No related products were found for this product. I’ve read a great deal about how red worms(Esenia Fetida) are not good enough to be used a a bait worm. I disagree. Red Worms (Esenia Fetida) are a great bait worm and they are easy to grow and can be quite attractive to fish if you fatten them up with the right fattener.
If you pull a red worm right out of a pile of manure it might not be too tempting to fish, but if you fatten it with a homemade fattener that I’m going to show you how to make then the fish will coming biting and you be a happy camper…or fisherman.
Worm fattener does exactly what it sounds like it does, it fattens worms but it also changes the taste of the worms in such a way that fish actually find them more attractive when used as bait.
This is what you will need:
Chicken Food Egg Laying Pellets-
Pellets are better than the powdered stuff because the powdered stuff usually has chunks of corn that are not broken down enough. The pellets are reduced to a powder and then formed into pellets.
Powdered Milk
Wheat or Rice Bran
Wheat Flour
Agricultural Lime
Rabbit Pellets (alfalfa pellets)
Get a big bowl or pot
Mix in 5 Parts of the chicken food.
Add 2 parts of rice or wheat bran
Add one part of each of the other ingredients.
To simplify, If you add 5 cups of chicken food then you will add 2 cups of wheat bran and 1 cup of each of the other ingredients.
You can mix these together and use them dry on the fattening beds. A fattening bed is a bed of adult worms that you wish to fatten.
Moisten the bed first and then add the food dry to the top.
You can also use a blender and blend all of the mixed ingredients into a fine powder that you sprinkle over the bed.
Another way is to moisten the mixture and feed the worms by laying patties of the fattener on top of the bed. Cover the top of the bed with some landscaping cloth and the worms will come up and eat themselves into fat bait worms.
Enjoy you fishing. I’d like to hear from you if you have other fattener recipes or if you use this one.
Thanks for stopping in.
Ken
Over the past several weeks we’ve experienced a deep freeze like we have not experienced in 20 years. It has been very cold and this is threatening our worm beds. We’ve taken some emergency measures that have brought us through the deep freeze so far. I just wanted to share it with all of you because you may be experiencing the same thing.
We have many outdoor worm beds that are approximately 100 feet long each. We dig the beds so that we have a portion of the bed beneath the freeze line her in New Jersey. We do this so that the worms can retreat during a deep freeze, ball up together and stay warm until the beds thaw. We usually spray the beds with water prior to the first freeze. We do that to allow the top layer to freeze forming a hard cover of ice which allows the bed beneath the ice to remain protected. It will take very cold weather to freeze the layer beneath the ice shield. We’ll we received that very cold weather and I began to fear for the worm cocoon, baby worms and breeders.
I decided to heat the beds naturally. We did this by doing something we would never do during warm weather. We allowed our green manures to mix and heat in the worm beds. I took bales of straw and soaked them until they were mushy. It took two days. I also gathered up all of the horse and rabbit manure we could get. We ued the fresh stuff.
We usually mix the manure and straw together, wet it down and heat and then only use the mixture after it is through the heating process. We do this to protect the worms. For our warming project we dug trenches down the center of the worm beds and put a layer of straw down (don’t use hay or you may have hay growing in your worm beds when the weather warms), we put a layer of manure down and then a layer of shredded newspaper and mealworm frass from our mealworm beds. This is a powder from the bran we use to fed our mealworms. It is rich in nitrogen and heats when wet quickly. We created three levels by alternating the ingredients listed. Then we watered the beds with water brought to the beds in buckets because the hoses froze.
We covered the beds with landscaping fabric and secured it. Two days later we had temps of 80 degrees in the center of our beds and the worms were swarming like they do in spring. We’ve added manure and straw weekly to extend the heating. a month has gone by now and the center of the bed is still reading 60 degrees. The outer edges are cold and frozen in spots but the center remains warm and healthy. The weather is supposed to warm into the 30’s and 40’s this week which is normal for this time of the year so we will scale back on the heating measures and we will watch the weather closely.
The good news is that the worms look great and untouched by the killer cold snap here. The bad news is that we have to keep a close eye now. We had eggs hatch and we have a swarm of babies that we usually only get during spring and in our indoor beds. If a freeze catches us unaware the baby worms may be killed. We will have to continue warming the beds through spring now. I had thought to use soil warming cables but decided to try a natural method instead.
I’ll let you know how this effects our spring harvest which is a majorly important part of our business.
How do you keep your beds warm? Any ideas?
I get many questions from people who want to produce worm castings for houseplants or for spring gardens but who live in cold climates. They ask if they can compost indoors year round without getting fly and gnat infestations in their compost bins and without using stinky manure.
The answer is a big YES. You can composting in your house and you can do it without smells and pests if you do it right.
