Hi Jerry,
We bought the Wriggly Wranch in March and the worms (From you) at one of the San Jose
Composting events. My worms did great up until this last week from all the
rains and the worms were all dead in the bottom tray with ALOT of water. The
bin is under the eves of our house. I want to try them again, how can I
prevent this from happening again.
Thanks

Hi Dorie,

Easy. Make sure you have plenty of drainage in your bin, or shelter the top of your bin so you don’t get so much rain coming in. Fortunately, we don’t normally get rain like this past week! As you have experienced, worms like it damp, but they rot in standing water.

Two other things you can do. Keep the spigot open at all times. That way, excess water drains freely from the base. Problem is, most people have a lot
of muck in the base, thus clogging the spigot.

To keep the spigot from clogging, I would suggest keeping a piece of weedstop (black mesh landscapers put under rocks) in the bottom tray that makes contact with the base. Not only will this help keep worms out of the base, but it will reduce the amount of “Mud” in the base, thus helping the spigot stay clear.

Glad you want to get back in the saddle again. Just chalk this up to a learning experience.

Children LOVE worms.

It’s a fact that holds true time and time again.

I was recently invited to give a presentation about worms to an entire pack of cub scouts. Normally, I’m not able to coordinate my schedule to work with kids, but because this meeting was in the evening, and close to my home, I agreed to come out.

We set each child up with a mini worm bin, some soaked newspaper bedding, a small piece of watermelon, a handful of worms, and for a special treat, each child was given their very own Alabama Jumper!

Although Red Wigglers are very cool, given the choice between a worm that “JUMPS”, and a Red Wiggler that slowly crawls underneath paper bedding, obviously the kids were focused on making their Jumpers…Jump!

After seeing the excited faces of each Cub Scout, I realized that Wormy Birthday Parties could be an extremely successful venture!

Because the venture was so successful, I’m going to be publishing my presentation so others can use it as an outline for teaching kids all about worms.

If you would like a free copy of my presentation, “Teaching Children About Worms”, just email me: TheWormDude@Comcast.Net