Worm Man's Worm Farm

Archive for the ‘Animals’ Category

I receive emails every week asking about different types of poop and which is best for castings which will be used in a vegetable garden.

The best poop for worm composting are horse manure, cow manure, and rabbit manure.  If you have access to the manure listed above then you are in luck.   The manure should be mixed 50/50 with peat moss.  Horse and cow manure should be moistened and allowed to heat first so that it does not heat in the worm bed.  Moistening it and allowing it to sit for a week should do it.  Then mix 50/50 with peat and let it sit again for a couple of days to ensure the peat does not activate heating in the worm bed.

Rabbit manure can be used fresh from the bunny.  Just make sure it hasn’t been soaking in urine first. If so, then wash out with water first before top feeding your worm bed.

Dog poop, cat poop and human poop should not be used. The poop listed can contain pathogens which are harmful to people.  If you later use the castings on vegetables you may be poisoning yourself and your family.  Dog, cat and Human poop also may contain heavy metals which will build up in the soil  after continuous composting.

Chicken manure can be composting and used as worm food but only after being watered and left to cook.  Cooking chicken manure means allowing it to age and degrade so that the acids wash out.

Chicken manure can be composted well if you use Black Solider Fly Larva.  If you decide to compost with Black Soldier Fly Larvae you can use the chicken manure fresh.  This is the only time fresh chicken poop should be used.
We take the chicken poop and mix it with straw and peat and wet down the pile. We stir the pile every three days and keep it moist.  When the straw snaps when bent then the mixture is ready for the worms.

Horse and Cow poop can be used after a short period of aging unless the animals have recently been wormed or given antibiotics. Do not use manure from treated animals for a week after treating the animal.  If you use the manure you risk passing the drugs to your worms which could kill them.

Worms turn poop into gold for gardeners.

That’s the poop on poop. Any questions?  LOL!

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.

Protect New Worm Beds From Moles.

Moles are a problem with outdoor worm beds.

Image via Wikipedia

A worm bed that is not protected will eventually fall prey to moles who tunnel around the worm bed eating worms.  Mole proofing your worm bed prior to filling it with bedding and worms will be much easier than trying to deal with moles after they are feasting on your worms.  This is a list of things that you can do to mole proof your worm bed prior to filling it with bedding and worms.  A future post will deal with eradicating moles from worm beds after the fact.

• Moles go under and not over worm bed walls. They will burrow beneath the walls of the worm bed and enter where they will tunnel and eat.
• You will know that you have moles if you see tunnels and paths.  If you cover the bed the moles will tunnel between the cover and then bedding leaving a path.

Here are some inexpensive proactive things that will save headaches later.

1. Use professional landscaping fabric on the bottoms of the bed.  Bring it up around the walls and nail or tack it on the outside of the bed so the moles can’t tunnel in. They will not get through professional landscaping fabric.
2. Place a bed of gravel on the ground where your bed will be and then place landscaping fabric or hardware cloth over the stones.  You will never have a mole problem if you use stones and then a second barrier of landscaping fabric or hardware cloth.
3. Place the bed wall on a solid floor of concrete.  The moles cannot penetrate a solid surface like concrete.  Plywood and tar can also be used.  Concrete is best and it’s easy to clean. If you are serious about worm farming then this is your best bet.

I get many questions about this or that type of manure and which can be used fresh and which one has to be aged first. This is a quick post to help sort that out.

Chicken Manure:
Chicken Manure should never be used fresh. Chicken manure can be acid, can heat and can cause issues like protein poisoning where the worms develop sores and wither, writhe around on the top of the bedding and die. This is cause by anaerobic bacteria in the bedding that causes acidic conditions. This same condition can happen if too much corn, bread or too little air is present in a bed.

Age chicken manure for a couple of months. Wet it down and let it heat up and when the heat drops it can be used on the beds in small patties to feed your red worms.

Horse Manure:
We use horse manure for our worm beds. We age most of it by mixing fresh manure with straw, leaves and shredded paper, wetting it down and mixing it as it heats up. When the straw is brittle and black we know it’s ready to feed our beds.

We do use small amounts of fresh horse manure to top feed our red worms, Euroworms and African Nightcrawlers. The African Night Crawlers love it. You can use fresh horse manure as food added to the top of the bed to feed but don’t mix it in. If it heats the results can kill your worms and worm capsules.

Rabbit Manure:
Rabbit manure is just about the best manure you can get for your worms. It is in a state that is ready for feeding and it is packed with nutrients that make the end product (sorry for the pun), the worm castings a potent natural fertilizer. You can age it if you wish or just mix it with peat at a ratio of 50% manure and 50% peat or coir.

Dog and Cat:
We do not recommend composting dog and cat poop. They feces from these animals can contain organisms that are harmful to Humans. Using your hands in a bin of this waste is disgusting and could harm you. Worms will eat dog and cat poop but do not use the castings for anything except maybe trees and bushes. You don’t want to use the castings from composted cat and dog poop for vegitables.

Human:
Human manure can also be composted. You should also not use it on vegetable or edible plants. There may still be organisms in the compost that can cause illness and there may be a build up of led and other chemicals in the compost that will be transferred to your food. If you have a composting toilet or need to compost Human manure then use it on trees and shrubs that will not be consumed by people or pets.

I hope this helps. Please post questions and I will answer them.

Thanks!
Ken

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