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~Worm farm maintenance~
The Two Golden Rules Of a Worm Farmer
1. Know Your Limits
A worm farmer must know how much of feed and what kind of
foods and wastes a worm bin can process. Overfeeding is
basically the only thing that can kill off the worms (too
high protein levels - composting or 'sour bin disease').
Salt, pesticides and drugs can also kill off worms. So
know the limits for food intake and experiment
carefully.
2. Leave it alone
Leave them alone - they like it like that. If you really
must work on worm farming, just start a NEW bin. Or how
about another spliff of the sweet flavoured worm casting
grown..
Do you need to mist a worm bin from time to time to
keep it moist?
Not really, as the vegetable waste seems to contain
enough moisture to keep things moist and juicy. Sometimes
one has to add a little water.
But a worm bin should contain a lot of moisture. A 50% to
85% saturation (of the full saturation) favours the worms
growth, digestion and breeding. If a bin gets too dry,
one can add water by spraying or sprinkling (or
however).
What if it gets too soggy in there?
Often a worm bin gets too moist. But if you add the a
newspaper on top, in two, three days it will soak up the
excess moisture and can be removed. Repeat until desired
moisture content has been achieved.
Do you cover a worm bin or does it need some
light?
Yes, all my bins have covers or lids. A worm bin doesnt
need any light, in fact worms are afraid of light and
will avoid it. Most worm species are very adventurous and
will roam around for no particular reason, and if my bins
didn\'t have lids they might leave for excursions.
Do you move your bin around from time to time or just
leave it alone? Do you turn the bedding?
Its best to leave it alone. Worms move the bedding and
castings about. Turning or moving isn't needed, and might
bother the worms... but Im a nervous little chimp so I
'dig in' at times to see whats going on.
What are the propertys that will cause them to die
off?
Worms will produce castings in a very wide window of
environmental propertys.
Freezing or human fever temperatures will cause worm
deaths. They also need oxygen to breathe, and they do not
like poisons or pesticides, although they can eat many
things like motor oil.
Most often a worm bin will die off because of inadequate
ventilation or because the organic waste starts to 'heat
up' from the bacterial action, cooking the worms.
There are mites in there! Do I need to DDT the house
to protect my plants?!
No. The mites in a worm bin are either decomposers or
predators and do not eat plants (if they were after
plants they would not survive in the bin).
Worm farm/bin mites can be controlled by lowering the
moisture levels, and are often a sign that the farm/bin
is too moist. Red and brown mites are usually predators,
some even attack the worms and suck their blood. Usually
mite populations in the bins are not a problem, and will
die off the farm/bin is no longer being fed.
What are those strange insects in the bin?
It is common to come across fruitflies, Mites (Acarina),
threadlike white worms (Enchytraeidae), springtails
(Collembola) and sow bugs (Isopoda). Outdoors an
unprotected bin will attract worm-eating pests like land
planarians, rodents and birds, so suitable measures
should be taken.
How often do they reproduce?
Worms will start reproducing as soon as they are mature.
The reproductive cycle for composting worms is about 100
days.
A worm population can grow exponentially in size given
enough room and nutrients. I find its quite easy to
double population size very 4 months.
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