Mama's Worm Composting

Reader Question: How to Harvest Worm Compost From the Gusanito Worm Farm

The question in its entirety was a very long one, so I will sum it up here:

My Gusanito system is very wet, but the worms are happy. There are still loads of them in the bottom tier, but I'm ready to harvest. I've tried to attract them to the upper tiers with watermelon, but it hasn't worked. How do I get them to leave the bottom level so I can use the worm compost?

My suggestion is to concentrate on drying out that bottom level by rearranging the layers so that what was the bottom is now the top layer. Then leave the lid off the system for a while. This will both dry out the worm compost and encourage the worms to move downwards away from the light and to where it's moist. You can speed the process along by gently raking through the worm compost to agitate the worms, but be careful not to do this too much or else all of your worm compost will fall through the holes in the tray! 

After a day or two when you see that most of your worms have migrated down, you'll need to separate any remaining worms and cocoons from the resulting vermicompost. I recommend setting the tray on risers and sifting gently through the compost to let it fall through the holes. If you see a worm or a cocoon, pick it up and put it back into the original system (come on, you can do it!). You should mostly have just worm compost at the end. If you really can't handle touching your worms, that's ok. Just use the remaining worms and cocoons along with your vermicompost; worms are good for the soil, so having a few of them in your beds will only benefit your plants. 

Good worming!

Buy Can-O-Worms HERE!

Where to buy Red Wigglers? HERE

Where to buy European Nightcrawlers? HERE

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Worm Compost Challenge: Cat Poop

I've recently been investigating (pet) animal poop composting systems, so I thought I would go ahead and give it a go. Today when I harvest worms I'm going to bring along the most recent, er, deposits from my three lovely kitties. I already use eco-friendly litter that's made from corn, so I don't need to worry about poisoning my worms with the litter. Word on the street is that pet poop is generally just fine as long as you don't use the resulting worm compost in a food garden. I'll be adding it to a system that's already stable with horse manure and will report back once I see any significant changes. 

I know I have a few Worm Compost Challenges going on right now, and believe me I'm keeping track of everything. Not much has happened yet, though, with the How Many Worms? challenge, the original Worm Compost Challenge, or the the Can I Put Meat In My Worm Bin? challenges. I WILL keep you posted! 

Good worming!

Buy Can-O-Worms HERE!

Where to buy Red Wigglers? HERE

Where to buy European Nightcrawlers? HERE

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Reader Question: Can I Put Meat In My Worm Bin?

Can I put meat in my worm bin?

There is a lot of published information out there about what to feed and what not to feed your worms. One of the things that comes up again and again is that you should not feed meat to your worms. However, the main reasons given for this are not that it would hurt the worms or produce bad worm compost; the reasons given are that it may produce bad smells or attract unwanted pests. I think for this reason that, if your worm bin were outside or in the garage, you could feed small amounts of these items (well buried) without much consequence. 

I'm going to go ahead and run a test here and put a meatball (daring, I know!) into one of my bins at the warehouse. I'll report back in a week or so and let you know how the worms react, whether the worm compost near the meatball seems odd, if it smells bad, or if it has maggots. Stay tuned!

Good worming!

Buy Can-O-Worms HERE!

Where to buy Red Wigglers? HERE

Where to buy European Nightcrawlers? HERE

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DNA vs. Worm Reproduction

Just a little tidbit for today.

Last night my husband was beside himself with excitement. He practically dragged me over to the computer to watch what he deemed was the most fascinating thing he had ever seen. I sat down and started to watch a short animated clip about how DNA reproduces itself in our bodies. Yawn. "But look," he said, "it's like an assembly line! It has levers! It's like a robot is putting the DNA together! HOW can you not be interested in this???"

I said, "Show me a video that is a step-by-step of how worms reproduce... I'll be interested in THAT!"

He then got into how videos of reproduction can be interesting with all types of species and, well, you get the idea. We had a laugh.

Stay tuned for an update very soon on the Worm Compost Challenge and my own worm reproduction experiment. 

Good worming!

Buy Can-O-Worms HERE!

