Comments on: Working Worms

By: Adina

Adina — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 01:12:47 +0000

Thank you for your comment Kristina. Keep up the good worm farming!

By: wormfarming gal

wormfarming gal — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 03:40:51 +0000

This is interesting! I want to try this out and would like to know ways on how I can market earthworm composting products. I would really appreciate your reply. By the way, do you know how much one can possibly profit from vermiculture technology? Thanks a lot! – Kristina

By: pam searles

pam searles — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:38:59 +0000

thanks for the info. i do have a worm bin with the spigot at the bottom; i don’t know that it is the best method for vermiculture.

By: Adina

Adina — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 03:33:06 +0000

I recommend you give them an opportunity to leave the castings you intend to harvest by pushing the worms and their castings to one side of their tray, and fill the other side with garbage, and cover the garbage over in wet shredded newspaper (straight cut, not cross cut). Stir the side with the castings, and leave it exposed to light (not direct sunlight) in an effort to encourage the worms to move to where there is plenty of food, dampness and darkness.
Or you can put it all on a very fine sifter and wait for the worms to travel down and thru the sifter into a wheel barrow or other container below where there should be shredded wet newspapers or moistened coconut coir waiting for them.
Or buy a proper worm bin.

By: pam searles

pam searles — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 20:05:57 +0000

what method do you recommend?

By: Adina

Adina — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 00:35:30 +0000

I guess you could try that. I find when I sift my compost it is easy to damage the worms that wind up on the the sifter, so be as gentle as possible. The worms will naturally dive down away from drying air and light so the sifter might be effective if the castings will stay above and you give the worms a chance to dive, like if your mesh is on a frame and is suspended over your wheelbarrow. Good luck with that.

By: pam searles

pam searles — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 20:32:04 +0000

well, my worms are FINALLY going and growing like gangbusters. i harvested some red worms from my garden, and they are multiplying like rabbits. what is a good way to harvest the worm castings and then put the worms into another tray? i have a wood framed screen with 1/4 inch mesh; do i dump the worms and everything onto that and sift?

By: Adina

Adina — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 17:14:37 +0000

Pam,

Pam, If the white grubs are pretty big they could be black soldier fly larvae. If you are picking them out it is good to know that chickens and fish love them, so if you have either, you have a nice protein source for them. If you don’t you might put them out for the wild birds. Is your bin the open wheelbarrow then? It is not uncommon to get other composting organisms into an open vibe like that, and even the closed composters get some visitors from the garbage you put in. Some of us freeze our garbage and then thaw it again before feeding it to the worms to make sure there aren’t any fly larvae in the garbage.
If you have fruit flies it might help to cover over your bin with a lot of dry shredded newspaper. My bin has red mites. It doesn’t seem to disturb the worms. I am not sure it is a bad thing if other invertebrates inhabit your worm bin. Remember in the outdoor compost there are lots of creatures eating there. The worms working in the compost don’t seem to have any problem flourishing in that populated environment.

If your worms are red wigglers you will see they have slim red bands on their bodies that gives them their red color.

If the worms you have are doing the work you need them to do in your wheel barrow then I wouldn’t add any other worms to that. There is something to be said for a closed system, that is that you never know what organisms are coming in with a new box of worms, and worms multiply very quickly, and will fill the space they are given in very little time.

Worm mating is a pretty brutal affair. Worms are both male and female at once and during mating they use hooks to manipulate the coupling, competing to be male. It gives new meaning to the term ‘hooking up’. The one that winds up being female makes the egg casings which you can see in your bin. they look like a nearly translucent bronze or orange balls or ovals about the size of a small grape seed.

Here is a url for a worm bin site that may have the answers to your insect or grub questions.
http://www.wormbincomposting.com/wormcompostingbugs.html

By: pam searles

pam searles — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 03:38:30 +0000

i guess i’m on a worm tangent tonight. i’ve ordered red wigglers before, and i killed them somehow in my early days of worm farming (6 months ago). now, i harvest worms from a big wheel barrow that i throw hay, dirt and fruit peels. there are tons of worms in there, and they are red in color. do you think they’re red wigglers? they are from 2-4 inches long.

By: pam searles

pam searles — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 03:30:36 +0000

ps. how do the worms multiply/procreate? are there pregnant worms or do they lay eggs?

By: pam searles

pam searles — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 03:29:11 +0000

my worm bin always gets tons of white grubs. the compost junk is tad on the wet side, but not overly so. i go in there every other day and pick them out. they are so disgustingly gross and evil looking, and they multiply like rabbits. can the worms and grubs live in harmony or will the grubs overtake my beloved worms?

By: Adina

Adina — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 23:49:34 +0000

oh, that would be quite a trip for a consult. I checked your weather, you have beautiful daytime and night time temperatures, so your worms are not too hot. My worms spend a good bit of time below (in the swimming pool) even in the best weather. When I harvest the bin I scoop them and their castings up into the harvest section so that they have to dive again. I am guessing, but I think they go there because they enjoy the moisture. I find earthworms in the filter media of my ponds which is entirely submerged in water. They don’t drown in water as long as it is oxygenated. Thanks for your comment and for reading.