Category: European nightcrawlers

Posted on by — Leave a comment

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.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Troubleshooting Problems in Your Red Worm Composting Bed

Red Worms eating

Composting Worm Bed Troubleshooting

  • Common Worm Bin Problems and Solutions
Problem:
  • Worms crawling to the surface of the worm bed and dying.   This is called protein  poisoning by some.  This is really just putrification of the worm bedding.  This happens when there is too much water and too little air.  Remember that bedding should be moist but not wet.  The bin should smell Earthy and not like death.  You can save your worms if you just caught the problem now and some worms are still alive and healthy.
Solution:
  • Aerate the bedding immediately.  Add dry peat moss  or coir to the bedding and mix it in.  Add dry crumpled newspaper if you don’t have peat and coir. You can add newspaper even if you do have coir or peat.  Fluff the bedding and let the dry material act as airholes through out the worm bin or worm bed.
  • Remove and corn or bread products.  Worms can tolerate small amounts of bread and corn but too much will cause fermentation in the bedding. This will cause putrification.
  • Test for pH.  Anything above a 7 is too alkaline or below a 6 is too acidic.  Treat with powdered limestone.
Problem:
  • Worms are crawling off.
Solution:
  • If this is a new bin or bed of worms then they just might not be used to their home.  Red Worms and Euroworms will attempt to crawl off when they are first installed in their new home.  Especially after a long trip from our farm to yours.  The easiest cure is to put a light over the worm bin, worm bed or composting bin for a few days.  If the worms are well fed and the pH and conditions are right then the light will not be needed.  J
  • Just remember that worms will attempt to crawl if they are left in open worm bins outside in the rain.  If you can cover them they will not crawl off.  You can also put a two inch strip of wood around the top of the bin to as a crawl barrier.  The wooden slate would hang over the top of the worm bed with the lip hanging over on the inside of the bin.  The worms will crawl up and will not be able to go around the wood slat.  This is the best solution.
  • If the worms have been in the bed for a while you will want to check to make sure that your bedding is not acidic, that it is not anerobic or that the bedding is not used up.  If the bedding it powdery and there aren’t signs of food in the bed then it’s time to change the bedding and use the worm castings on your organic garden.  Worm castings are the best natural fertilzer known to mankind, wormkind and wormmankind. 🙂
Posted on by — Leave a comment

Wooden Worm Bed Plans

HOW TO MAKE and MAINTAIN A WORM BIN

This is a plan for a worm bed made out of wood.  I like wood because it breathes, wicks moisture and helps keep the bedding damp but not wet.

Red worms can survive a wide range of temperatures except freezing and temps above 82 degrees.  RED WORMS are at their most productive when the worm bin is at 55 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit.

Worms need to breathe so make sure you have plenty of air holes.  Especially if you are using a rubber maid container for a bin.

Red worms need moisture but not to much.  You should be able to squeeze a couple of drops from the bedding but not a stream

Here’s a list of what you’ll need: 2 pieces 5/8″ CDX plywood (35-5/8″ x 12″) *CDX is a special type of wood, ask your parents 2 pieces 5/8″ CDX plywood (23-3/8″ x 12″) 1 piece 5/8″ CDX plywood (24″ x 36″) 38 2″ ardox nails, hammer, drill with 1/2″ bit

 

. Nail the sides together with four to six nails per side, and then nail the bottom panel on using five to seven nails per side. Then get out the drill and make 12 half-inch holes in the bottom. That’s so that air can get in and water can get out. You’ll also have to raise the bin off the floor so that air can circulate up through them.

BEDDING:

bedding can be shredded cardboard or newspapers and old leaves. We use peat moss or leaves. Fill your bin to the top with the bedding. Add some dirt.  Like chickens, worms have gizzards that help them grind up all that organic matter you are feeding them.  Only use a couple of hands full of dirt.

The basic formula for the amount of worms you will need for your bin is two pounds of worms for every one pound of organic waste per week. (a 2:1 ratio). It takes about 1,000-1,500 worms to make a pound.

Posted on by

From Garbage to Compost, The Gut Wrenching Tale of Casting Creation

All living creatures eat…most do anyway.   Carnivores like Meat while Herbivores are like leaves. But do you know who really takes the dirt cake? Detritivores: literally, trash eaters. They eat decaying matter like leaves, grasses, and manure.   Some of the best detritivores are Earthworms.

How does a slimey wiggly worm turn dead plants, decomposing animal bits, weird fungi, and even mold and manure into nutrient rich compost?

Let’s break down, and digest, the process of the worm’s end product.  Worm castings are formed after the worm food takes a straight shot from mouth to anus with a brief stop in the gizzard to be ground up and then the gut where the garbage is broken down.  Before we get to the chemistry, some biology and physics. Earthworms are part of a superfamily of invertebrates called megadriles that have fascinated Humans for centuries. Even Charles Darwin  wrote a book on the glorious creatures. As I said, worms process food in a straight shot: Their guts don’t twist and turn like ours. Up front is a toothless mouth, then a series of muscles that suck detritus in.

