Help! Wormery gone bad!

[Ley]

Can anyone give me some advice?

I got up this morning to a dreadful smell. My rather hot wormery had been knocked over by someone climbing over my garden wall and the mess was awful. I knew that something had gone wrong a while ago so I stopped adding to my wormery until I could give it some attention.

Now I realise that I have done exactly what the books warned of. Worms too hot and too over fed and now I don't know what to do with the foul mess I've created. It obviously went anaerobic. hence the pong and the deceased worms. Now I've made such a hash of it I need some advice.

Any ideas what to do with the foul smelling stuff?
Do I leave it to rot with more paper to help dry it up and drain off all the liquid?

Is the foul stuff safe to compost on my allotment? (my garden is too tiny to take anything and I'm surprised the neighbours haven't revolted after that awful smell!)

Any advice would be gratefully received.
Thanks
Ley

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by Ley

Can anyone give me some advice?

I got up this morning to a dreadful smell. My rather hot wormery had been knocked over by someone climbing over my garden wall and the mess was awful. I knew that something had gone wrong a while ago so I stopped adding to my wormery until I could give it some attention.

Now I realise that I have done exactly what the books warned of. Worms too hot and too over fed and now I don't know what to do with the foul mess I've created. It obviously went anaerobic. hence the pong and the deceased worms. Now I've made such a hash of it I need some advice.

Any ideas what to do with the foul smelling stuff?
Do I leave it to rot with more paper to help dry it up and drain off all the liquid?

Is the foul stuff safe to compost on my allotment? (my garden is too tiny to take anything and I'm surprised the neighbours haven't revolted after that awful smell!)

Any advice would be gratefully received.
Thanks
Ley

Welcome to WAB Ley.

This presumably is a closed system wormery ?

In any event you obviously want to get this sorted and simply piling everything back into the box is not the way foward. If you have room to store the putrid material for a few weeks, and if you have some soil available, simply make a heap and cover over with at least 5cm depth of soil (or if no other material - peat free compost). Adding a good quantity of garden lime will help neutralise the acidity and promote aerobic activity. These measure will see the smells recede within a day or so.

The material will certainly be usable on your allotment, though best to avoid brinign it into contact with any plants until it has reached a stable, non smelly state. I'd avoid adding any paper to it for now as this will only prolong the decay activity.

If you decide your closed wormery is not the way forward there are other options - including hybrid woormeries/composters - see:Worms and Composting
for discussion.

Hope this helps.

CM

[nightshade]

"My rather hot wormery" Worms do not like being hot,the wormery should be somewhere cool and shady or they die
If you are going to start again you will have to give a lot more thought to siting it. There is a load of advice if you google "siting a wormery"

[Dinasaw]

New member - no expert, but my composter went like this after i added some 'accelerant'. The smell was dreadful and I was so sad for my liquified wormy friends. I added some more peelings and shredded paper, left the lid off for acouple of days, then shut it up again and left it alone. I checked it yesterday, after about 6 weeks and there are worms busy in it again.