Category: African Nightcrawlers

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Make Your Own Red Worm Bedding

Breeder bins

 Red Worm Bedding

Breeder bins
Worm-Safe Bedding and Red Worm Breeding bin

Worm bedding need not be the big secret that it is.  The type of worms you wish to grow will dictate the type of bedding you will need. 

RED WORMS-  Red worms require a bedding made of manure and some other type of organic material.  We use 50% shredded paper to 50% manure.   We try to use as much rabbit manure as possible in our bedding mixture, but we also use cow, horse and poultry manure.   Please ensure that the manure has not been treated with dewormer or any type of insect killer.

An important thing to remember with the bedding is that is has to be past the heating stage.  Hot manure (fresh manure) needs to be composted a bit before your bedding is mixed.  Failure to do this will cause the bedding to heat, and your worms may die.  Another great bedding is shredded cardboard with manure.   Worms love paper bedding.  Shred the newspaper and then soak it.  After it is soaked let the water drip from it for a couple of minutes and place it in the beds or pits.   Mix in manure  and a you will have your bedding.  There are many different things that can be used for bedding.  If you remember the following you will be able to improvise:

Red worms need moisture at all times.  The more moisture the bigger they will become.  But remember to check the pH level.  Wet worm can become dead worm quickly.  Stay on top of the pH level.

If using grain, top feed your worms.  Many people believe that mixing feed in with the worms will work best.  I have found that top feeding with chicken layer mash works well.  Place in only enough feed for a day or so.  Do not mix the beds until the feed is gone.  This will stop the feed from getting mixed in, and causing the bedding to heat and sour.  Mixing feed into the bedding will cause the bedding to sour.   Sour bedding will kill worms.  Test your soil regularly with commonly bought pH Testers.  These testers are only a couple of bucks, and can be found at many feed and garden centers. Sprinkle pulverized limestone on top of the bedding after watering to control acid.. Soon, we will carry a line, so check in with our store often.

Alabama Jumbers, Jersey Jumpers-  Alabama Jumpers require a soil that is more course and dense.  A mix of 1/3 leaf mulch, 1/3top soil and 1/3manure works well.   My experience has shown me that Grays like moist beds and plenty of pulverized lime stone sprinkled on top.   Greys should also be top fed and not disturbed except once a month when you turn the beds over to get air in the beds.  Greys will eat small amounts of layer mash, but prefer leaves and grass clipping.  75-85 degrees for best results

Africans Night Crawlers-  Africans like bedding that is made like that used for red worms, but will only feed on the top.  Bedding for Africans does not have to be deep.  4″ is enough.  Use a mix of shredded paper and manure with straw for best results.  Africans need it wet and hot 75 to 90 degrees for best results.  Turn bedding weekly for air.  Africans cannot tolerate acid.  Use plenty of lime every week.  Feed chicken mash and manure. They love rabbit  and poultry manure.   Just watch the acid.

Northern Crawlers-  For these delicate creatures you must use caution.  They require top soil bedding and must be top feed.  the bedding must be moist but not wet.  These crawlers use burrows to live.  Heavy watering will cause them to drown.  Do not disturb these worms and they will breed.   Lightly sprinkle mash, leaves and grass on the top.  45-60 degrees is all they can tolerate.  The will do well and breed if kept with these guidelines.

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Free Composting With Worms Ebook!

Learn the Basics of Composting With Worms. 

 

  • Use 3 Types of Worms and One Type of Fly Larvae to Compost your Food Scraps and Garbage
  • Learn how to make your first composting bin for $5.
  • Compost indoors or outdoors year round.
  •  …and more.

My name is Ken, I own Wormman.com, and I grow and sell bugs.  I started my business in 1995 after growing a large amount of red worms to fill my garden with worm castings. I love to garden and I bought some worms out of the back of a classified ad in a magazine.  I grew those worms by feeding them our food scraps and the manure from our bunnies.  I was soon inundated with worms, so I created more worm bins and expanded my garden. At one point, I had so many worm bins and beds that it was almost uncontrollable. I showed my wife, who does not share my passion for gardening or insects, and she said “you bought worms from a magazine. There has to be more people like you out there.  Sell the excess worms.” Genius!  Why didn’t I think of that?

The Internet was brand new back then, so I dialed into America Online and found that I could get 5 free websites just for being an AOL member.  Those weren’t responsive websites  like we have today.  In fact, it was a 3 page site.  The main page listed what I wanted it to say and the other two pages were for contact info and biographical information.  No shopping cart, no Facebook links, no social media at all because it did not exist yet.

The last 22 years have been a roller coaster.  I built the business to a million dollars in sales per year,  and then crashed it, fought through a cricket virus, a mealworm shortage, 9/11, and my own stupidity. (Scroll down for more...)

Check Our Our First Site and What AOL Looked and Sounded Like in Memory Lane:

My First Site 1995:

 

Nostalgia:  

Sounds of AOL 1995

 AOL 1995

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I have written a book called Profitable Worm Manual. The information above and much more is in that book We will have it available for download soon.  In the meantime, I wanted to offer you something free that I wish that I had when I started.  

