What is "Worm Tea"?
First and foremost, DON'T DRINK IT! Don't drink anything that comes out of your worm bin! :-)
I used to think that worm tea was the liquid that comes out of the bottom of a moist worm compost bin. While some do call that worm tea, it is in fact worm leachate, and it can be dangerous for your plants AND an indication of an overly-moist worm bin. The reason that leachate can be dangerous is because it is the runoff from still-composting scraps, and it can be unpredictable in its makeup. The best thing to do with leachate is to drain it and then pour it right back into your worm bin. It will likely moisten the topmost dry layers and not come out immediately at the bottom again. A little leachate at the bottom is fine, but if you're really draining a lot, cut back on your watering a little bit.
To make "real" worm tea, which is a liquid extraction of the minerals and elements found in worm castings, do the following:
Harvest some castings by whatever means you desire (I was just going to point you to a page on this site to tell you how to do that... until I realized there wasn't one. Google it for now and check back here for tips and hints).
To read about using worm tea as insect control, check out this recipe here. It's a little convoluted, but a fascinating read nonetheless.
Or you can simply soak 1 cup of castings and 1T molasses in 2 gallons of warm water for 24-48 hours and then water or spray with the tea as you desire (drain it first with a fine mesh sieve). You can also use cheese cloth (or similar) to make a tea bag for this purpose. This is a way to use your worm compost, and the resulting tea as a mild insecticide and fertilizer (without a complicated brewing/spraying process).
Good worming!
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