Let’s Experiment! – Red Wiggler Worms and Heat
Here are “Common questions” that people ask when learning about Red Wiggler Worms.
How fast do Red Wigglers eat?
What do Red Wigglers like to eat?
How fast do Red Wigglers reproduce?
How long will it take the Red Wigglers to turn the bedding into Vermicompost?
Where can I place my worm bin (IE. How will cold and heat affect my worms)?
Today, we are going to talk about worms and heat.
I ran a heat experiment with 6 containers of worms in bedding with some rabbit pellets for food.
I kept 3 inside the house (Guest bathroom-Gotta love an understanding wife). The temps never exceeded 79 degrees in the house.
I kept 3 in the garage, where temperatures hit 99.9 degrees during the experiment.
CLICK to see The Worm Dudes Heat Experiment with Red Wigglers
Now for my real world experiences with large amounts of worms……
I can tell you that Red Wigglers can withstand a wide variety of temps. I’ve successfully maintained worms in ambient temps of up to 108 degrees in my garage during hot summer days last year.
From experience, I can also tell you that I have killed worms outside in 80 degree temps?
You’re probably wondering why worms would die at 80 degrees, yet thrive at 108?
Last year, we had a heat wave. At the time, I had around 200 pounds of Red Wigglers. When temps hit over 105 degrees and continued to climb, I panicked. The first thing I did was start adding extra water to some of my bins. Big Mistake! Here is what happens when standing water is left in a worm bin. Some worms start to gravitate to the water. They will rot. More worms gravitate to the water. They will also rot. Soon, you will have a big ball of stinky mush as your worms all start to rot in the standing water. Not fun! Before I realized it, I had over 50 pounds of dead worms….and counting.
Thankfully, I did not overwater all my bins. The bins that I just maintained normally were fine even in the hot temps!
My experience in 80 degree temps was different. I was selling worms at a flea market in 80 degree temps. A guy next to me selling auto parts said, I smell something dead. Sure enough, I felt my tubs and they were warm to the touch. This means the bedding inside was starting to roast. When that happens, the worms cook! The smell he was smelling was my worm stock!
What’s the moral of the story? It’s not the ambient temps that normally kill worms. It’s the radiant temps of the sun beating on your worm bin. If the bin is hot to the touch….your worms are cooking.
Because plastic bins absorb more heat than wooden bins, plastic bins are especially prone to heat problems with even small amounts of DIRECT sun.
Tags: Experiments with worms, Heat, red wigglers, worms
February 25th, 2009 at 2:16 am
Hi Jerry, just one small comment or I should say a question. How much validity can we give to experiments when dealing with such small numbers of worms? I would think that large numbers of worms would make your numbers shew up and down?
Bob
March 1st, 2009 at 12:10 am
Hi Bob,
I hear ya, although my intent was not to be scientific, just to use common sense and be directional. If you wanted to get technical, 1 pound of worms in a certain density is likely to respond differently to 10 pounds of worms in a certain density. It would be easy to conclude that no two situations are alike unless you had the exact same circumstances. Note that I started off my story with a real life experience (Albeit not in a controlled scientific environment) about what happens when 200 pounds of worms are left in an extremely warm environment. Then, I did a small scale experiment to follow up.
I don’t think any of my experiments will be worthy of scientific journals. Just wormin around.