Questions about eggs in worm bin

[Growdo Baggins]

Can anyone tell what these are? They look like mite eggs when I googled it. There's a mite in the picture that's the same color as the eggs, in the third picture, but it looks smaller kinda.

A few weeks after starting the bins I found this spot on my neighbors horse farm with really dark soil loaded with worms and other small insects. I put a few handfuls of it into my worm bins and a few days later when I looked in there there were little red mite everywhere. I grabbed a few and put them under a microscope and they looked like predatory mites which I thought were okay. But I've read places that red mites will eat the worms. Are there any ways to draw them out? Specific foods they like? Just to drop the population some.

Here's the eggs

Here's the mites

Thanks for any help guys.

 

[bigtacofarmer]

Put some watermelon rind in there. All the mites will go to it. Throw mite covered rind away.

Most types of mites you find it the bin are ok as long as they do not get out of control.

 

[Growdo Baggins]

Put some watermelon rind in there. All the mites will go to it. Throw mite covered rind away.

Most types of mites you find it the bin are ok as long as they do not get out of control.

Thanks, I'll do that

 

[Vandenberg]

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When little critters "bug me" I reach for a little diatomaceous earth, "the melon trick" sure is easy peasey though. Vandenberg​

What Are Mites?​

Mites are tiny arthropods that belong to the class arachnida, the same as spiders and ticks. It’s an extremely diverse group with different species drawn to a dizzying array of environments like soil, fabric, animals, the human body, and yes…. worm bins.

While mites can be predators, parasites, and herbivores, the majority of mites you’ll find in a worm bin are detritivores, meaning they feed on dead and decaying organic matter.

In other words, mites are fellow travelers with worms; both are excellent composters.

What Do Mites Mean for Your Worm Bin?​

The vast majority of mites that you’ll find in your worm bin are there because they’re hungry for detritus, which is dead or dying organic matter. And mites will find this matter especially attractive when it’s wet.

They’ll proliferate in overly moist conditions in nature and they’ll do it in your worm bin as well. So if you happen to find a couple mites around the edge of your worm bin, or even collected around a dead worm, don’t panic. This is completely natural and probably nothing to be concerned about.

Unfortunately, detritus is the same kind of food that worms need to survive and work their magic in your worm bin.

Mites appearing to attack an otherwise healthy red wiggler
When mites are viewed eating a worm, it’s likely that the worm was already on death’s doorstep. Composting worms typically live around 1.5 years and a mature worm bin will have thousands of them.

So chances are several worms are dying each day, themselves becoming food for mites in your bin.

But I’ve seen plenty of images like this one where mites appear to be munching on a chubby worm in its prime, so I won’t promise that they’re always good guys.

Identifying Mites​

While there are thousands of different types of mites, the types of mites most like to be found gallivanting your moist, rich worm bin will either be of a white or a reddish color. They will be very slow moving.

White mites should not be confused with the elongated, faster-moving, lightly-colored springtails which also love wet conditions. And the red ones should not be mistaken for similarly-colored worm cocoons.

And you won’t see just a few here and there. You’re going to clusters of hundreds or thousands of them, often covering the entire surface of organic matter they find attractive.

How to Prevent Mites in the Worm Bin​

One of the best ways to prevent your bin from being overrun with mites is to make sure that the internal environment doesn’t get too moist, as mites love environments with high moisture. There are a couple ways to do this:

• Leave your worm bin uncovered from time to time.
• Mix fresh, dry bedding into the soil that will soak up the moisture. This could be any compostable material such as cardboard, straw, newspaper, coco coir, or peat moss.

By keeping your worm bin from getting too moist, you should be able to prevent mite populations from growing to annoying levels. But if necessary, there are a couple ways to remove them from your worm bin.



Food grade diatomaceous earth can be an excellent tool to fight mites

How to Get Rid of Mites​

If you’ve kept the moisture levels in your worm bin fairly regulated, you will probably still find these little buggers setting up shop in your worm bin. While a few mites sharing the food source with your worms is fine, there are ways to remove them if they overstay their welcome.

Firstly, if mites are congregating on the aforementioned foods, simply remove that mite-infested food by hand.

Mites typically prefer wet, rich foods like pumpkin, watermelon, and canteloupe and will gather around those foods when possible.

Reddish-brown mites, for instance, seem to love watermelon rinds. Simply remove the type of food that the mites seem to prefer and it should lead to a noticeable decrease in their numbers.

Sprinkle some food grade diatomaceous earth onto the surface of your vermicompost. This organic material, made from the fossilized remains of small aquatic organisms, will kill off mites without affecting your worms’ health.

Conclusion: Mites Are Nothing to Freak Out About​

Look. You’re trying to maintain conditions in a worm bin with high levels of humidity, all the while adding food waste that will often have water content north of 85%. It’s going to be hard NOT to encounter mites from time to time.

And they *are* effective decomposers, so if you’re a glass-half-full vermicomposter, you might even see them as a complement to your worms.

But to the extent that you view them negatively, you shouldn’t seek to eradicate them because you don’t want mites. You should ultimately seek to adjust the conditions that they found so attractive in the first place.

Vandenberg

 

[Sasult]

I keep them around, because the worms need the help with some foods and if nothing is there something will move in. I'll take composters and predators over spider mites and gnats anyday. Plus free frass.