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Vermicomposting

Adding heater to worm factory

17 years ago

I live at 7,000 feet in Flagstaff, Arizona. It gets down to freezing on most nights during the winter. Daytime highs might be 50 degrees or so F.I have my WF in the garage where the temperature is around 40 degrees F. I noticed that when I turned over the compost with my rubber gloved hands that my fingers got numb from the cold. I figured that the worms would be relatively dormant at these temps and would not be eating or breeding at full throttle. I thought of putting in a heater that would raise the temp a few degrees.

I realized that I already owned a heating pad, one of those small electric blankets that you put under your back or other body part when you want additional heat. When I looked at it I saw that it was already waterproofed. I guessed in case someone spilled something on it. It was UL listed. I ended up adding one more layer of security by enclosing the whole thing in a heavy-duty trash bag to ensure that the leachate never contacts the heater directly.I placed the heating pad, inside the trash bag, in the bottom drainage area of the WF. The trash-bag was mainly in case the wife ever asks what happened to the heating pad. I can magically make it appear again without worms hanging off of it.

It appears to be working well. The heating pad had three heat settings on it. I started off on number one but soon bumped it up to number three when I saw that the temperature in the top tray (out of five) was only 50 degrees. Now, the bottom tray is definitely warm. It steams when I turn it over in the cold air. There are still plenty of worms in it, but more worms on the upper levels where the fresher food is and the temp is a bit lower. It has been in there for more than two weeks now and although the lower trays have started to smell a bit stronger everything seems to be working out fine.

I have even found dozens of worms down in the drainage area at the bottom of the WF who appeared to be doing well, just taking a jaccuzzi in the warm leachate. They were alive and well though I threw them back into the top tray just in case they couldn't escape on their own.

Has anyone else tried any heating experiments and what were the results?

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Comments (3)

billr12
17 years ago
I've never added any external heat but you should be just fine. If it gets too hot in one spot they will simply move a little. I always find worms in the catch tray. I just leave them and let nature take it's course.
wormlover1
Original Author
17 years ago
When you say "let nature take its course", do you think that always means the death of the worm, or do you think they sometimes find their way back up to the trays? I assumed that if they stay in the catch tray long enough they will die.
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Thank you for the ideas! I didn't have the spigot open but went ahead and opened it. Will be more mindful of air flow. Like I said, they seem to be doing their job and there is no bad smell otherwise. when i checked just now when i went to open the spigot there were no worms down below. You are right, a little more info would have been helpful :) I opted for the $79 version of the worm factory rather than the "new and improved" worm factory 360 that costs around 120 - seems like the biggest difference is the "worm ladder" on the WF360 which supposedly is to help the worms who get stuck down below (selling point?), as well as a different lid that allows you to stack trays on, and a tool kit. well i had the tools laying around, and a shallow plastic tub from the dollar store works just fine to set the trays on :) so far i am really enjoying my worm bin... it really is very cool... has anyone else had this problem?
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squeeze
17 years ago
"natures course" is that life is a cycle, when conditions become inhospitable the worms will leave cocoons behind and die off - when conditions improve, the cocoons will re-colonize - 30-50 degrees won't freeze them, just slow'em down a bit - the heat pad's better for the missus

I have a large worm bin outdoors where day temps are below 40 for months and well below freezing for nights on end [like 15-25] - all I do for the worms is make sure there's a good amount of food/bedding [compost from the hot bins], and harvest the finished product in the spring

worms do fine in cool conditions, less well in hot conditions .... and they don't have fingers :)

Bill

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