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 ‘vermicompost’
Will Horse Dewormers Kill Red Worms? Update #1
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010Gusanito 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!
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.
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.
Worm Castings aka Worm Poop!
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009WOW!!. Look at this lovely organic fertilizer that Dave pulled out of our bins the other day. Worm Castings!!! The best fertilizer there is. Why do I say that? Because it’s true. Worm castings are rich in water-soluble plant nutrients. They are packed with minerals essential for plant growth that can be used by the plant immediately, unlike chemical fertilizers.
Earlier this year, we applied worm castings to our tomato plant that had leaves with yellow in them. That plant made a turn around and ended up looking better than the other tomato plants.
Castings can be used as a seed starter….it won’t burn the plants, as a fertilizer by top dressing or working into the soil surface, or it can be made into “worm tea” and sprayed onto plants or on the surface near their roots.
Worm Castings help our tomato plant.
Thursday, July 16th, 2009
Our entire garden except for our tomato plants are planted by seeds. Our oldest child has always loved tomatoes. I remember one time when she was just a toddler standing next to a cherry tomato plant eating tomatoes. She had seeds and tomato juice all over her face and shirt. Our youngest has only recently started to like them. Finally, after all of the times we put them on her plate, she eats them and likes them!
This year we picked out three plants, one of which was an “early girl”. This plant never looked as good as the other two, but we thought that once it got into our soil, that is amended with compost, it would be fine. Well, we were wrong. It needed more help than that. Worm castings to the rescue!!!!
I applied worm castings around the base of the plant and worked a little into the soil. After a couple of weeks, the 
leaves started to get a darker, richer green color and they got larger too!
Look at some of our harvest! They taste great too.
