Well, it’s been three weeks now since we started our red worm experiment. As you recall, we used a small bin with three types of red composting worms…the red wigglers, the European nightcrawlers and the African nightcrawlers and fed them manure from horses that had just been given the deworming medication Ivermectin.
I am happy to report that the red worms are fairing fantastic! They are very active and healthy looking. No ill effects that we can see. We had an interesting question from a fellow vermicomposter….”Could the medication make the worms sterile?” I will keep you updated on that too. Hopefully soon, we’ll see some little baby worms.
Posts Tagged ‘European nightcrawler’
Will Horse Dewormers Kill Red Worms? Update #1
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010Master Gardeners, Red Wiggler Worms and Monster Worms
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010
Monster Worms now has a Master Gardener in the family. On Saturday, May 15th, Dave and 29 of his classmates received their Master Gardener Certificates. He had been taking classes and studying since January. 
We are very proud of him. While in class, he was also able to pass on his knowledge of vermiculture and of our red worms. Specifically the red wigglers, European nightcrawlers and African nightcrawlers. All great composting and fishing worms.
Will Horse Dewormers Kill Red Worms?
Monday, May 3rd, 2010A common worry among people raising red worms for vermiculture is if manure “tainted” with the deworming medication, Ivermectin, will kill their red worms if fed to them. We have decided to put this matter to rest.
Recently, the horses at the stable where we get our manure from were given Ivermectin. One day afterward, we collected a bucket of this manure and fed it to some of our red worms. We have a small tray of red wigglers, European nightcrawlers and African nightcrawlers that we use for demonstrations at schools and other events. We figured that this tray would be perfect because we could easily monitor the worms and sadly, if the medication killed them, we wouldn’t lose too many.
Well, I have to say….so far so good. This manure was fed to them over a week ago and no dead worms. Matter of fact, they are all throughout this manure and they look great!. I’ll report back in another week or so and let you know how it is going.
Gusanito Worm Farm Bins are Tough!
Saturday, February 20th, 2010
Today while doing some Spring cleaning in the garage, I knocked off our Gusanito Worm Farm Bin from its shelf. This shelf is over four feet high! Actually four feet, five inches. As I walked around the other side (I won’t tell you what words were coming out of my mouth), I expected to see a mess of broken plastic, red worms and castings all over the place. To my surprise, what I saw instead was our five tray Gusanito standing upright! The only thing askew was the roof. It was lying on the floor.
This Gusanito dove head first into some boxes, did a loop, a full twist and landed on its feet three feet to the right. I think that it deserves a gold medal. Amazing…..the only damage that I could see was a slight turned up corner on the front left “foot” and the side next to the foot had a very slight bow to it. It is barely noticeable. I checked on the red worms. They acted as if nothing had even happened……maybe it was all just a daydream……..
The Worm Inn — An Innovative, Easy, Fun Way to Vermicompost!
Friday, February 19th, 2010
We’ve added a new, fun product to our website that I’m sure you will agree is the easy way to compost with red worms (vermicomposting). It’s called The Worm Inn and it is really simple to use. What’s easy about it is that once you have it set up, all you have to do is add to the top and the castings come out the bottom. What could be easier than that?
The Worm Inn utilizes the “continuous flow” method of vermicomposting. What this means is that the worms constantly work upward as food is added all the while leaving behind their castings. These castings will settle toward the bottom of the breathable bag.
To get it all set up, all you have to do is this:
- Place bedding material in the bottom to absorb moisture
- Then a layer of food scraps
- Add the red worms. (2-3 lbs. of red wigglers or European nightcrawlers)
- Put in the rest of the food scraps
- Add a thick layer of more bedding
- Finally, spray down the whole system with water because the contents need to remain moist
Only add about 2-3 lbs. of food per week. The worms will eat their bedding material too. Be sure to cover any new food you add with existing or new bedding material. This will help to prevent attracting fruit flies.
As the system settles, the worms move upward, digesting the microbial waste of the food This results in the castings, a nutrient rich fertilizer. These castings are left below as the worms constantly move upward toward more food.
After several weeks, the castings are ready to be used and are collected from the bottom of the bag. To open the bottom of the bag, loosen the toggles. Make sure that you have placed a container below to catch the castings. Tighten the toggles when no more castings come out or when you start to see bedding material.
This “continuous flow” of regularly adding food scraps and bedding, and then harvesting the castings from the bottom makes indoor composting practical and fun for anyone.
You should try it…I think you’ll really like it!
Canadian Nightcrawlers Caught in the Act!
Thursday, January 28th, 2010On a cloudy day recently, I happened to be outside and Lo and Behold!!! What did I see? Canadian Nightcrawlers out on our lawn….together….in broad daylight!! Oh my. I didn’t really want to stare because I felt a little embarrassed. But I couldn’t help it, I just had to watch…but only for a little while. After all, they should have some privacy.
