Unhappy worms?
duaroger
9 years ago
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duaroger
9 years agoRelated Discussions
Off to a Real Good Start with My New Worm Bin!
Comments (20)"Are BSF timid creatures, or am I most likely going to have them crawling on me or flying around when I'm checking out my bin?" Some people really love their BSFL, as much as we love our worms. They too worry about them when they have to leave them for a few days. My understanding is that when BSFL are about 3/4 inch long and smaller they are white. Then as they mature they turn black and hard like little armadillos. Then they hide. The flys that emerge are like large houseflies but they do not land on poop and then on food. They avoid people, poop and food and want to find a bit of rot to lay their eggs on. They fly erratically. Slow when they are just warming up. Then faster. They are black with some of their leg area white. I think you would like the fly and the mature larvae and not be afraid of them. The thing that is cool about the white larvae is if one puts lets say the remains of a fish that the fillets have been harvest from into the bin, the the BSFL boil over the remains so actively that the remains float over the top of the activity and wonder around the container while getting smaller and smaller until they are all gone. Maybe let your helper know that these types of things in the bin are normal so they will not be startled. There is the cutest youtube that shows a little girl with a handful of BSFL feeding then to her chickens. If they knew that even little girls are not afraid of them then they might be more ok with them. Me I do not even touch my worms except with a 10 inch stick. Not even with gloves on. Maybe the scarriest thing to ever happen was I had noticed a few things out of place around the bin lately. Things were a bit mess with the vermicomost. I thought I was just sloppy. One day I put food in the top of the bin and out of the bottom a mouse jumped and darted off of my leg. I screamed like a little girl. Then I laughed a lot because I screamed. Many people love furry mice as pets. Maybe not me. I wonder if he was eating my worms. I move the material around in my bin to learn what is going on. As I am more confident I know what is happening in there and as vermicomposting is not my newest hobby, and I am not possessed with knowing what is going on with the little guys, I am more likely to leave them alone. Then my activity with the bin would more resemble how sbryce advises. Like him I would flip the bottom material over for the same reasons. Or gain interest in flow through bins like I have. I would think the cloth worm inns would work nice for you. Just put the stuff food by the tons and bedding in at the top. Zip it in. Water frequently. Harvest at the bottom. Supposedly no need to separate worms. They do dry out fast but the activity of adding water is pleasant for some. Others may have fish tank change water they want to use. I would think that maybe the condition of the material might be gauged a tiny bit by just squeezing the bag. I do not have one. Some people sew their own. Having a strong enough stand to hold mega weight is important. I guess like not buying the first year of a car I am waiting for them to come out with the new and improved version. I think mine would dry out. That would be ... ... .,. very bad for the worms. A homemade plastic bin is more resilient in that way....See MoreOverwhelm your Food Scraps with Browns
Comments (4)Words of wisdom. A hot compost pile is built to balance greens and browns in a ratio that will cause the heating up of the pile. I think of vermicomposting, as starting with mostly browns to give the worms a medium to swim in, and adding greens to it as food. Anytime I get too far from this concept, sure enough, I get an unbalanced bin....See MoreI think i have mites?
Comments (2)Take a look on the forum, Steve...there are references to Amy W.'s photos (excellent!) and the Happy D Worm Ranch (a great place to learn about other things but worms you may find in a bin). Yes, they really DO breed, and produce eggs, also called 'coccoons'. (If I could figure out how to STOP spelling that one, it would help..!) Anyway, when in doubt, let it dry out a bit. Moisture + feed + oxygen makes heat and unhappy worms, but happy bugs...usually. Not always. But it won't hurt the worms to dry out a little. Below find some helpful info and links. I hope, at least! Excerpt from a post of mine, another mite thread: Here are some links you might find helpful (copy and paste to your browser or to Google): http://www.cityfarmer.org/wormcomp61.html http://www.wormdigest.org/content/view/35/2/ This blog has some good experiences to read about, too: http://www.wormcompostingtips.com/category Happy D Worm Ranch has an excellent set of articles about what bugs you can find in your bin, what's good, what's not, and how to make it work better....Read the link below and then cruise their site. Very nice! Here's their mite-specific page: http://www.happydranch.com/87.html Here is a link that might be useful: Amy's worm pics...See MoreWorms UNHAPPY
Comments (6)Thanks for the input. I mixed food with dampened shredded newspaper for the bottom layer with the dampened leaves on top and the plain shredded newspaper on top of the leaves. The instructions that came with this system said to always top the tray with a few sheets of dampened newspaper. Yesterday I put the worms that had bailed out around the edges of the bottom and top tray back on top of the paper on the top tray. This morning they've mostly moved back down into the layer of paper. There is also a fairly strong population in the bottom tray. I wonder if the leaves possibly could have been contaminated in some way. I'm hoping for the best outcome here....See MoreGerris2 (Joseph Delaware Zone 7a)
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