click to expand...

I've done worm composting in 5 gallon buckets, in an apartment. It works fine - turns banana peels & orange peels into worm castings.

It needs to breathe, so unless you want flies, it's got to have a fine stainless mesh or a cloth mesh on the top.

Organic stuff in a home always attracts bugs. Maybe put the compost bins or buckets in a concrete mixing tub (24" x 36"), to keep all the tools in one place, and to have an extra barrier against the wildlife.

For me, it was a manageable worry. As long as I kept the lids on the buckets sealed, the redworms could do their jobs without turning the apartment into a "Mayan Ruin" type of appearance.

The 27G black and yellow bins work great. You can drill holes into the lid for air. I ran out of room in my house so literally have it in my bedroom with about 5k worms in there. 0 Smell, 0 insects or pests. Whats nice about the bins is they can stack, so for all your soil recycling/mixing/storing they are great.

PaulieWaulie said:

The 27G black and yellow bins work great. You can drill holes into the lid for air. I ran out of room in my house so literally have it in my bedroom with about 5k worms in there. 0 Smell, 0 insects or pests. Whats nice about the bins is they can stack, so for all your soil recycling/mixing/storing they are great.

Click to expand...

How about aesthetics? When you sleep you do not hear how this f*сking army of worms moves on this bunker? 5 thousand worms ... yes they can capture your entire quarter!
But seriously, I agree with you, according to the logic, containers are the best option, the main thing is that the worms get air so that they don’t die and start rotting, then insects will come to your apartment, be sure!

Robinson said:

How about aesthetics? When you sleep you do not hear how this f*сking army of worms moves on this bunker? 5 thousand worms ... yes they can capture your entire quarter!
But seriously, I agree with you, according to the logic, containers are the best option, the main thing is that the worms get air so that they don’t die and start rotting, then insects will come to your apartment, be sure!

Click to expand...

Aesthetics are good. Its a nice black bin. As nice as totes get I suppose. Worms don't make any noise. they slither about in there. Again in 2 years Ive had it all over the house and in the garage, and never had a problem with any insects being attracted. Just worms, pot worms, soil mites, springtails is what I see in there. With just 1 bin I have made a good 50G of EWC in the last year and my soil is full of worms too now because I just throw in the castings with worms into my mixes.


There are a few threads on worm binds, if not here as a sticky then surely over at roll it up I think i saw it. It has all the info you ever need.

Over here ... this side of the great Pacific water ... there is a worm bin made for home use. I have one in one of my sheds and I noticed that when it is working right there is no smell from the feed tray or castings accumulating in the tray below.

The main pong comes from the liquid that drips out into a bucket. but there's a tap on the worm farm that would allow the bucket to be filled and put outside.

The only bugs I get are fruit fly larvae wriggling about in some foods. I exterminate them by sprinkling quicklime (Hydrated lime) carefully on the maggots. just enuf! not on any worms! (I 've noticed the worms won't go where the maggots are.)

Ya have to get some worms. until you do no one can tell you what they're really like.

Peace from the Land of Oz!

PaulieWaulie said:

Aesthetics are good. Its a nice black bin. As nice as totes get I suppose. Worms don't make any noise. they slither about in there. Again in 2 years Ive had it all over the house and in the garage, and never had a problem with any insects being attracted. Just worms, pot worms, soil mites, springtails is what I see in there. With just 1 bin I have made a good 50G of EWC in the last year and my soil is full of worms too now because I just throw in the castings with worms into my mixes.


There are a few threads on worm binds, if not here as a sticky then surely over at roll it up I think i saw it. It has all the info you ever need.

Click to expand...

I understand that they slide there, but there are a lot of them there and they just swarm there. It also depends on the environment where the worms live, the climate outside and indoors. I just never did it, but just buy casting worms, so my questions are probably very amateurish).

I apologize if some nonsense was asked, I was really interested in how it is in aesthetic terms. Thank you for your responses! Have a nice day and harvest!