Basic Worm Composting Free Ebook:

 Learn the basics of vermicomposting with this ebook.  I cover the basics on raising Red Worms, European Nightcrawlers and African Nightcrawlers.  I also cover composting with Black Soldier Fly Larvae. This ebook is yours free.   Please download it here.  I will also update you when my much bigger AND FREE 🙂  Profitable Worm Manual is released.  I will also send you periodic worm farming news if you want it.

Thank you!!
Ken

[optin_box style=”8″ alignment=”center” email_field=”email” email_default=”Enter your email address” email_order=”0″ integration_type=”aweber” double_optin=”Y” thank_you_page=”http://www.wormman.blog/thanks” list=”515518″ name_field=”name” name_default=”Enter your first name” name_order=”0″ name_required=”Y” opm_packages=””][optin_box_field name=”headline”]Learn The Secrets of Composting With 3 Types of Worms [/optin_box_field][optin_box_field name=”paragraph”]PHAgc3R5bGU9InRleHQtYWxpZ246IGNlbnRlcjsiPjxzdHJvbmc+R2V0IFlvdXIgRnJlZSBFYm9vayBhbmQgbGVhcm4gaG93IHRvIGNvbXBvc3Qgd2l0aCBSZWQgV29ybXMsIEV1cm9wZWFuIE5pZ2h0Y3Jhd2xlcnMsIEFmcmljYW4gTmlnaHRjcmF3bGVycyBhbmQgb25lIHNwZWNpYWwgY2hhcHRlciBvbiBjb21wb3N0aW5nIHdpdGggQmxhY2sgU29sZGllciBGbHkgTGFydmFlLjwvc3Ryb25nPjwvcD4K[/optin_box_field][optin_box_field name=”privacy”]We value your privacy and would never spam you[/optin_box_field][optin_box_field name=”top_color”]undefined[/optin_box_field][optin_box_button type=”0″ button_below=”Y”]Get Instant Access![/optin_box_button] [/optin_box]

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Building A Chicken Coop – Building your own chicken coop and grow worms with the Chicken Poop!

Building your own chicken coop will be one of the best decisions you can make if you are looking for a way to keep your chickens safe, keep your worms safe from the chickens and to keep the chicken poop contained in the chicken coop until you are ready to use it.

Chicken manure is used to grow Soldier Fly Larvae, which we call Soldier Grubs.  The chicken manure is also good, one aged for growing red worms, European Night Crawlers, and African Night Crawlers.  If you have chickens and want to compost, need bait or want great worm castings for your garden, then build them a chicken coop and you will save the day.
Continue reading Building A Chicken Coop – Building your own chicken coop and grow worms with the Chicken Poop!

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Huge 2ft Earthworm Photographed

A woman in Australia took a picture of a 2ft worm that she discovered after a rain storm.

That worm would surely leave one heck of a large worm casting.   The biggest worm that we ever grew was an African night crawler.  The picture of that African nightcrawler is below. The Australian worm makes my worm look pathetic.

Huge African Nightcrawler

The large Australian worm is known as Digaster longmani and can grow up to 3 feet long in Australia.  Read the story your self at the link below.

Huge Worm Story

The giant earthworms rarely come above ground Credit: Facebook/Kelli Mace

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How Many Worms Do You Need for You Worm Composting Bin?

One of the main questions that we get all year long is “How many worms do I need for my vermicomposting bin?”.  Many people start their Red Worm composting bins using bins that they have in the house, or something that they bought inexpensively and they have no idea how many worms it takes to get their worm composter going.  I have probably answered that question a thousand times over the years.

Now the work is done for us thanks to a site called http://www.howmanywormsdoineed.com  .

The site allows you to choose 3 different types of worms and then input your worm bin demensions by inches.  The site then provides how many worms you will need for your worm bin or worm bed.

The cool thing is that it is simple and easy and accurate.  Check it out and let us know your thoughts.  We will be linking to it on our site too.  We have been give permission to link to the calculator below.  Try it out and then squirm on over and get some worms from Wormman.com.  🙂

 




Worm Bin / Worm Bed Calculator




Result

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Making Peat Moss Free Red Composting Worms Breeder Bedding

Breeder bins

I get at least an email per week asking me how to make bedding for breeding worms.  Then I get more about how to make bedding without peat moss.  We do not use peat moss because it is nonrenewable, so we opt for creating our own “Worm-Safe” bedding, which can be used for breeding Red Worms, African Night Crawlers and European Nightcrawlers, also known as “Euro Worms”.  All red composting worms can use our Worm-Safe worm bedding recipe.

I have made a long video explaining the process.  I apologize for the length of the video but I wanted to get all of the information in.  You can also see a cameo of my son’s pig, Spamela.

Making the worm breeder bedding is a two part process.  The first part is mixing about 40% fresh horse, rabbit or cow manure, or aged fowl manure, with 60% straw or other brown material like dried grass clippings.  That mixture is moistened and allowed to heat for a couple of weeks.

Then, once past the compost heating stage, we mix that with 50/50 with shredded cardboard and newspaper that has been wet down, mixed and also allowed to age about a week or so.

