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Composting Worms Can Help Humanity Heal The Planet

We cannot ship to Hawaii because of their stringent laws prohibiting non-native insects and soil to be shipped to the island, and rightfully so.

If you live on the island of Hawaii, and you want to compost, there is a program available about healing the Earth through composting.  It looks like a great program.

Check it out here. 

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Questions and Answers

We have implemented a question and answer board to share our frequently asked questions with the best answers.  We will post questions from our visitor but you can ask questions as well.  Then we can all take a shot at answering those questions and let our visitors pick the answers they find most informative.

I hope that you like this new addition.  Please comment below if you have any suggestions.

The Q&A page can be found here. 

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BUG’S PENIS IS LOUDEST THING ON EARTH

This might seem crazy but, clocking in at 99.2 Decibels, the Water Boatman insect has a penis noise that is louder than a freight train when adjusted for size.

Here is the article:  https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-water-boatmans-singing-penis-makes-it-the-loudest-a-5817623?utm_medium=sharefromsite&utm_source=_facebook&fbclid=IwAR2KWqiuF1awYQUgEQo6y-Zj2Z8EeQ3Ae5plz0CSo7qOR5bb1k1ccR6JSc4

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Red Worms Getting Ready To Become Composting Worms

Red Worms

Today is 12-14-2019, and it is 4 AM.  The early bird may get the first worm, but the early worm farmer gets the worms fat so that the early bird gets fed.  That was wordy.

Anyway, it is going to be warmer today, and we had a soaking rain last night, so we are opening our beds to check the worms and give them a good feeding, if needed, so that they can eat and then go back to bed when the cold hits again shortly.

These intermittent, cold weather feedings, allow us to check on our worms to ensure that pests have not invaded and that our worm herd is alive and well.  The blanket of food will also heat a bit as it breaks down and that will help keep the worms warm enough to keep feeding and fattening so that the spring warmth will give them ample food supplies to grow and breed.

We feed them a mix of green and brown organic matter, so straw and alfalfa mixed with rabbit manure and frass from our mealworm and superworm operations.  The worms love it and it heats well.  Red Worms eating

We feed by placing a strip of food  down the center of our beds but we are sure to leave the sides food free so that the worms can escape the food if is should sour or heat too much on warmer days.

We also provide our indoor breeder and hatching beds with a good sprinkling of Purina Worm Chow.  We do this weekly to keep our indoor breeders and hatchlings happy and healthy.

Breeder bins
Worm-Safe Bedding and Red Worm Breeding bin

It is now 4:06 AM and I have to get to work. Have a great weekend.

Ken

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Boy’s Life Article That Boosted Wormman.com Owned by Ken Chiarella

Red worms

My name is Ken Chiarella.  I started Wormman.com in 1997.  Prior to that we were R&K Trading Company.  By 2000 we were doing about $150,000 in sales.  Most were online sales for red worms, but we also sold 1000 count worms in the back of many magazines.  This article in Boy’s live increased our business 5-fold.  It is just a small article about how to build a worm bed but we had people calling us from all over the world.  Those were the good ole days when the internet with young and I was too.  🙂

Enjoy the worm composting article here.

Red worms
Red Worms
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Beehive Addition

I put an addition on my beehive today.  The bees were installed in mid May and it is now 6-12-19.  The bees needed an addition to be able to build more brood and to put away more supplies for winter.

I added another brood chamber and I turned the entrance reducer to make the hole bigger for the bees for summer.

They are being fed sugar water and brood cake and they look very healthy.

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Roach Building Almost Complete

Live Roaches

We have expanded our selection of isopods, adding Asian and Spanish Isopods to our farm.  We have also added many new rare, large and feeder roaches to our breeder groups.  Millipedes have also joined our farm and are happily breeding as I write this.  Pillipedes are my favorite.

In all, we have 68 types of roaches, 54 types of Isopods and 8 types of Millipedes.

To accomplish this, we had to add a small building for our live roaches.  It is still being organized but it is heated with 3 types of heat, electric, propane and oil, so that we have backup systems in the event of a storm or power failure.

We also hooked up a warning system that calls, emails and texts me when the temp and humidity levels fall below the perfect habitable zone for live roaches.  If you want to know more about that, just comment below or send me a message.

Here is a shot of the roach building.  The plants in the middle are Peace Lilies, which are great for removing ammonia from the air.  We will be getting more of these for this building and some of our other buildings.

I will list our list of species below.  I will do that because we are always looking for more.  If you have something, not on the list, please contact us with what you have with a price.  You can do that by clicking on the contact form on the left menu of this site.

The red highlighted names indicate that we are looking for more, even though we have active breeding colonies.  Most of these are not yet for sale but they will be coming online over the next few months so stop back in or join our mailing list to get informed as new species are added.

If you do not see it listed, that means that we do not have it and that we may want to buy what you have.  Send us what you have here.

Thank you!!