Later I checked on them and they were gone. Mission accomplished…….Either that or the birds got them!
Canadian Nightcrawlers live in our lawns. The have permanent burrows that can be at least four feet deep. They normally come to the surface at night to mate and find food, which they bring into their burrows. Seeing them in the daytime is rare…unless their burrows have been flooded. Direct sunlight kills them.
They are not composting worms and should not be used for that. Normally they are used for fishing. They will not breed in captivity, unless they are able to make a deep burrow. If you want good worms for composting, get the red wigglers, European Nightcrawlers or the African Nightcrawlers.
Has anyone else seen this is in the daytime? This is a first for me.
Does Santa Need Red Composting Worms?
Sunday, December 27th, 2009
Santa, along with many other things, has been on my mind lately. It seems that wherever I go, I have seen him…..in airports, shopping malls and downtown at the Christmas parade. That guy sure does get around.
I figured that with nine reindeer and all those elves, he could probably use a bunch of red wigglers and/or European nightcrawlers to turn all that reindeer poop, straw from their stalls, and leftover household food scraps into nutrient-rich castings.
Since the North Pole is cold though, he would need to keep his red worms inside so that they wouldn’t freeze. He could start off with several Gusanito worm farm bins and keep them in his work shop. What do you think?
Santa Photo: Sherry LaVars/BayAreaNewsGroup
Reindeer Photo: weblogs.cltv.com/news/local/chicago/regina/
Mixing Red Worm Species in Vermicomposting Bins
Sunday, December 6th, 2009
Several months ago, we decided to put three different species of red worms together in our Gusanito worm farm bin and in a recycled plastic tote just to see what would happen. Would the worms get along? Would one species overtake the other? Would one group force another to move out and find a new home?
NO! None of that happened. The worms got along beautifully together and continue to do so. They are happily making castings and cocoons. The worms that we put in there are the red wigglers (Eisenia fetida or foetida), the European Nightcrawlers (Eisenia hortensis) and the African Nightcrawlers (Eudrilus eugeniae). The red worms in the photo from top to bottom are the African, European and Red Wiggler.
We also did this experiment for two other reasons:
1.) Because we wanted to see if the larger Euros or Africans would be able to migrate through the holes in the trays. I am happy to report that they had no problem at all. We have found all three red worm species traversing the trays.
2.) The plastic tote is the one that Dave takes to his demonstrations at schools and garden clubs. We wanted to show the kids and adults the different types of composting worms available.
Fungus Gnats and Worm Farm Bins
Thursday, November 26th, 2009We answer all sorts of vermiculture questions from our customers and I participate on vermi forums to try to help solve problems. Lately, there have been a lot of questions regarding how to get rid of fungus gnats.
Fungus gnats like to live and breed in moist environments. The big key is to maintain your bin so that you are not setting up a hospitable environment for them. Basically, you want to suppress or cut them off from the area that they like. How do you do this?
A few years ago, we had a problem with fungus gnats in our house plants. I covered the top of the dirt with sand. The sand still allowed for water to go through and some air, but the gnats couldn’t. This solved our problem. While this worked for our house plants, I don’t recommend this for your worm bin. There is an easier way to deal with this situation.
Our bins are open at the top. We cover them with burlap and an inch layer of dry shredded newspaper. Instead of burlap, you could use an old cotton t-shirt. This makes it very difficult for the fungus gnats to get to the moist castings and bedding. We also believe that the fungus gnats will “set up house” in moist cardboard. Leaving this on top of the bedding or exposed provides an ideal environment for the gnats.
Here is a comment from Erick, a fellow vermicomposter after he followed our advice:
“As it turns out it was an excellent tip. Just the t-shirt has stopped the current population from expanding and the few stragglers should be gone soon. Awesome results and in so very few days. Thanks again! Ha ha, having a swarm fly out of the bin made it pretty hard to promote the cause to people that have shown some cautious interest, but this definitely helped.”
Fishing With Red Worms, Specifically the European Nightcrawler
Thursday, November 12th, 2009The below comments were sent to us from a very happy customer. He and his wife came to us and bought some European Nightcrawlers for vermicomposting and fishing. He loves them……especially for fishing!
Hi Folks,
I thought my Monster Worm stories were over for the year. However, a good friend and I went back to my favorite little reservoir, in the Sierra’s, last week and caught six great German Browns’s. Of course with my Monster Worms and double hook system and JRWfishing hooks. Mind you this was a big deal. I’ve been fishing in that reservoir for nearly 30 years. Never caught a fish there until this summer (earlier photo and story). It’s amazing. 