We mix those two parts together, 50-50 and let it age again for week to ensure that it will not heat again.  We take daily temperature readings with a composting thermometer.

Then we add the bedding to our composting or bait worm breeder bins.  We only use about 3 inches of that mixture and we put in our breeders.  They stay in that worm bin for 21 days at around 75 degrees and then they are moved to fresh bins.  The egg capsules and babies, which are now in the bin with our original mixture, are placed in an incubator, bin and all, and hatch out.  We keep them in that bin until we can see them easily.  At that point we put them into a growout worm bed and feed them to get them to mature size as quickly as possible.

I will be posting some diagrams and pictures of our system soon.  Please ask your questions below or in our forum.

Thank you.

Ken
Worm Man’s Worm Farm.  Wormman.com

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African Nightcrawlers Getting Ready to Become Breeders

It is that time of the year here at Wormman.com.  It is mid-June and it is getting hot.  The African Nightcrawlers are starting to stir and they are growing quickly now that the natural heat is kicking in.  This is a short video of some juvenile African nightcrawlers that will be breeders in another two weeks or so.  They are beautiful worms.  They also happen to be the best casting makers because of their huge appetites which are only matched by their large size.

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5 Reasons Why Your Redworms, Like Your Spouse, Will Leave You if you Don’t Treat them Right

Sometimes we don’t realize that there is a problem in our relationship with our significant other until they just leave one day.  One day, you wake up, find a text from another person, a pair of foreign underwear under the car seat, lipstick on their collar or they just up and leave you and you are left befuddled and heartbroken, trying to figure out what happened and how you could have stopped it.

Well, I had that moment this morning and I can tell you that same goes for worm farmers and their worms.  Today, at 4 AM, I was awakened by the soft sound of light rain.  Farmers get up early.  I made a cup of coffee and decided to take a walk out to look at the 500,000 red worms we harvested yesterday, which were to be shipped today.  Nothing seemed out of place as I walked to our staging area, which is outside but is under canopies.   Then I noticed the lights were off.  We always keep low wattage lights over our new beds or newly harvested worms.  It stops even the worst offenders from crawling off from their new digs.

The lights were a clue but didn’t really register right away.  I was too busy thinking about how the got shut off.  Everyone knows better.  Maybe I didn’t turn them on?  Maybe I shut them off by accident?  I am getting up there.  I will be 50 in 6 months.  I may have had a pre-senior moment.

I flipped the lights on and saw the swarm.  Worms moving in masses in every direction.  I should have run back to grab my phone to tape the swarm but I was too busy, living in the moment, grabbing handfuls of worms and tossing them back into harvesting bins.   I scrambled on hands and knees scooping and pawing at the ground, trying to save the worms and my livelihood from slithering away.

I grabbed what I could, ran inside to get my son to help me and when I returned, the swarm was gone.  The light had forced them to march on.  The light caused them to scurry to darker pastures.

I estimate that we lost about 200,000 worms this morning out of the 500,000 that we harvested last night.  That hurts.  We will be fine, we will harvest more and we will be shipping on time this morning, but it really struck me about how much the relationship between a worm farmer and his worms is so much like any other relationships in this world.  If you don’t treat your worms right, they will leave you.

So, what made them crawl off?  Worms will leave you for 5 good reasons;

1.  The are too crowded.  Crowded worms will crawl off to be less crowded.  They will also stop breeding or will breed less in crowded conditions.

2.  The don’t like the food.  If you are not feeding you redworms enough, or if you are feeding them things that they do not like, they will leave you.

3.  Improper pH.  Worms need a good pH of around 7 to thrive.  If you do not test their bedding and adjust the pH, you will lose your worms.  They will either “fly” or they will die.  Get a good pH meter and test your worm bedding weekly.

 

4.  They will flee if their bedding becomes anaerobic.  You can tell an anaerobic worm bed by the smell.  It smells like rotting death and will usually have very wet bedding.  Worms cannot tolerate anaerobic conditions.  Keep the bed turned weekly to aerate, keep the bedding moist but not wet and make a habit of smelling the bedding.

5.  Worms will crawl off if it is raining and they are outside.  I don’t care how well you care for your worms, if it is raining, your worms will sometimes crawl off just for the sake of crawling off.  You can stop this by installing anti-crawl barriers, lids or lights over the beds during periods of prolonged rain.  Please don’t electrocute yourself.

Well, I made a short video of the aftermath of the crawl.  I am going to have a good cry now and then I will put on my big boy pants and get back to work because we have orders to fill today.

Have a great day.
Ken

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Huge African Nightcrawler!!

This African Nightcrawler even scared me and I have been playing with worms for 30 years.  I found this one as I was cleaning out an old breeder bin.  He must have been hiding out for a while because he is gigantic and I have never seen an African Nightcrawler this big in my life.  They can get big but this one was insanely huge.  He will now be put out to stud, where he will spend the rest of his life breeding and making giant African Nightcrawler babies.

He/She needs a name.  Go to our discussion area and help us pick a name for this mascot. http://wormman.blog/forum/index.php?threads/largest-african-nightcrawler-i-have-ever-seen.1/