Where to buy Red Wigglers? HERE

Where to buy European Nightcrawlers? HERE

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Reader Question: Ants in Worm Bin

I have a trail of black ants climbing into my worm bin. How do I get rid of them? Will they hurt my worms?

Black ants won't attack your worms (with the exception of fire ants), but they can affect the worm's ability to make worm compost in that they compete for food if they become too plentiful. In addition, worms prefer a nice moist habitat, while ants like their home to be a little drier. Chances are if you have an ant problem occurring, your bedding is not quite moist enough for your worms. 

Here are three things you can do:

• Water your bin. You want the bedding to be quite moist, but to also allow for air flow. If you're worried about making the bedding too wet (and leading to anaerobic conditions), simply turn it every day or two until you get a feel for how wet the worms like it.
• Again, turn the contents of your bin. This activity will help deter the ants (and other pests) from laying eggs and will help kill off any existing larvae. 
• Put the feet of the bin into dishes of water. Ants can't swim, so this will prevent any additional ants from entering the system from the outside world. 

Learn about other worm bin pests / friends here:

Slugs

Fruit Flies

Maggots

Stay tuned for a Worm Compost Challenge update soon!

Good worming!

Buy Can-O-Worms HERE!

Where to buy Red Wigglers? HERE

Where to buy European Nightcrawlers? HERE

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Reader Question: How Do I Harvest Worm Compost?

How do I harvest worm compost?

This question has several different answers depending on how large your system is, what you're feeding your worms, and whether it's the worm compost you wish to harvest or the worms themselves. I will answer the question based on an average Rubbermaid style homemade worm bin for personal garden use. 

First off, with any type of worm or compost harvesting, you want to make sure that the contents of the bin are relatively dry; not so dry that it kills your worms, but not so wet that it all clumps together. You can dry out your bin over time by stopping feeding and turning the contents of the bin daily (leaving the lid off) until they start to dry out a bit. If you're not too picky about having pure castings you can also add a few handfuls of dry peat moss or coconut coir and mix it in; these things will absorb moisture and make it easier to harvest the worms and/or their castings.

Harvesting Vermicompost:

If you want to harvest your vermicompost or castings, the easiest and cheapest way that I can recommend is to go to the drug/home store (Wal-Mart, Target, etc.) and buy a lingerie laundry bag. Lay down a tarp or work on a large, clean table. Put several handfuls of worms and bedding into the bag and gently agitate it over your surface. Most of the worms and larger chunks of uncomposted material will stay behind in the bag while the castings and compost fall through the holes. You will quickly get a feel for how much material to put into the bag and how to agitate it effectively. If you have trouble getting the material to separate from the worms, again try adding peat moss. I also suggest wearing gloves; if you're the slightest bit squeamish they will help keep you calm (!), and if you do this a lot they will save you time cleaning under your fingernails! 

You can also harvest vermicompost by using a commercial grade harvester or by building one yourself. See some plans here. This method works best, however, when you are working with a larger quantity of worms who break down their feed more quickly than an average home system, thus allowing the bedding to fall through the holes in the harvester more easily.

Harvesting Worms:

To harvest worms (again, working with a smaller system) for either sharing or small-scale sales, I recommend harvesting by hand on a table under lights. I did this for a long while. It's not a very fun method when your orders are piling up in your fledgeling business, but it is an interesting activity that will quickly cure you of any worm phobia. The theory is simple: worms don't like light. Dump a whole bunch of worms and bedding out on a table in daylight or indoors under relatively bright lights. Wait about 5 minutes. Again, I recommend gloves as you will literally be digging through your worms. You can then start to gently scrape, with your hands or with a hand garden rake, the top layers of compost away from the worms and put it into a bucket. This isn't an exact science, and some worms will inevitably end up in your bucket. But most of the worms will continue to move downward away from the light. After a little while of this meditative activity, you will have a tidy pile of worms at the very bottom, where they will all congeal in a panicky pile. 

If you're going to share your worms with a friend, make sure to add them to as much bedding as you have worms for transport to their new bin. 

Good worming!

Buy Can-O-Worms HERE!

