Sallygarden Smallholding - The Forum For Sustainable Living

¡Saludos llenos de sol desde Orgiva Sally and friends!

Just tomorrow I will receive my first bucket full of red worms(Eisenia Foetida)and our dry compost toilet consist in a big plastic drum with its tube going up for let fumes go, and the hole for the "let go", Do you think that is a good house for the red worms?(the drum it is half full already of a mix of our excrements plus leaves, sawdust, etc...) Is anybody able to tell me if I need to do some change to the drum, or just like that will work well? I´ve heard that liquids need to go out by some kind of drenage holes, but then all the smell and flies can come in...well, maybe somebody can xplain or guide me to a good web-page-book where I can see a home made compost toilet with red worms for take some xample...will be GREAT!! but realize that this is an emergency!!
Salud y amor
Belén (Orgiva-Granada-Andalucía)

Hi there

I've been researching composting toilets and tree bogs recently but had not come across the possibility of adding red worms to speed up the process, so thanks for opening my eyes to another brilliant avenue. I've been googling the subject and found this excellent website which explains how to use worms in a compost toilet
http://www.wormdigest.org/content/view/44/2/

As for the smells you mention ... you need to rectify the carbon ratio which will eradicate any smells ... this is simple, add something like sawdust. We get ours for free from either my husbands own wood work, or on larger scales from a local saw mills, they are happy to get rid of it and it smells lush!

Well, we don´t want the worms to speed up the process, just we got the rumor, that they make straight away amazing turba compost, and they are a natural source for helping with the transformation. The same they work with manure of animals, should do with our excrements.It was a Newzealander who start to xperiement, and looks it works very well! I got the worms last thursday, they arrive in a box, inside a bag with some good sustract, and I bet you they where very scared after 2 days travelling, as I hear worms don´t like much vibrations!!
We put some in the compost toilet bin we are using at the moment the next morning after they had arrived, some in our vegetal compost, and some in the old compost toilet bin that was composting for few months already. Lets see what is going on. We gonna xperiment and give some feedback to whom needs it.
Feel wellcome everybody to make questions.
A couple of fotos from our litle friends!!
Thanks for you tips! : )
[[/b]url=http://www.imageposter.com/uploads/get/291063][/url]

Thanks for the pics Belen. Without worms its advised to leave compost toilets for 2 years to ensure pathogens are broken down ... is it different with worms added ... I wonder what effect they have on the presence of pathogens?

A minimun of 2 years composting was what we knew for a compost toilet. I wonder too about how goes this experiment with the red worms
¡Hasta pronto!

Belen, how goes your toilet?

I've just been reading The Humanure Handbook which is a FANTASTIC read. It isn't just about composting human manure, it contains excellent chapters on world pollution and consumption problems all delivered with a dash of wit. I'd urge anybody with even a remote interest in living sustainably to read this gem.

Worms are mentioned with regards to composting human manure and actually it says that there is no need to add them. At first a thermophillic reaction takes place, that means the compost heats up to well over 37C which would kill or drive worms out. The thermophillic reaction is important for killing off pathogens in conjunction with the 2 year curing time (timed from last use). After the thermophillic reaction the worms come up through the heap later to complete the composting process. There's quite a bit about how to prevent the heap becoming smelly but having said that it's all very simple. It's basically adding enough carbon and air gaps to balance the nutrients, absorb excess fluids and cover the deposits to keep flies off ... sawdust, moss, hay, straw. Only sawdust that doesn't derive from pressure treated (nasty chemicals) and hasn't been kiln dried (too dry) should be used.

Having looked at the book I'd advise anybody thinking of humanure composting to read it in order to get it just right, just as we'd read a recipe when baking a cake. I'd also challenge anybody who thinks composting human poo is disgusting to read the book because after reading it you'll be converted ... actually flushing our poo away in what ultimately becomes our drinking water is totally unsustainable, polluting, disgusting and wasteful of something that could easily be a magnificent and perfectly safe (when done properly) resource. I'm a convert.