At last - the worm bin blog is here! Composting with worms, also known as vermicomposting, has been going since the dawn of dirt. Worms aerate the soil, eat and expel organics, and add nutrients to the soil. In Alaska, composting is usually a summer only event due to the fact that the compost piles are either frozen solid, covered in 4 feet of snow or far enough away that getting your kitchen scraps to the pile is an adventure in iteslf. That is why I let worms make my compost!
I have a worm bin that I call the worm "still" because it looks like an alcohol still. It is a four tier system (see photo below), that allows me to rotate the bins and clean them out as needed easily. There are many different types of bins and I know you could build one yourself as well. Try Mother Earth News for directions. I end up creating about a bushel of compost (worm castings) per winter and about 12 gallons of worm juice which I use to water the house plants, herbs and fruit trees in the winter and in the summer it goes in the greenhouse and on the garden trees and plants.
I keep my bin in the garage behind our freezer. It keeps some warm air circulating around the bin from the freezer as well as keeping the freezer cord from getting tripped over and unplugged or damaged. That space also allows me to keep my worm juice jugs close to the system as well as the water jugs for dumping on the system. It requires about 1/2 gallon of water per week whether you are feeding the worms or not. I am using redworms and my worms came from Alaska Mill and Feed in Anchorage. There are other places that have redworms available as well, both locally and to order. 
The system works well for all types of compost except for meat, dairy and grease products. We even put in paper towels and napkins that have been used for juice and water spills and the worms love coffee grounds, tea bags and any type of old fruit. The photo to the left is some of the apple leavings from making sauce with a few egg shells and paper towels from wiping down the counter after processing apples thrown in. The worms do have a few favorites and egg shells and avacados are two of them. They also love mango and papaya! They don't get those often here though.
Start with your kitchen scraps, I keep mine on my counter in a coffee can, but you can get a special bin to keep them in so you dont have to empty so often. Once you have a nice quantity of scraps for the worms or you can't get the lid on the coffee can anymore, tear a few pages of newspaper into strips about an inch wide and soak the lot in a cool water bath. These will cover the scraps when you put them into the top bin layer. You need at least an inch of paper over the whole layer so there will be no odors or mildew form. Layer the scraps into the bin. I usually can tell where the scraps need to go as there will be an indent in the paper materials where more scraps have been eaten. If there arent any indents to be seen, just peel back the old layer of paper and place the scraps evenly on half of the bin. Cover with the new paper strips you tore, and if there is any water left in the bowl or container, dump it on top as well. This system has to be kept very damp for the worms to be happy and do work. A dry bin is like sandpaper for the worms and also does not produce the worm juice that you need to feed your plants.
The above photo shows a fresh fill up after a clean out. The blue that you can see also in the photo above is the tabs from tea bags. The worms eat those too! The photo below shows a bin that is ready to be cleaned out. When your top bin is full it will be time to clean out the bottom bin. Take the bins out of the base and remove the bottom bin setting it aside. Replace the other two bins into the base and clean out the soil from the bin you set aside. I always clean out the bins by sifting through the new soil and putting the worms that are left there into the now top bin of the system. You can skip this step but once your dirt dries out your worms that are left in there will die.
If you dont have time to do a clean out by going through the soil by hand and picking worms, try setting the bin aside, cut an avacado or mango in half and place cut side down on top of the bin. In a day or so come back and pull the fruit out. Your worms will be gathered in the fruit and you can just place that fruit in the bin, thereby saving your worms! See photo below of worms gathered on a half apple.
Redworms are not Alaska hardy, so they cannot survive freezing. My garage is not heated except what the boiler puts off, usually stays about 50 degrees in there in the winter.
If you have trouble with flies around your system, something is wrong. Either you do not have enough newspaper stripping over the product or you have put something in there that should not be in there. I have had one fly outbreak and it was due to not having enough paper on the top of the system.
When I use my worm juice I generally dilute it by 1/2 to make sure none of the plants would be burned. I mix the worm dirt in with my garden and potting soil just like you would compost.
This can also be a great learning experience for kids (especially boys) as the worms fascinate them and they learn that not everything has to go in a garbage bag. My kids have also had success using the worms as fishing bait! Have fun with it!
There are other things that worms can do as well. Check out the Alaska Bioshelter blog at https://sites.google.com/site/alaskanecoescapeedu/
The Karns bioshelter does some amazing things, including using worms to compost household waste and septage!
