worm factory: worms crawl down and die, then smell bad
amyleee217
13 years ago
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equinoxequinox
13 years agoRelated Discussions
Worm castings - or worms?
Comments (9)I find that my red worms who live outside do really well, so long as the soil is kept moist and they are fed often with vegetable/fruit trimmings. I often will add some partially composted leaves from my compost bin. Although, I find that they do well without much attention in my raised beds that have lots of organic compost, I like to keep one 4ft square bed that is shaded and kept covered with cardboard to add my veggie/fruit trimmings/composted leaves. I go clockwise around the bed to add food and to remove the vermicompost as needed to use in my containers/other beds. There are so many worms in the bed that is necessary to spread the vermicompost out to let it dry out and get the worms to move back to a moister section. Try to use unchlorinated water to moisten the rest of the bed or some that has sat out for 24hrs so that the chlorine has mostly evaporated. Red worms will eat the bacteria from the decaying foods, and I never have a problem with offensive odors ....actually, the compost in this bed smells really good and the plants seem to really thrive on it. I agree that getting these worms from someone in your area may be better as they will have adapted to your local weather conditions. I live in a desert area that has temps from the 20's to the 110's and they have survived many years outside this way....See MoreName This Worm
Comments (10)Jean - Thanks for the links added to the thread w/ the pix. I have no idea what had happened last nite & why i couldn't get uploads in my thread. So for ppl reading this looking for pix, plz check Jean's posts...they are of my mystery critters. Kimmsr - They are in the soil only, usually around the roots of a plant and the wood chips from the potting mix. as i had said in the main entry, there are a lot of them, but finding them isn't always easy because they are so small. looking for them is like looking at the night sky...you can't focus or you'll never see them. you have to let your vision go soft then you can detect movement. once detected, getting them isolated is another story because they can shrink themselves up so tiny that they hide easily so i can have 1/8 of a teaspoon of soil i know one of the worms is in and still be unable to find it even w/in 30 mins of diligent searching. water does NOT make them surface. they have survived cold pressed neem oil, dish soap mixed in w/ the neem oil soil drench, and gognat soil drench. Jean and Kimmsr - they are about 5 mm long unless they are in motion then they stretch to unbelievable proportions. my jaw dropped when i saw the stretching up to 1/2 an inch. the camera is using a macro lens where the tiniest grandule of soil looks large, so the magnification on this is quite high. the best comparison would be they are about the diameter of a tiny eyelash or angelhair. (not the pasta, the decorative angel hair medium) it would take probably 50 un-stretched worms to make up the size of a small green garden pea. rhizo - i took the photo of them in a champagne size mercury glass, so there is a mirrored reflection of them. it was the first thing i could grab to put them in. the worms themselves are all white. anything clear is not a worm. even when these die, they retain a whitish color. (they died in the glass from the light and dehydration.) i realized that the lights and the lack of soil shelter was killing them, so that gives me the idea that they are not air breathers and that they need some kind of moisture to survive. the one large one on the right stretched itself out to about 1/2" at one point in time freaking me out, and then curled up and died from what i'm concluding is exposure. as for plant damage, i cannot be certain of any damage they are doing but i have all my seedlings die from something in the soil and from my treating the soil as well as some established plants die inexplicably. Yet, the plant these are in is still alive but not necessarily thriving, hence my checking the soil and finding these worms. from what i can tell, they aren't doing anything. i cannot see them on stems or leaves. they seem soil bound. no sign of them in the water tray. they do strive to bury themselves in soil when removed. they will cross the glass for a granule of soil. i don't have a video camera w/ a macro lens to record them or believe me, i certainly would. they curl up, ball up, spin, stretch, etc. i don't see any signs of legs. i also don't see the dark head area as seen on fungus gnat larvae photos. if they are larvae of fungus gnats, i would like to control (get rid) that. if they are the larvae of ANY insect, i definitely need to control that. i recently had to have my house bombed for weevils. i have parrots in my home and bugs, pests, etc make me very nervous....See MoreWhy are my worms collecting at the bottom of my bin?