We saw six other folks fishing that day. Two were using lures across the lake – nada. Two were in fancy wader floats using fins to propel them and expensive fly fishing rigs – one between them. We caught six. Two were 12+ inches and the other four were over 10”.
Got to tell you I was, am jazzed. Can hardly wait til next season. No more crawling over huge boulders on the creek, or scratching my way through brush in the meadow section. I’m going to fish the shore, and use my ‘rubber ducky’ to fish the lake.
Thanks again for your assistance in getting me started with my worms. They are working just great.
David D.
Red Composting Worms on Vacation
Saturday, October 31st, 2009Periodically the Monster Worms family goes on a much needed vacation. I bet you are wondering what we do with our red composting worms while we are gone. Do we have a neighbor kid or novice come over and take care of them? NO! We prefer to let our worms go on their own vacation.
I think that our red wigglers, European nightcrawlers and African nightcrawlers like it while we are gone. They don’t get jostled around, picked at or harvested……they don’t like it when they have to leave and go someplace else.
So…..what do we do? Well, it is very simple. All we do is make sure that their bedding is moist before we leave and we feed them. We put in a little extra food too, but not too much. If they run out of food before we get back, they can eat their bedding. They can eat their castings too. They won’t starve. Every time that we have done this, the red worms have been just fine. I don’t think that they even knew we left. Has anyone out there left their worms alone for an extended period? We would be interested to hear about it.
Cucumber goes to the Worms
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009Dave found our red worms chowing down on some cucumber the other day. 
It sure looks like they like it! When Dave found it they were all over it and through it. They made all of these tunnels and channels. It was pretty cool looking!
Cucumbers are a plant in the gourd family Cucurbitaceae. Having enclosed seeds and developing from a flower, cucumbers are scientifically classified as fruits, much like tomatoes and squash.
This year, we had our cucumbers climb up a trellis in our garden. It helped to free up space and it was much easier to find the veg…I mean fruit. Do you think that cucumbers make worms burp?
Garin Elementary Hosts Monster Worms
Friday, August 21st, 2009Dave was invited to educate some 1st Graders in Mrs. Amaro’s and Ms. Newton’s classes at Garin Elementary School in Brentwood, CA the other day about raising and using red worms for composting. He showed them some of our Red wigglers, European nightcrawlers and African nightcrawlers. The kids were shown how red composting worms can turn fruit and vegetable scraps into nutrient rich worm castings. 
Dave brought along one of our totes, made out of recycled plastic, to show the kids. Inside of it were the three types of red worms, moist bedding material for the redworms (we use moist shredded newspaper) and some vegetable scraps. The kids enjoyed looking inside the tote.
Most of the kids enjoyed holding the worms. A few were squeamish, but overcame their fears with a little help from their friends. Hopefully these kids will tell their parents about the benefits of composting….with or without worms.
Wandering Africans Visit Red Wigglers
Sunday, August 2nd, 2009At our location in Antioch, CA we have three types of red composting worms. From smallest to largest we have the red wiggler (Eisenia fetida), the European Nightcrawler (Eisenia hortensis) cousin of the red wiggler and the African Nightcrawler (Eudrilus eugeniae). The bins for the red wigglers and the Africans are side by side. It appears that the Africans feel that the “grass is greener” in the red wiggler bin because we keep finding them in there.
Each weekend we harvest worms for the weeks worth of orders and every time that we harvest from the red wiggler bin, we have to remove a few of the Africans. It’s not like it’s a mass exodus or anything, it’s just a few. But still, it’s really weird.
Here is a photo of the three worms. The African Nightcrawler is the top one, the European Nightcrawler is the middle one and the red wiggler is the bottom one. The African and the European are stretched out because they are trying to get away. Below is a photo of a baby African. You can see it near the end of the pencil. This one is about two weeks old. I’ve seen them as small as 2 mm! This baby is from the “pets” that our oldest daughter has. I talked about that in Worms as Pets?
Fun Family “Fishing” Day
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009We took our girls fishing at the Contra Loma Reservoir today. As we passed by the entrance we read that the reservoir had been 
stocked with 500 lbs. of catfish on July 13th and again on July 20th. We thought that maybe today would be the day that we would finally catch a fish out there…….we haven’t had much luck in the past. We keep going back though because we love it out there. It’s very peaceful and the scenery is beautiful.
Our European Nightcrawlers weren’t very pleased that we were going fishing. Most of the worms were lucky though because the fish were not biting. Maybe our Monster Worms were too scary for them. 
Actually, we only saw one other person catch a fish. Maybe he caught the last one!
The nice thing about these red worms is that they don’t need to be refrigerated. Also, 
they have tough skin and stay alive in the water for a long time and because of that, we didn’t need very many worms. I heard that they even hold up well in brackish water.