Just after the earthworm mouth is a curious set of glands that secrete a milky liquid containing calcium carbonate – the same stuff that makes up seashells. The dirt where worms make their home has a lot of CO2 in it which can impact a worm’s body chemistry, making its blood more acidic. So this gland is a  way for worms to balance out their CO2 with soil calcium, which, by the way, means less CO2 makes it into the atmosphere. Earthworms have a gizzard, too. Where churning muscles crush the incoming food thanks to bits of sand and rock the earthworm has sucked up. So the earthworm’s intestine receives some crushed dirt including plant bits like dead leaves and bark that no human could hope to digest. For us, a happy human gut is one that regularly has a bit of fiber pass on through. But earthworms eat almost entirely fiber, so how do they get any nutrients? Enter a quartet of enzymes: amylase, lipase, pepsin, and cellulase.

These specialized proteins chop and modify swallowed food into molecules the body can take in. We humans have three of these enzymes: amylase in our saliva breaks down starches. Worms just happen to keep their spit in their guts. Lipase breaks down fats so earthworms can digest plant oils. Then pepsin breaks down proteins to digest animal bits. But earthworms can make a dinner of all that vegetable-y fiber thanks to cellulase. As its name suggests, this enzyme breaks down cellulose, the hard fiber that gives leaves structure and lets trees stand tall with wood and bark. Given enough time, no dead tree is a match for Slimey! All forest litter is not a tasty dirt sandwich, however. Many plants contain toxins that defend them from hungry creatures. Polyphenols contain a class of toxic molecules that cause illness or death to insects. But earthworms, who can’t avoid munching polyphenols up, have molecules in their gut called drilodefensins. It seems only soil-dwelling megadriles contain drilodefensins, which is why they can chew right through those dead plants.

A few enzymes aren’t the only digestive trait we share with earthworms. We both have gut bacteria showing just how tiny microbes are. Not surprisingly, gut microbes in earthworms are soil bacteria that chew nitrogen out of the plant material, taking in nitrates and nitrites and expelling nitrogen gas in a process called denitrification. Which leads us to consider what comes out in the end … of the earthworm. Biologists call earthworm poop “castings”. Given what happens in worms’ guts, we here at Reactions call this chemically processed, calcium injected, black stuff, mana. So here’s why worm poop is a big deal. Earthworms munch up indigestible garbage and cast out soils that can support healthy ecosystems: Earthworms break down all that cellulose that could clutter up, then choke out forests. A herd of earthworms can munch over 20 tons of dead organic matter per acre per year: all around the world there are examples where they’ve transformed bad grazing land into bountiful fields. This is why composters love earthworms — they’re like earth’s little garbage people. Thanks little guys! Of course, it’s worth saying that there are invasive earthworms disrupting ecosystems in some places.

It’s not all sunshine and ponies in the earthworm world. The nitrogen returns to the atmosphere, eventually completing the nitrogen cycle, so other plants can mine that vital element anew and make food for organisms like us. And all those worms drill little tunnels through the soil to let air and water get deeper to feed strong roots of plants and trees.

What do you think?  Want to try your hand at vermicomposting?  Let us know below or go to http://www.wormman.com for some composting worms and supplies.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

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

[divider style=”1″]

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]

Posted on by — Leave a comment

5 Reasons to NOT Throw out Your Christmas Tree!!

In a couple of days, millions of Christians will throw out their live Christmas trees.  This usually happens on New Year’s Day.  Instead, put that tree to good use.

  1. christmas tree
    Christmas Tree
  1.  Pine needles are devoured by Spanish Isopods so save those needles and get yourself some Spanish Isopods like Porcellio Ornatus, Porcellio Hoffmanseggi or Porcellio Magnificus and feed them some needles.
  2.  Chip that tree up, age it a bit and use the mulch for worm bedding, Isopod substrate or substrate for many roaches that love rotting wood like Surinam Roaches, and Zebra Roaches.
    Zebra Roaches

    Surinam Roaches
  3.  Cut the tree up and place the logs on the ground outside and attract wild Isopods like oniscus asellus (Skirted Isopods), Porcellio Scaber (Rough Isopods) and Wood Roaches.
  4.  Cut the tree trunk into 2″ disks and place in your Isopod and Roach enclosures to provide them places to hide.
  5.  If you live in an area where burning is permitted, then burn the leftover trimmings and use the potash as a fertilizer in your garden soil.  Mix it with worm castings and give your plants a boost.

Do you have other uses that you can think of for Christmas trees?  If so, Please post them below!

Posted on by — Leave a comment

The Poop on Chicken Coops

 

Okay, We are all in school again and I am going to condescendingly ask you some questions.  What is deposited under a chicken coop kids?  What can we do with what is deposited under chicken coops?

Well, Kids, beneath chicken coops are chicken poops (Sorry).  Chicken manure is great feeding to a variety of invertebrates from composting worms to Soldier Fly Larvae.  The former needs for the manure to be aged and the latter will lay their eggs in the fresh stuff.  The Black Solider Fly Larvae will eat the manure fresh and they will do a great job of eating it all.  Those grubs, which we trademarked under the name Soldier Grubs, are great for reptiles, fish and chickens.  You can make chicken food out of chicken poop.  How great is that?

