Worm Man's Worm Farm

Archive for the ‘Red Worms’ 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!

I get many questions about how often to water worm beds during throughout the year.

1. If you have a bed that has good drainage then I suggest watering daily if it isn’t raining
2. If it is cold and the ground is frozen I would only water weekly when the ground is not frozen. If you fed and watered your bed prior to the first freeze then leave the worms alone. They are fine.

3. Worm bins are a different story. Plastic bins or bins with poor drainage should not be watered until until they dry out a bit. If the bedding is damp but not wet and you can’t squeeze out a couple drops out of the worm bedding then it is time to water your worms.

If you are using big beds and want to grow commercially then watering daily is important for optimal growth.

It is getting warm outside and it is breeding season for flies. It is always breeding season for flies but it is super-breeding season for flies right now. Every type of nasty fly and gnat is attracted to your compost pile.

This is one of the worst parts of composting with worms. The flies lay eggs in the food you placed in the compost bin or bed and more flies are born.

A very simple remedy is to bury the food. Place the scraps a couple of inches beneath the bedding and use a new location each time you add more scraps. The flies can’t burrow and need to touch the food to lay eggs in it. This will mean more food for your worms and many fewer flies.

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

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