Comments (12)multi tier worm bins are real bad for brand newie worm wranglers. The trouble is they seem like simplicity itself. open lid and throw kitchen scraps which are 70% water in top tray and sprinkle with water. Over time these kitchen scraps 'decompose' and the worms eat upwards on the food, fungi, organisisms all muching away at these foods. The water and moisture from the kitchen scraps follow gravity to the bottom of the bin into the sump. So this bottom area tends to mainly be moist and smelly since new worm wranglers tend to not empty the leachate (which is toxic and poisonous) off enough, so the worms tend to dislike this bottom area since it has yucky stagnant water pooling there; its basically a swamp since it also contains worm castings. Thus new worm wranglers often drain off this foul smelling soup and flush the system with more water, but by 'overwatering' now they are compacting the upper layers with water molecules. this is because water acyaully is very heavy and it clings to itself, so the overwatering tends to compress the food bedding layers and the water clings to itself and displaces oxygen. So now we get anerobic decomposition and instead of aerobic methane that quickly disapates off in a well balanced oxygenated worm bin we get a compressed mass of food that slows down its decomposition due to lack of oxygen. Now we get ammonia gas and this gas kills worms real dead, so the worms must run away (into the bottom sump) or do a worm run and leave the bin entirely to avoid being gassed to death. So, to dry, to wet? the newbie worm wrangler tends to lighten up on how much water they add, so gravity tends to pull down moisture into the bottom layers and water sump. So now the upper layers of newer food tend to dry out more and worms breathe through their WET MOIST skin so they tend to move to where the water is (into the sump) luckily. AS long as they have a ladder to reclimb back up to the bedding layers instead of drwoning in the sump. Remember they need moisture to breathe so they dehydatrate if they stay up top. If it rains then they worm run away to the refreshing outside rain and die from sunlight or lawn fertilizer or whatever. So this is why (especially) with a sudden unplanned for run of hot weather that evaporates or transpirates your top layers of moisuture away your worms flee to the bottom sump layer for the life giving water. Remember without water worms are dead, dry bedding to a worm is the same as you crawling over broken glass or sandpaper without protection; it would not be nice so do not 'neglect' your worms. These factors and others are why multi tier worm farms are not the greatest for newbie worm wranglers, but remember worms are very resilient and people learn if they lose or hurt their babies (worms), so over time humans get better at 'listening' to what worms "like". Generally worms like being left alone to do their thing and mainly new worm wranglers try to hard to 'help' the worms with to much food or water but we humans usually get better over time, but of course you have to take note of the weather since worms cannot learn to drink from a tap; how could they turn it on ? ;)...See MoreUnhappy worms in worm factory
Comments (7)How many levels do you have? Maybe it's not a different food but rather an amount all at once? I find worms attempting escape after the addition of too much broccoli stalk unless it's well rotted. I think it has to do with gases released, but I don't know for sure. I just notice that as long as there is the strong smell, the worms are trying to leave, but once the smell subsides the worms seem content to stay down and resume eating, pooping, making more worms. Maybe it's a combo of food or maybe you have peels that have soap of some kind or another chemical on them. Unfortunately, there have been times when a bin suddenly seems inhospitable to worms for a short time and while I try to figure out what went wrong the worms become content again. So, the problem often gets fixed before I even get the opportunity to pinpoint the cause. It often seems aeration is the key. I leave the top off with an LED light on when worms seem unhappy. If it smells bad, I cover it with some leaves. In a worm factory, it's not a bad idea to keep an extra level handy. If the worms seem dissatisfied you can just add bedding to the extra level and put it on top. I use half finished compost since if there is a smell the compost tends to filter it out fairly well and gives the worms something to eat. Shredded phone book works well, too. After a day or two you can then dump the contents into the previous level as the previous level will likely have settled as the water from the food drains down leaving room for the addition. That way the extra level stays an extra level in case you need it again later. Does that make sense? The couple of days (or longer if it that's what it takes) will likely lead to enough rotting and ph balancing to make things hospitable again. I've never noticed worms to be bothered by fruit flies. My outdoor summer bins get them real bad since I top feed those....See Moreshermthewerm
13 years agosteamyb
13 years agoredworms4greenpeople
13 years agoWormsome
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9 years agoequinoxequinox
9 years ago
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