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tiny bugs
Posted at: 2012-07-25 14:34:36
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white or red in color and size of a pin head? first guess would be mites due to being overly wet. |
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Newbies here!
Posted at: 2012-07-12 16:24:38
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I got my first composting worms from the wal-mart supercenter close to my house. They are labeled as red worms/trout worms and will be in the same cooler as the canadian earthworms. Believe they come 40 to a container for around 3-4 dollars. Not exactly cost effecient compared to ordering online, but hopefully that will help if you guys want to start small. |
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Stirring the Pot
Posted at: 2012-05-23 19:35:58
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Not sure about your area, but i just picked up one of those plastic 3 prong cultivaters from wal-mart for .94 cents a few days ago. It really helps to move the bedding around if its moist because it will pick up small hunks as opposed to using that pvc pipe or a mini shovel to move the contents around that could cause harm to the wormies. |
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All the Corn?
Posted at: 2012-05-07 12:06:28
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Funny you should mention rank coffee grounds. I guess the last time i made up a large batch of water saterated paper I must have used one of the bags that i was holding a days worth of coffee grounds that was mixed with paper in a bag that i brought home from work. Well 2 weeks later when i went to grab some more wet paper to line the top, i realized i had a situation. So i decided to just put it all in the bin and cover it up. Probably about 2 lbs of foul smelling paper and the coffee stuff with whatever liquid. It was time for me to water the inn anyhow since the Inn isnt watered with the minimal scraps that i feed. Couldnt tolerate the smell enough to actually make the paper ”fluffy”, so it went in in smaller chunks. Was that a good thing to do? At first i thought of it as a blessing since its been sitting for a couple weeks and they would love it, but after i slept on the thought, im hoping i didnt put something toxic in for them.  |
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All the Corn?
Posted at: 2012-05-06 17:11:58
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Got a couple questions. Made about 8-10″ ears of corn yesterday for a derby cookout and ive got all the husks and hairs and cobs left that I am wanting to give to the worms. How are the husks treated in ways of prep? Should i freeze, thaw, and feed like the actual corn or should the husk be treated like grass and aged and used with caution? Ive got all the husks and hairs frozen (-9F) seperately from the cobs and ends so I know that they will soften and get slimy by time they thaw.
Also how much food should i be able to run through the worm inn with about 3 pounds of worms? I’ve seen videos and read posts about people putting lots of stuff in and everything being fine, but I’m pretty conservative when it comes to giving actual food scraps. I dont wanna be because i want lots of castings and worms that breed like rabbits, but im not sure what a happy medium is. For example, this corn im asking about, I would be safe to say that the left overs would be the only thing probably added each week for the next 3-4 weeks if i can treat the husks just like the cobs.
My weekly feedings usually consist of 1 days coffee grounds and filter, the top and bottom of 5 single stalks of celery, and a handful of paper frozen(-9F) from Mon-Fri and thawed until feeding on sunday. I probably got 80lbs of bedding for a half pound of food a week.
What would the Dude do? |
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Upgrading
Posted at: 2012-04-28 12:13:36
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i used 3/4” pvc pipe for mine. |
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Upgrading
Posted at: 2012-04-27 02:52:15
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Got the worms transferred to the worm inn from the 19.5” X 20” X 7.5” wooden box i was using. I was surprised that I was able to get all the bedding into the sack since the box was filled to the top with various bedding materials and still had room to add scraps and a top fluffy layer to keep the bugs away. Dunno if that is considered a lot, but if I’m not as rusty at math as I think i am, that translates into about 1.69 cu ft. of material? Will also mention that i use a mixture of 3 parts paper/carboard, 1 part peat moss,and 1 part cow manure so the sack is definately holding some weight as well. Watered the sack as per the brochure and everything seems to be doing as well as it can be. Good product so far. Thanks for the help via email.  |
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Upgrading
Posted at: 2012-04-25 18:38:38
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So I got me a worm inn coming soon which i hope the worms will love. I was reading somewhere on one of the reviews that it housing around 4lbs of worms. How true is that since i was thinking of putting about 2lbs in, which translates to around 4 lbs in 6 months tops? Figuring loses from castings and whatever else. Also I was wondering if you had any advice for setup/feeding that i havent already read on the sites? I ask that because I’m figuring that i will even less “hands on” with the worms once i have them in the sack as opposed to in my wooded box ive been using. Sometimes pieces of hands on experiences/trial and error doesnt make it to the forums. My kids are getting into this quite a bit and I’d hate to do something disasterous since all of my experience over the years have been in a wooden box with drilled holes and majority of that was when i was a kid and had other things to do besides worrying about worms 24/7. |
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Surface Dwellers
Posted at: 2012-04-13 13:44:02
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I came home yesterday and all the worms were off the top and in the dirt about 1-2 inches down that i could find. I figured that i wouldnt further stress them much more so what i mostly did was gather the worms that i had already disturbed and laid them on a part of the fluffed shredded paper while i resituated the rest of the beddding and added more paper and refluffed it. I went ahead and dug up the little bit of food and put it in a different corner with a moistened cow patty and dropped the disturbed worms on it and covered them up. Checked on them this morning and so far no surface dwellers. I’m not sure i did the right thing by not transplanting them into a new box, but you can imagine the relief i had when I can home to found out the worms decided to give their home a shot. Just wish i could have found more of the worms then i did since i have a box big enough to house 70,000 instead of the 70 i have. |
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Surface Dwellers
Posted at: 2012-04-12 13:59:22
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Also just got a hold of a 5 gallon pail of cow manure that has been sitting for quite a while that is free of deworming agents. Got a co worker that can supply it. My question is if it was in fact the peat moss needing another soaking, could i just take my manure and moisten it and throw my shredded paper on top and stick it in another box while i resoak the peat moss and they might live? it would be like tossing the worms into a brand new set up which is not the ideal situation. |
