Worm Factory DS5TT 5-Tray Worm Composter, Terra Cotta

I am a first-time vermicomposter, and I like this worm bin so far. It was very easy to put togther, very sturdy, and the instructions were clear. I just got my worms today, and no escapees so far. I've checked on them a couple times, and they seem fine. I started them off with a hanful of food prep scraps I had been saving in my freezer - broccoli stems, bell pepper, egg shells, thyme sprigs and spinach. I am leaving the light on, as suggested by the manual. Will update after a few weeks. As a first timer, I would recommend this bin b/c it gives you everything you need, including a manual that explains what and how to feed them.UPDATE: Be sure you get the right species of worms. Otherwise they will leave the bin and die like mine did. My first batch of worms all crawled out and died in various places in my garage. What a mess! The reason my worms were escaping was because I obviously bought the wrong kind of worms. I went to a local bait shop the first go-around. Be sure and order the right kind, even if you get them online! I got my new worms last week and NOT ONE singe worm has fled the worm bin. Do not go to a bait shop b/c they most likely won't know what species you need. I found out that there are over 7000 species of worms, so it pays to do your homework and get the right kind. As far as the worm bin goes. Love it! It is working perfectly. Highly recommend!

Likes:1. Worms move up to the next tray as they run out of food and reproduce. There is no sorting or sifting required as in other compost bins.2. Within 2 months, I added nearly 1000 worms to my vegetable garden and still had about 500 in the bin to continue composting!! My soil is only going to get better!3. Easy to add new material to be broken down4. Stays put during storms5. Doesn't take a lot of space; great for backyard gardeningDislikes:1. The lid is flimsy and just lays on top. Some nocturnal animal chewed a hole in the lid and got into the top tray a couple of nights.2. The smell can be overwhelming. Covering the greens with browns in each tray helps.3. Worm tea in the base is often a rich sludge. So, I have yet to use the spout because it stays clogged, but I add the sludge to my gardens as a fertilizer.4. Fruit flies and black soldier fly larvae moved in very quickly to the point of being gross. Adding more browns over the greens helped to greatly diminish both of these. Even though they help the composting process, the end product is not as good as the worm compost. There were no instructions for controlling unwanted populations.Overall review: For anyone looking to compost on a small scale for home gardening, this system is relatively easy to use and maintain. I absolutely love it!! It's also safer and less of an eye sore than large scale compost systems.

I liked this worm tower, we put it in the kitchen and fed the worms kitchen waste. There was no odors and no escapees.

I live in Maine and for half the year my outdoor compost bin is frozen. If I take compostable material out to it, wading through the snow, I see that squirrels have been rummaging around in the peels and pits but, otherwise, nothing has happened. I bought this bin a couple of months ago. It is very sturdy and seems a sensible solution to composting in the kitchen. The bin sits in a corner out of the way, the dogs and cats ignore it, and when I have anything for the compost I just lift the lid and drop it in. I bought a pound of red wigglers from a local worm entrepreneur and they seem quite happy in their worm factory. The kit comes with clear instructions and suggestions for the health of the worms, and I already have nearly a full tray of worm casts for my garden.

I would not recommend this product for inexperienced worm farmers, like me, particularly living in southern Arizona. My rating is a one star, but place a 3 because it probably will work in other states.What I learned:The worms like to go down when they are distressed and come up when they need food. Going down is OK, if they could go back up. This model doesn't have any mechanism for them to do so from the very bottom (the tray that has the spigot). The lid and trays do not sit snugly on the edges. So the worms can get out. Additionally, if you leave the spigot open like you are supposed to, they can crawl through it as well. This information was not listed anywhere I researched. If I had known about these defects I would not have purchased it.However, I think Worm Factory 360, which resolves these issues, would have been a bit more suitable item for my situation.My experience:I started this process in part of Arizona with garden zone of 9b, in late April in my garage. The instructions said the worms can survive bedding temperatures (mean air temperature) between 35 and 85 F. I have a semi air conditioned garage, which is 5 - 10 degrees cooler than outside. In May, mean air temperature of 75-85, I found all my worms in the bottom tray or on the floor, dead or dying. Thinking it was due to overly dry bedding, I misted it every day; still no luck. By last week of May, almost all of my worms died. I wasn't going to give up; I enlisted the help of my boyfriend. His first response was, the bin was too hot and may be we should reduce the decomposing (green) ratio by adding paper (brown). Adding the brown helped a bit, but still not too happy. By this point, my tray is full of scraps with maybe half a dozen wiggler worms. So, I went to a pet store, as I couldn't wait for another shipment, and bought about 200 worms. The clerk couldn't be sure, but I think they were night crawlers. I placed them on top of the old material in my only working bin.At this point the bin is full to the rim with a layer of wet newspaper on top. I placed another empty bin with some shredded papers on top and closed the lid. In a few hours, they were all in a ball, showing the signs of stress. I decided the bin was too compact and was not getting enough air. So, I broke the tray into 3 different ones, adding cow manure and moist paper to the mix and left the overhead fan and the garage florescent lights on. For the next few days, I kept finding worms on the floor and in the bottom tray in large quantities. On the third day, I transferred the contents of the previous 3 trays into 5 trays. Buy now, I have distributed the original tray into 5, without adding any more green food, but nothing has changed.By this point it is very hard to lift 4 bins at once and clear out, and rescue the worms from, the bottom tray. I decided I had enough. I made a decision to bring the worms inside the house. I placed them in the laundry room and turned the AC to 77. The next day, I only found 4 dead ones on the floor, and rescued a hand full from the tray. This is the second day, and the bottom tray has only a handful and only one on the floor. I think I may have done it. We are in the second week of June.