Supplies you will need:
1. 12 Gallon plastic storage bin with a lid.
2. Drill
3. Dry Newspapers
4. 5 cups of peat moss or coir bedding.
5. 2 cups of garden soil (for grit and microbes.
6. 250 to 500 red worms
7. Food Scraps.
Drill holes around the upper rim of the bin for air and also drill holes in the lid. Just drill all you want to create good air flow.
Rip newspaper into strips and then soak the strips until they are soaked.
Soak the peat and then squeeze the peat until it is just moist but not dripping wet.
Mix the peat and the newspapers together and add the garden soil to the mixture.
Add the food scraps to the mixture in the bin and burry them beneath the bedding.
Add the worms and place the lid on the bin.
That’s it. As you generate food scraps bury them in the bin to eliminate odors and to stop flies and gnats from getting at the food and laying eggs.
After 30 days or so you should check the worms to see if it is swarming with baby worms. When you see baby worms remove the breeders you started with and start a second bin.
Stop feeding the babies in the first bin and let them eat all of the food as they grow. When you no longer see visible food and when the bedding is sand-like you can harvest the worms from the first bed and use the castings for your plants. Use the worms to start new beds. You should have plenty of worms by then to start a couple of bins.
Please write with your questions. There are so many variations on how you can harvest and feed that I want to cover them but I don’t want to drone on and on in this post. Thanks!
Ken
2009 was one of the worst years of my life. I spent New Year’s Eve and the first day of 2009 living in my unheated and non- insulated shed. I had a fight with my wife on New Year’s Eve and left the house instead of fighting. Three days later my dog died. Two days after that my wife’s van died. The nation’s economy hit the skids and my business started the long road down. Bad news started on day one of 2009 and didn’t start to turn around until about November. I know…too much information. “TMI” as my kids say.
I type this today as I sit in my house next to a roaring fire and a loving wife. My kids are playing nicely in the other room and all is well in 2010 so far. I hope this is a taste of what 2010 will be like. We have a new dog too. 
I am working on some videos concerning different facets of my business. I’m also working on some cool videos about things like step by step growing guides for bugs.
I’ve also started some work on videos for things like growing orange trees from seed and that sort of thing. Not really our normal stuff but stuff that I find fun none the less.
I’m going to start a video tomorrow where we take three different types of composting worms and place them in containers with the same bedding and food and we will check on them weekly for a month and then I’ll count the eggs and baby worms in each container to see how many we get per container. I’ think I’m going to us 25 worms in each container.
I may also do this with mealworms to see exactly how many worms a mealworm beetle actually makes. That should be fun.
Have any ideas for videos or projects? Post those here and if we pick your idea to make a movie or a project out of you will win free worms or beneficial insects of your choice.
Have a great 2010 and thanks for reading my blog.
Ken
I am so excited because the seed catalogs have started arriving in my mailbox over the past week or so. It’s two weeks before Christmas and it is cold and “snaining” (Mix of rain and snow. Yuck!) here.
I started thinking about my yearly soild improving plan. I have one every year and so should you. The soil improving plan doesn’t have to be some grand plan written by a professional. My plans are usually scribbled on scraps of paper tucked into some seed or plant catalog or in a notebook.
Last year my plan was to clean out several 100 foot worm beds and transfer the castings to my garden to create a thick loamy mass off goodness. I live in Monroe Township, New Jersey. The soil here is sand that is grey in color and turns desert-like when plowed. At least until it rains and the weeds sprout. I live on a road called “Matchaponix”. There were Lene Lenape Native Americans here hundreds of years before my family came here from Italy at the turn of the last century. “Matchaponix” was a name given by those Native Americans and mean “land of poor bread”. It was a reference to the soil in the area because it was difficult to grow grain to make bread. Enough said about the history of my poor garden soil.
My plan for 2010 is to add nitrogen fixing fodder plants to my garden in between my crops to enhance the nitrogen of my soil. Nitrogen is very important to plants. Many garden plants pull nutrients and nitrogen from the soil and use it to feed growth and create fruits and vegetables.
Nitrogen fixing fodder plants actually add nitrogen back into the soil through their roots. Some also can add nitrogen and important nutrients when you cut the tops and mix them back into your garden soil.
What plants are nitrogen fixing fodder plants?
Alfalfa- Sow in spring. This is probably the best nitrogen fixing plant. The cool thing is that you can plant this in your garden and dig holes in it to plant tomatoes and other vegetables. The roots do the nitrogen fixing but you can mow the tops and save them or compost the tops while still green and then mix the finished compost back into your soil.
Borage- better known as an herb to most gardeners, Borage also makes an excellent composting crop. Harvest after they flower and flop over. Then mix into your compost.
