🪴 What’s in the Box

• Urbalive Worm Composter

• 500 g Composting Worms (Eisenia fetida & Dendrobaena veneta) or Worm Voucher

• Coir Bedding Block

• 2 kg Lime Mix – balances pH & prevents odours

• 2 kg Worm Treat – absorbs moisture & feeds worms

• Moisture Mat (Wiggly Blanket) – keeps conditions dark & damp

• The Wiggly Guide to Worm Composting + Online Knowledge Base

💚 Everything tested, farm-approved, and ready to work.

🌱 How the Urbalive Works

The Urbalive mimics a forest floor or muck heap, where composting worms naturally thrive. These worms are surface feeders (epigeic) – they live in the top few inches of organic matter where it’s warm, damp, and full of food.

Each tray has holes in the base so the worms can migrate upward toward fresh waste while the lower layer quietly matures into fine, crumbly compost. This continuous-flow design means no heavy lifting, no turning, and no smell – just clean harvesting every 6–8 weeks.

A drainage sump and tap collect any excess liquid (“worm tea”) so you can use it straight away as a diluted plant feed. And when your worms multiply (they will!), you can add an extra tray to give them more space and speed up processing even further.

🐛 Worm Behaviour & Fun Facts

• Worms are true recyclers – each one can eat half its body weight in waste every day.

• They’re hermaphrodites: any two can mate, and every fertilised cocoon hatches 2–6 baby worms after about 3 weeks.

• Each worm can live for up to five years if kept happy and of course they breed in the kit so you have the full lifecycle.

• Composting worms don’t burrow deep like garden lobworms – they stay near the surface, right where your food scraps are.

• A healthy wormery population initially doubles roughly every three months.

Worms need what they’d have in nature:

• Moisture (like a wrung-out sponge)

• Air (fluff occasionally)

• Moderate warmth (ideally 15–25 °C)

• Organic matter (veg peelings, fruit scraps, card, coffee grounds)
  Provide those, and they’ll do the rest – silently, tirelessly, 24 hours a day.

❄️ Cold Weather Notes

Worms naturally slow down in winter but keep processing food at a gentler pace. Even if conditions freeze, most survive and hatch again from cocoons once it warms up. Keep your wormery in a shed, porch, garage, or greenhouse through the coldest months. A cardboard jacket or old blanket works wonders.

♻️ How Much Waste Can It Handle?

The Urbalive can manage 3kg plus of kitchen waste each week – the average output from a family of four. If you occasionally produce more (for example, Christmas or harvest season), just pause feeding and start a Bokashi bucket to pre-ferment extra waste. The fermented Bokashi material can be added later once the worms catch up.

🍋 Why Bokashi + Worms Are the Dream Team

Bokashi composting pickles all your kitchen scraps – even meat, dairy, and cooked food – using beneficial microbes. After two weeks, the waste is partially broken down and microbe-rich. Add small portions into your Urbalive, and the worms will finish the job quickly and safely.

Together they form a closed-loop composting system:
🍲 Kitchen → Bokashi → Wormery → Soil → Food again!

💧 Worm Tea vs Vermicompost Tea

• Worm Tea (Leachate): The liquid that drains through to the sump. Dilute 1 : 10 with water and feed to houseplants or ornamentals.

• Vermicompost Tea: Brew a handful of finished worm compost in water for 24 hours (aerated if possible). It’s alive with beneficial microbes – ideal for veg beds, lawns, and seedling care.

💚 Wiggly Tip: Drain the tap weekly, and brew a “living tea” monthly for your garden.