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 ‘red wigglers’
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.”
The Adventures of the Monster Worms Family…..Part 2
Monday, November 9th, 2009
Our next stop was Sea World in San Diego, CA. Even though it was windy and a little cold, we had a blast! We saw a few shows, one of which featured sea lions. We learned that seals, sea lions and walruses are called pinnipeds (from Latin pinna, wing or fin, and ped-, foot) or fin-footed mammals.
The next show that we saw featured the great Killer Whale, Shamu! We enjoyed watching the whales leap out of the water and make huge splashes. The people sitting in the splash zone got really wet, especially when the whales used their flippers and tails to splash them!
Throughout the park they have many exhibits. We saw seals, sea lions, walruses, beluga whales, Commerson’s dolphins, manatees, killer whales, polar bears, sharks, flamingos and fresh and salt water aquariums. 
While we were looking at the dolphins we noticed a sign that read “Access to Child Swap Area”. We told the kids that that was the area where parents swap their children when they are misbehaving. 
….Just kidding! (The color of the photo looks blue/green because of the reflection from the dolphin tank)
We also went into their “Garden of Discovery”. Guess what we saw???
We saw an earthworm viewing window and a vermicomposting setup. They also had an active and passive composting exhibit. We were very disappointed though because the vermicomposting and composting exhibits were not maintained. I plan to make a phone call to see if they need our help.
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.
Monster Worms Family Goes to the Smith Family Farm
Sunday, October 18th, 2009
Our oldest daughter’s class from Cornerstone Christian School took a field trip to the Smith Family Farm in Knightsen, CA. As you enter the property, there is a wonderful outdoor market that sells fresh local fruit and vegetables and seasonal holiday decorations. There is a corn maze, pumpkins the size of large hippity hops, farm animals, flowers of all colors, and fun exhibits. What a great place to take your family!
After the kids got off the bus, we headed to the barn to listen to some great live music played by a few of the Smith family members. They taught the children that just about anything from spoons, juice boxes containing rice, washboards and sticks, could be used to make music. The kids had a blast!
Later, we took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch so that the kids could get their treasured pumpkins. There was a long dirt road in between two corn fields lined with sunflowers and filled with pumpkins. It was a beautiful sight. These gourd-like squashes ranged in size from soccer balls to large globes. Most of the children opted for ones that they could barely carry.
We then listened to an interesting talk on Native Americans that used to live in the area. The docent described how these people made their living structures, the tools that they used to get and eat food and how they ground up corn kernels with a mortar and a rock used as a pestle.
Next, we saw a working bee hive behind glass walls. The Queen bee was marked with a green dot. It was neat to see the inside structure and the hundreds of bees. The docent told us that in the spring time, they have a red worms exhibit so that they can explain the benefits of composting with worms. Right up our alley!! It looks like from now on, they’ll get the worms from us. After that our adventure was topped of with a walk through the corn maze. What a great day!
For more information on the Smith Family Farm go to www.smithfamilyfarm.com.
Monster Worms Attends the First Annual Sustainable Contra Costa Awards
Thursday, October 8th, 2009On Septmber 29th Beth and Dave from Monster Worms attended the First Annual Sustainable Contra Costa Awards gala. Businesses from Contra Costa County were recognized for promoting and implementing sustainable practices and reducing their carbon footprints. These businesses represented many different sectors of the business community. They ranged from organic farmers to solar and wind powered retailers and from an engineering firm to a worm farm named Monster Worms! 
Senator Mark DeSaulnier was there to hand out the awards and to show his support for the newly formed Sustainable Contra Costa (SCOCO) and the hard work that this organization and businesses are doing to promote “green” practices.
Monster Worms donated a four tray Gusanito worm farm bin containing one pound of our red wigglers (Eisenia fetida) for the silent raffle.
Sustainable Contra Costa’s Mission is “to provide the education and inspiration that help to create and maintain sustainable communities.” Their Vision is “that local citizens, businesses and governments will live and operate in a way that sustains the health and well being of our society, environment and economy.” For more information go to www.sustainablecoco.org.
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.
Red Worms Love Horse Manure
Saturday, August 15th, 2009
Red composting worms have many names. They go by red wigglers, red worms, tiger worms, brandling worms and lo and behold……manure worms. Yes, manure worms. If you have ever worked with horse manure that has been sitting on the ground for a little while, you have probably seen these little guys hard at work turning that manure into nutrient rich worm castings.
We collect this manure from a local horse stable. Carol B. is more than happy to give it to us! As she says, “Take as much as you want!”
Before we feed the horse manure to our red worms, we compost it first to get it past the heating stage. If we don’t do that, it could heat up in our bins and cause our worms to die. This “heat” is caused by 
beneficial bacteria starting the decaying process. These temps could reach as high as 150 F! If you only add very small amounts to your worm bin, you won’t have this heating issue, but we have a lot of worms to feed and therefore we need to add a lot of manure.
Our girls take horse back riding lessons at Someday Ranch in Knightsen, CA. The girls love to be around the horses and the manure doesn’t bother them at all. Good thing!!
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?
Green Business Certificate update
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009Robin Bedell-Waite, Program Manager for the Contra Costa County – Green Business Program, brought our framed 
Green Business Certificate to us today so that we can proudly display it. She enjoyed seeing our red wiggler composting worms working away at transforming food wastes into nutrient rich castings.
She also saw first hand the difference in the lawn where we applied our 
compost a few weeks ago. Already, the lawn is noticeably greener and healthier looking.
Dave took her into the garden and she felt the same way that I do each time I walk in there. She said, “It’s like you are in your own little world.” The feeling comes from the big green leaves of our plants and the height of everything. Cucumbers, 
pole beans, tomatoes, corn, sunflowers and morning glories tower over you and you get to walk right in the middle of it all. The sunflowers are about 13’ tall!
She seemed impressed with our efforts to conserve, recycle and to use our resources wisely and with our efforts to educate other people about these techniques. For more information about becoming a Green Business or to find one near you, please go to www.greenbiz.ca.gov.