Anyway, in order to gather chicken poop for your worms, or for composting, you need to have the chickens pretty much confined to one area.  Free range is great, but free range in a cage, where animals can’t kill your chickens, and so you can get the poop is even better.

If you’re reading this, you probably already are very aware of the benefits of owning and maintaining your own chickens.  You’ve probably already known that the average chicken lays over 260 eggs a year, and that can lead to over FIVE THOUSAND eggs for your family per year.

You already know the positives.  Knowing all that, maybe what has stopped you in the past was worrying about the cost of buying a chicken coop, or the complication of how to build a chicken coop, such as coop materials, insulation, lighting, ventilation, nesting boxes, perches and predators protection and perhaps the upkeep for the chickens themselves.
Continue reading The Poop on Chicken Coops

Posted on by — Leave a comment

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!

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Feeding Outdoor Worm Beds in Winter

https://youtu.be/CBTFuj4biBMhttps://youtu.be/CBTFuj4biBM

Last week we had our first freeze here in New Jersey.  We often get a first freeze that then melts and does not freeze again for a week or so.  Then we get a hard freeze later in November or early December.  That first freeze is our gue to tuck our red worm and European nightcrawlers in for winter.  The one question that I often get is around feeding composting worms during the winter, especially if the worm bed is outside in the elements.

The questions range from the kind of food we recommend for Redworms and European night crawlers, to how to feed the food we recommend.  The questions also delve into how we protect outdoor worm beds in winter, what we cover them with and when we cover them.

Winter feeding is an entirely different way of feeding composting worms than summer feeding.  There are three things that we look to accomplish with winter worm bed feeding:

  1. We look to ensure that we have enough feed on the beds so that we do not have to disturb the worms during the dead of winter.  The tops of the worm beds will often freeze and the red worms and European nightcrawlers will retreat and form a protective ball by huddling beneath the frozen worm bedding.  That freeze creates a frozen cap that will actually protect the worms under the freeze line.  By breaking that cap, turning beds or digging into beds, you can expose your composting worms to the cold air and that will kill them.  We aim to feed them before the first deep freeze and then leave them until spring.
  2. We want to have a food that is safe, deep enough and still green enough to generate some heat, which will create a safe space for the worms to feed and even breed on the warmer days throughout the winter.
  3.  We want to have the food last to the point where, as soon as the temps rise above freezing but before the beds are warm enough to work, the worms begin breeding and depositing capsules in and under that winter food that we provide.  This will ensure a nice healthy swarm of babies happily eating the leftover food when we open up the beds after that danger of the last freeze has passed, which is late April or even May in New Jersey.

We our three worm feeding goals laid out, we begin that task of preparing and adding the food to our beds.

Worm Food Preparation:  During the three other seasons, we ensure that any manure fed to the worms is mixed to a specific ratio in order to ensure that it is past the heating stage before it is fed to the worms.  The last thing that we want is for the bedding to heat on a hot or warm day.   In Winter, our goals change.  We do mix the manure with shredded paper and straw before use, and we do allow it to heat for a couple of days but then we apply it before it has completely heated to the point where it is beyond that heating stage.  We do this so that the heat created by the breakdown of the bedding will provide some heat to the worm beds.  We are not looking for super-warm temperatures, but enough so that the worms can still move about and eat throughout the winter.  In order to do that we mix in more green material than we normally would and we add alfalfa pellets like the type sold as rabbit food.

So, we add fresh manure, straw and paper, wet it down, pile it high and let is begin to break down.  Then we mix in dry alfalfa pellets and lightly water.  We want it to be on the drier side because the food mix will break down more slowly that way as it appropriates water from the worm bed.

Worm Food Application:

After the food has been prepared and is ready to go, we apply it to the worm bed.  We pile it high and deep and shape it like a triangle.

We cover that triangle food pile with a polyethylene bubble plastic like the kind used in packaging to prevent shipping damage but ours is thicker plastic.  We also sometimes use polyethylene bubble insulation that is metallic looking.  See the pictures below.  That blanket acts as a blanket and keeps the heat in and the cold out.

We then cover the entire bed with thick industrial grade landscaping fabric, like the kind used on the ground at nurseries to keep the weeds out and to stage their potted plants on.

We weigh that fabric down with bricks or sandbags and then we do not disturb the worms again until Spring.  When we do life the fabric and the blanket in spring, we find hundreds of thousands of baby worms in what used to be a large pile of food, eating what is left of it.  The adults deposit their capsules at the food source where the babies will be likely to find ample food.

That is it.  This is how we feed our worm beds in Winter and how we prepare our beds for the long cold disgusting winters.  It is 11-16-2017, so get to work.

Now, the good news is that we also have indoor beds and we sell European Night Crawlers and Red Worms all year long.  Winter composting and worm rearing is a great way to learn about worm farming and take away the winter doldrums.  Check out our selection of composting worms and get gardening now.  Spring will be here soon than you think.

Try a Worm Composting Starter Kit if you are just getting started.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

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