Even though we didn’t catch a fish, our girls still had a lot of fun. They made bridges out of sticks, logs and wet sand and sand castles out of sand, sea weed, sticks and leaves. We’ll try again in a few days. Wish us luck!!
Fishing with Girl Scouts…with worms actually..
Saturday, July 18th, 2009Our daughters are in Girl Scouts. They love it and learn a lot from it. As I write this, our oldest is on a Girl Scout camping trip. She is in Brownies so parents still go on these types of trips. Her dad went with her, but I felt that it would be better if I stayed home and made sure that the worms were ok. (One of us needs a good night sleep!!) 
Anyway……back to the point. Throughout a scout’s ‘career’ she earns badges that she can put on her vest or sash. These badges are called petals, try-its, junior badges or IPs depending on the age level of the scout. Criteria has to be accomplished in order to earn each badge. Our daughter’s Brownie leader likes to have each girl demonstrate how to earn a try-it. I think that this is great because it teaches each girl responsibility and leadership traits. 
Our daughter decided to do the “Fishing” try-it so on May 31st her troop went to the Contra Loma reservoir to learn about fishing. After she demonstrated the tackle box, how 
to cast, how to bait a hook and went over safety related issues, it was time to try out our luck at fishing. We, of course, brought our worms along to fish with. We decided to use the European Nightcrawler because it is the perfect worm for fishing….not too big and not too small… and very active on the hook. Unfortunately is was late in the day and the girls only had about 15 minutes to fish. No one caught a fish but a great time was had by all!!
Worms as Pets?
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009Yes, our kids have worms as pets. 
Both of our girls have saved worms since they could walk. I have memories of our youngest, she must have been about two, picking up worms from the cement after it rained. For every worm or two that she picked up, one or two would slip through her fingers! This kept her busy for awhile. After they picked up the worms, they would go and put them in the garden. First they would dig a little hole, then put the worms in and then cover them up and pat the ground. Just like they were planting seeds!
This business was not just a natural extension of our way of life for me and Dave, but also for the kids. They love it too. When our youngest asked if she could have some worms of her own, we didn’t even hesitate. We quickly answered with a resounding yes. Dave gave her a styrofoam cup from a soda that he just had and put in some moist newspaper and two European Nightcrawlers. She labeled the cup appropriately “european nightcrawlers” in five year old handwriting. After about two weeks or so, we put them in a bait cup with a cover because the bedding was drying out too quickly. They have been busily munching away ever since. She got them in late May. One was an adult and the other was a young juvenile. We recently added another adult and they are very busy making more worms!!!
Our oldest of course could not be outdone by her sister, so she had to get worms of her own too!!! She picked the African Nightcrawler. I’m glad that she did, because we are learning a lot by being able to observe them on a smaller scale. Right now, these Africans are putting out a 
least one cocoon per week, possibly more than that and….. the babies grow FAST!
We feed them about once per week. They get either lettuce or a piece of almost eaten watermelon rind and some coffee grounds. The girls love feeding their worms and watching the babies grow.
Daisy Troop Visit
Saturday, June 27th, 2009A local Daisy girl scout troop visited Monster Worms on May 19, 2009. Dave got out one of our worm bins to show the girls, and a few of their brothers, some worms. He showed them some of our European Nightcrawlers (Eisenia hortensis). Many of the 
girls had no problem at all handling the worms. It probably helped that our daughters, also girl scouts, were right there picking up worms and showing them to the girls. Dave explained how the worms turn paper and food scraps into nutrient rich castings. I think that if the girls realized that castings meant “worm poop” they probably would have run to the bathroom to wash their hands!!!! They also got to see baby worms and some cocoons. Each girl, that wanted too, was able to take home a worm. The girls and their parents were also given a tour of our garden. They got to see the other type of composting…composting without worms. They enjoyed seeing all of our vegetables growing too.
Dave at the CC Times “Our Garden”
Saturday, June 13th, 2009The Contra Costa Times together with Master Gardener Bethallyn Black have created a community garden in Walnut Creek, CA. Food grown in this garden will be donated to the Solano County food bank. Each Friday for the past month gardeners get together to learn and shares ideas about gardening. This week the topic of discussion was composting with worms! That’s right up our alley!! Dave represented Monster Worms and shared his knowledge of vermiculture and vermicomposting. He showed everyone how to make a simple worm bin made out of a plastic tote and he also demonstrated how to use a Gusanito Worm Farm Bin. We have three types of worms in our Gusanito Worm Farm Bin. Everyone got to see cocoons, babies, juveniles and adults of the red wiggler (Eisenia fetida), the European Nightcrawler (Eisenia hortensis), and the African Nightcrawler (Eudrilus Eugeniae). He also brought along worm castings to show and to donate to the garden.