Ken

 

ROACHES

Roach Name Scientific Name
Orange head roaches Eulaberus posticus
Surinam roaches Pycnoscelus surinamensis
Horse shoe crab roaches Hemiblabera tenebricosa
Lobster roach Nauphoeta cinerea
Hissing roaches Gromphadorhina portentosa
Giant cave roach Blaberus giganteus
Six spotted roach Eublaberus distanti
Goblin roach Paratemnopteryx couloniana (red goblin roach)
Turkistan roach Blatta lateralis
Deaths head roach Blaberus craniifer
Ivory head roach Eublaberus ivory
Pantanal roach Eublaberus serranus
Oriental roach Blatta orientalis
Banana roach Panchlora nivea
Giant Green Banana Roach
Discoid roach Blaberus discoidalis
Pallid roach Phoetalia pallida
Red head roach Oxyhaloa deusta
Australian roach Periplaneta australasiae
Shadow roach Pycnoscelus surinamensis
Porcelain Roach Gyna lurida
Giant Peppered Roach Archimandrita tesselata
Harlequin Roach Neostylopyga Rhombifolia
Dusky Cave Roach Blaberus fusca
Hissing Roach Flat Aeluropoda insignis
Halloween Hissing Roach Elliptorhina javanica
Zebra Roaches Eurycotis Decipiens
African Bullet Roaches Blattidae sp.
Dubia Roaches Orange Spotted Roaches Blaptica Dubia
Rothi Giant Roach Byrsotria rothi
Wide Horned Hisser Gromphadorhina oblongata
Parcoblatta caudelli (Caudell’s wood roach)
Parcoblatta cf. americana (American wood roach)
chnoptera deropeltiformis “Ruby Red” (Dark woods roach)
Ischnoptera deropeltiformis Dark Woods Normal
Parcoblatta divisa (Southern wood roach)
Anallacta methanoides (Mauritian zebra-faced roach)
Gyna caffrorum (Chrome roach/Ghost porcelain roach)
Tiger Hissing Roach Gromphadorhina grandidieri
Firefly mimic
Pale-bordered Field Cockroach Pseudomops septentrionalis
Milk Roach Diploptera punctata Pacific Beetle Mimic
Taiwanese leaf mimic roach Rhabdoblatta formosana
Centurian Roach Gyna centurio
Hooded Roach compsodes schwarzi
Lobe loboptera decipiens
Ember Roach Pycnoscelus striatus
Question marks Therea olegrandjeani
Gisborne roach Drymaplaneta
Lobopterella dimidiatipes
Red and Black Roach Opisthoplatia orientalis
Florida Skunk Roach Eurycotis floridiana
No name Eurycotis Improcera
SAUSSURE’S GIANT SAND ROACH Polyphaga saussurei
The Hustler Roach Eurycotis Lixa
Warty Glowspot Lucihormetica verrucosa
Chinese Medicinal Roaches Eupolyphagea sinesis
Domino Roaches Therea petivereana
Ornate Velvet Roach Deropeltis paulinoi
Zebra Wood Roach Parcoblatta zebra=20 for 30$
Deropeltis
Extinct in the Wild Roach Simandoa conserfariam
Big black beetle mimic roaches Ergaula pilosa
Wingless Female Roach pycnoscelus femapterus
Arizona Wood Roach parcoblatta notha
Desert Wood Roach parcoblatta desertae
Orin’s Zebra Roach Dorylea orini
Little Penguins

ISOPODS

Common Name Scientific Name
Scaber Gray
Rollie Pollie Armadillidium Vulgare
Clown Montenegro
Nosy Peach Nastium
Orange Vigor Armadillidium Vulgare
 “High Yellow” Porcellio Ornatus
 “Dark South” Porcellio Ornatus
High Yellow Chocolate Porcellio Ornatus
Porcellio Hoffmanseggi
Porcellio Magnificus
Smooth Isopod Porcellio Laevis
Zebra Rollie Pollie Armadillidium Macalatum
Giant Canyon Isopod
Dwarf White
Purple Isopods
Dwarf Gray Stripped
Rathkii
Skirted Isopod Onicus Assellius
PIBALD Onicus Assellius
Convexus
Flowery Blue Isopods  Floria
Powdery Orange PP
Powdery Blue pp
N.  Cristas
Dwarf Ventillio Parvus
Agabiformius lentus
Granulatum
A. Sordidium “Punta Cana”
Sevilla
Ligia Pallasii
Fast Isopods ATLANTOSCIA FLORIDANA
Sp. Carpet
High Yellow Porcellio Haasi
A. dentiger:
Hylo/Trichoniscus sp.
Picopod Isopoda sp. “Picopod”
Florida Isopoda sp. “Florida”
White Out rathkii “White Out”:
Pumpkin Pod T. rathkii “Pumpkin Pod”
V. arizonicus:
Nosy Normal Nastium
Versicolor Armadillidium
Thai Isopoda sp. “Thai”
Corycream Armadillidum corycraem
Rubber Duckies Cubaris SP
Little Sea Isopod Cubaris Murina
PORCELLIO SILVESTRII
Armadillidium Gestroi
Borneo Cubaris SP.
Red Fringe Cubaris SP
Blonde Ducky Cubaris SP
p. Virgatus

 

Millipedes

Bumblebee
American Giant Millipede Narceus americanus
Spotted Yellow Flat Back
Scarlet Millipedes
Flat Black
Desert Millipedes Orthoporus ornatus
Pillipedes glomeris pulchra
Ivory millipede Chicobolus spinigerus