- A storage tote or homemade shallow box with ventilation screens and a lid may serve as the worm compost bin. Line the bin with soaked torn cardboard or shredded junk mail and bury the food scraps in pockets under the surface to feed the worms.
- Once a worm bin is set up, it takes two to three months for the red worms to convert most of the food scraps to worm compost. Composting of kitchen scraps the regular way---mixed with leaf and grass cuttings---may take up to a year.
- Worm compost contains more minerals and nutrients, added by the worm's gut in the process of digestion, than does regular compost. It also delivers its nutrients to plants in a gentler form than that provided by chemical fertilizers. Worm composting may continue indoors without interruption throughout the year, unlike outdoor composting, which slows or halts during cold winter months.