Clover (My 2nd Favorite)- I love clover because my bees use the flowers to make honey while the roots fix nitrogen into my soil. I also love that I can plant it in the fall and it will grow right through a mild winter leaving some really terrific soil for my plants in spring. My horses and rabbets also love to eat the flowers and leaves.
Crowder Peas- When the summer gets hot and other vegetables start to wither and flower plant Crowder Peas. They are one legume that loves the heat. You can also eat them.
Hairy Vetch- My teenage son told me that this sounds like a disgusting body part. Hairy Vetch Hairy Vetch is a top nitrogen fixing plant and it is very attractive because it is planted in late summer and isn’t cut until spring. It is a great winter cover crop. If you allow it to go to seed it will reseed your garden as a helpful weed and will help choke out other less desirable weeds.
Mustard- Is great for adding leaves to compost heaps. Mustard is one of the easiest plants to grow and it will grow quickly. It will not survive cold winters though. Keep some growing in various spots so that you can add the leaves to composting materials or use it to choke out weeds in your garden.
Quaker Comfrey (My favorite)- Not only is Quaker Comfrey a great nitrogen fixer right through the roots, it is also a perennial. Our rabbits and horses love it chopped up into their food and our red worms and euroworms eat it like crazy. All I do is throw some leaves in the worm bins and I let them go at them. I find more worm capsule(eggs) around those leaves than in any other spots. Manure from rabbits and horses that eat some comfrey with their food also creates a better worm casting product because of all of the nutrients.
Some good tips:
1. Rotate your garden spot if you can so that you can use nitrogen fixing plants in last year’s spot to allow the soil to recuperate before using it again. Giving the soil some time off will do wonders for your crops.
2. If you can’t rotate your garden spot then rotate your rows. Plant tomatoes in a row this year and then nitrogen fixing crops in that row next year. Most gardeners can rotate rows with less space problems.
3. Try to plant nitrogen fixing crops in the fall so that you can have your garden ready for spring. This will save you work because the cold will cut the plants back for you. You can then plant over the nitrogen fixing crop.
Please enjoy your garden. My garden is one of the many reasons I enjoy living.
I’ve compiled a list of facts based upon questions that I receive from people that stop in.
1. How long until baby red worms become breeders?
Baby worms mature in about 4 to 6 weeks and live for about a year. This means that you will have mature breeders about 6 weeks after your red worms hatch from the capsule. You can see how this would exponentially grow your worm population. The time frame and life expectancy is based upon a proper environment.
2. How many worms can come from 1000 worms?
We’ve heard all kinds of estimates about how many worms will come from 1000 worm and we get questions all the time from people worried that their worm population will explode and spill out of their compost bins. This will never happen unless you want it to. The carrying capacity of the bin will dictate the amount of worms your bin will sustain. More food and space will mean more worms. If you take 1000 red worms and move the breeders to a new bin every month it is possible to end up with roughly 1 million worms in about 2 years. This is an estimate based on the very best worm husbandry procedures. In a normally maintained bin with food added weekly you will never grow 1000 worms exponentially unless you move the breeders to fresh bins every month and care for the bins containing the babies.
3. Can I use regular dirt from outside for my worm bin?
You cannot use regular dirt from outside for your red worm composting bin. Red worms require a good bedding made from shredded paper, cardboard , peat moss or coconut fiber. The food should be manure of food scraps. The best bedding is a mixture of all of the items listed. The bedding must be light weight and not compacted so that the worms can move around. The bedding must also be able to have air flow so that anaerobic activity does not take over the bed. Common dirt will not allow for any of this and your worms will soon die. This is why red worms are not good for lawns and gardens on their own but their castings are fantastic. A handful of dirt in the worm bin will help your red worms digest the food you provide so a little dirt won’t hurt.
That’s it for now.
Have some fun facts or questions? Post them here or send them to me and I’ll add them here. Thanks!
Ken
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=3bf69955-ddeb-4586-84c3-3b365ff1d87e)
One of the members of our forum asked some great questions about what caused the mealworm shortage and what mealworm farms were doing to stop future shortages. I answer his questions below and I wanted to share those with you. Please feel free to go to our forum and weigh in or weigh in right here.
Farming is not always foolproof. We have lived through a red worm shortage and a superworm shortage that were both nation-wide. Europe was hit by a cricket disease that almost wiped out their cricket breeding industry. What you don’t often see is that many farmers of worms, crickets and other products communicate and buy from each other. This interconnectedness even while openly competing for business can lead to national shortages when demand rises or when one of the big boys(or girls) gets hit hard with one thing or another.
Now on to my answers.