Where to buy Red Wigglers? HERE

Where to buy European Nightcrawlers? HERE

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How Many Worms?

I’ve done plenty of reading about worm reproduction rates as part of my research for starting this business. It can be hard to measure, though, just how many worms one has. So I’m going to be running experiment #2 for the week (the first being The Worm Compost Challenge). Actually this will be a year-long experiment. I’m going to take two adult worms, put them in a cup together, turn on some Barry White, and see how many baby worms they can make in a year.

Here’s a pic of the breeders I’ll be working with. Actually, they have a couple more weeks of growing before they’ll start making babies, but as soon as I see my first cocoon, I’ll post again.

C’mon, boys, get to it!

Good worming!  

Buy Can-O-Worms HERE!

Where to buy Red Wigglers? HERE

Where to buy European Nightcrawlers? HERE

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The Worm Compost Challenge

I’ve decided to create an experiment. I will grow from seed three different sets of plants; one set grown in pure worm castings, one set grown in worm compost (vermicompost), and one set grown in off-the-shelf potting soil. I’ve seen examples here and there online with images of plants and root structures grown in different mediums, but I wanted to run my own test. Specifically, I’m interested in finding out if there is a big difference between using worm compost and using pure worm castings.

I’ll be starting with two types of seeds: sunflowers and zinnias. I’ve chosen these types because 1. I have the seeds in my drawer, and 2. I’m sticking to flowers these days to support my bee-friendly garden.

 So stay tuned! I will provide bi-weekly updates. 

 Good worming!

Buy Can-O-Worms HERE!

Where to buy Red Wigglers? HERE

Where to buy European Nightcrawlers? HERE

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Reader Question: Will Worm Compost Go Bad?

Will worm compost go bad?

This is actually a complicated question. The answer depends on how the material is stored, and how you store it depends on whether it's pure worm castings or vermicompost. Pure worm castings are the result of the worms eating the compost, creating castings, eating it all again, creating more pure castings, and so on and so forth. Vermicompost is a combination of worm castings and compost (which you hear me refer to as worm compost). 

How can you tell the difference so that you know how to store it? It's time to use your sniffer. Take a sample of it and put it into an airtight bag for several days. Open it up, take a sniff; if it smells like soil/earth then you've got castings. If it smells raunchy in any way, you've got vermicompost. 

Here's how to store both to retain potency:

Vermicompost: Make sure that the worm compost is damp, not wet, so that enough air can get into it to continue breaking it down. Put it into a non-airtight container. Store it in a shady place. The vermicompost will eventually stabilize and will last for more than 3 years stored in this manner. 

Pure Worm Castings: You can store castings in an airtight container for 3 years or more. You can also use a non-airtight container, as long as the castings are not allowed to totally dry out. I've read that it's also wise to keep them in the shade. 

So the basic answer is, keep worm castings at least a little moist, and let the vermicompost dry a bit. 

Good worming!

Buy Can-O-Worms HERE!

Where to buy Red Wigglers? HERE

Where to buy European Nightcrawlers? HERE

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Using Worms to Clean Land

Check out this video HERE.

While researching about using earthworms to literally eat toxic waste and make polluted land usable again, I came upon this very interesting video about worms being used for just that. As you'll see in the video, the worms don't quite have a happy ending, but they are able to clean the land in question over the course of only two years, completely naturally. My dad used to work for various chemical companies (some good some bad) that often encountered cleanup challenges, and I remember him telling me about using various critters to clean up toxic waste; this is a perfect example of that. The folks in this video used only about 300 pounds of worms, plus an extra 100 pounds the second year, to clear a large swath of land. It's fascinating. Well, it's fascinating to me, a woman who wades through thousands of worms and hundreds of pounds of poop daily (worm, horse, cow... and child if we're being specific...). 

Use your worms for making worm compost, but keep little tidbits like this in the back of your mind for cocktail parties, friendly encounters, and latent plans about how you'll survive the end of the world. :-)

Good worming!

Buy Can-O-Worms HERE!

Where to buy Red Wigglers? HERE

Where to buy European Nightcrawlers? HERE

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