I think that this is a great question. We were hit by the shortage also. I think that there were several issues that caused the shortage in mealworms.
1. Many farms buy from other farms when they run short. So if my demand spikes and out paces my capacity I will buy from another farm to fill our orders. Some say that low prices coupled with a spike in orders caused growers to look for more from other farms. Those farms could not compete and many dipped in to their breeding stocks and it caused long term effects.
This was our issue at Wormman.com and we are still having an issue with large mealworms running out often.
2. Some say that the some farms were using growth hormone to grow their large mealworms. Beetles that come from such mealworms are sterile so farmers growing large worms with the hope of breeding them were hit when they got very little from their beetles. I think that this is very likely because it is very hard to grow large mealworms to a very large size without growth hormone. We only use growth hormone to grow our Giant Mealworms.
3. Some farms were saying that they had an issue with the food supply for their mealworms. They say it was tainted with insecticide or something. This is not plausible because we all get our food from different places.
4. Some say it was a mealworm disease. That’s not what hit us. What hit us was increasing demand with a decreasing price which also increased demand more. Then when we started to run short of mealworms and didn’t want to dip into our breeders we could not buy enough to meet the demand. The cycle got worse until everyone was out.
Many measures have been put in place. Many farms have grown their mealworm facilities to prevent this in the future. We have doubled our mealworm breeding space. The long term effect will be a reduced price in the future as more people start farms to meet demand. That should benefit consumers of mealworms.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=774a6f72-d6a7-45fd-a217-0da047898d0c)
Posted in Mealworms | 
Tags: Agriculture, Business, Farm, Farmer, Food, Growth hormone, Insecticide, Shopping | 
No Comments »
San Francisco has enacted a new law that is stirring up some you know what. Citizens of San Francisco must compost certain items or face fines. This is the first mandatory composting law that I’ve ever heard of.
I don’t know how I feel about this. I believe in freedom and I believe in personal responsibility. I believe that if you don’t practice personal responsibility you will relinquish your freedoms a little bit at a time. The government must step in to fill the void left when people become irresponsible. I’d love to see everyone composting. Not just because I am a worm farmer but because it is great way to conserve resources and create natural fertilizer that beats the pants off of chemicals.
How do you feel about this? I’d Like to hear your thoughts.
Ken
Posted in Composting, Garden Plants, Lawn Care, Laws |
Tags: Adult, Business, California, Compost, Law, San Francisco, San Francisco Bay Area, United States |
No Comments »
Moles can be a huge problem in worm beds and gardens. The burrow into worm beds and eat worms. They will make a home in the worm bed in colder climates and ride out the winter with a smörgåsbord of worms.
Prevention is the way to go and I have a post(Mole Prevention Post) about preventing moles in your worm beds. This post focuses only on getting rid of them.
How do you know you have moles in your worm bed? You may have seen them. That could be why you are here. They will scare you half to death if you are digging through your worm bed and all of a sudden a rodent springs out. If you don’t drop over from fright you must take action.
1. Disturb the bedding. Turn the entire bed.
2. If you see a mole try to catch it. If you can catch it and it escapes then turn the entire bed and make sure there aren’t other moles.
3. If you catch a mole. (Don’t use your hands. Yuck!) Move him far away or kill him/her.
4. If you have a recurring problem you may want to use a mole trap or poison. Be very careful that you do not poison your worm bedding with chemical poisons. You will poison your worms and yourself if you are using the bedding around food plants.
5. Seal around the beds with hardware cloth and be sure to use something under the bed to stop the moles from coming up.
I recommend catch and release of moles using traps. I also think that building beds on top of industrial landscaping fabric is a cost effect and mole proof way of protecting your beds and worms from pesky moles.
There are some products that you can check out that can help. Please remember that poison should be a last resort and you should check with local officials to see if poison is even lawful to use in your are.
Posted in Animals, Composting, Garden and Worm Farming Pests |
Tags: Compost, Garden, Home and Garden, Worm |
No Comments »
Coir bedding is a fantastic alternative to peat moss. The peat bogs are being depleted quickly and this is resulting in an altered ecosystem where peat bogs are being farmed. Coir is a great alternative because it is renewable. Coir bedding is actually a product that comes from coconut shells. The result is a great product that does what peat moss does buy at a lower cost both in money and in impact on the environment.
Mix Coir with slightly aged manure as you would with peat and your worms will respond with glee. Composting with Coir as worm bedding will also leave you with excellent worm castings.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=b7c7690b-7c10-4b2b-a205-d0cbbf70cd1c)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=bef1c800-d3ed-42ae-a338-d822a8dded47)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=8b538bdc-99a8-4c27-86c7-e1d59af2221e)
February 14th, 2010 | 
Author: 
