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Perionyx Excavatus Farmers

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a.k.a. Indian Blues, Malaysian Blues or just Blues

Members: 11
Latest Activity: Jun 1

Discussion Forum

Volume of food consumed 10 Replies

The EF guys say that their worms eat half their weight in food daily. My PEs don't get anywhere near that much consumed. Not by a long way. What's your experience? Are my worms telling me they don'...

Started by Susan Bolman. Last reply by Susan Bolman Jun 1.

Worm Density with PEs, food mobbing

I was just watching the video http://vermicomposters.ning.com/video/various-stag Christy Ruffner and 'various stages of worm composting' (part 1 or 2, it doesn't matter). Does anyone with PEs have...

Tagged: vermicomposting, excavatus, perionyx, density, worm

Started by Susan Bolman May 5.

Survey of sizes of PE 4 Replies

G'day all, Wonder if you all could post here the largest (length & width in metric) PE you have ever seen, or have in possession. Cheers

Started by Benno. Last reply by Susan Bolman Apr 16.

Differences with ANC's 6 Replies

Hi folks, Wondered if anyone here can help me with identification between PE and ANC. I would like a quick way to tell the difference rather than having to put them under microscope. Can't seem t...

Started by Benno. Last reply by Benno Apr 16.

Differences from EFs 2 Replies

Hi Guys, I'd love a discussion of the differences we've noted from what's been said about the EFs. Even better if you have both. Mine don't mob food the way some of the photos of the EFs show, but ...

Tagged: excavatus, perionyx

Started by Susan Bolman. Last reply by Dwayne Aug. 30, 2008.

Comment Wall (26 comments)

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26 Comments

Comment by Dwayne on April 9, 2009 at 7:25pm: I did feed them pretty heavy but other than that not much. I was amazed the PEs survived too! We must have had 3-4 hard freezes.
Dwayne

Comment by Susan Bolman on April 9, 2009 at 4:29pm: Dwayne, you must have done something to prepare them for the hard freezes. (Lots of food to generate heat, insulation). What worked for you? (Not that I'm in any risk of having a hard freeze. I'm cold today because it's about 69 F. Of course, being barefoot and having shorts and a t-shirt on kinda add to the problem ;-)

Comment by Walter J. Haas on April 6, 2009 at 8:05am: Thank you all

Comment by Dwayne on April 5, 2009 at 3:02pm: Susan
You are welcome. I have been busy on other stuff but the worms survived 3 hard freezes and many of the PEs are going strong again with the warm weather.
Walter ...not sure about South America?? Sorry.
Dwayne

Comment by Susan Bolman on April 5, 2009 at 1:17pm: Hi all. Sorry I've been away for so long. I've been at it for a little over a year now and don't check the worms or the site nearly as often as I did. I went to two bins and then sort of forgot about them except for weekly feeds. When I checked a few months later, I had more worms than compost towards the top of my flow through. The community garden had just gotten a HUGE shipment of zoo compost. I filled up two more bins with that and some thawed vege waste and everyone seems to be happy.

The PEs had completely stopped reproducing for months. I was a little concerned but was distracted by other stuff. I'm hoping that now that I've got them spread out, they'll start reproducing again.

Dwayne, thanks for keeping this group active.

Walter, PEs move MUCH more quickly than EFs. I'm not sure what you mean by gregarious, but mine form balls of worms (at least when I forgot about them to the point that the population was saturated.) I've had trouble with worms escaping in each new bin I've started, but just for the first few weeks. It's been forever since you asked your question, so hopefully you don't have any escapees any more. I'm not sure about max temp but I think I found the answer with google (and Kelly Slocum) earlier. Here's some info I've collected from various sites. Sorry I didn't keep the URLs.

PE Maximum reproduction under ideal condtions:
19.5 cocoons per adult per week
90.7% hatching success rate
1.1 hatchlings per cocoon
Net reproduction of 19.4 young per adult per week

Maximum growth rate under ideal conditions:
16-21 days to cocoon hatch
29-55 days to sexual maturity
45-76 days from cocoon to maturity

My experience hasn't been nearly as good as the numbers would suggest, but I doubt I have 'ideal conditions', whatever that is. I get better performance out of the flow through. I think the rate limiting factor (once you've got enough worms) is the amount of the oxygen supplied to the bacteria. That's why flow throughs are so much better. (See threads on the main board). I don't know if stacking would be as good or not.

Comment by Walter J. Haas on March 26, 2009 at 10:24am: are there supplers of PEs to Centrial America?

Comment by Dwayne on March 26, 2009 at 9:58am: Welcome new members! I think you will enjoy your PEs if you are new to them.
Dwayne

Comment by Dwayne on February 25, 2009 at 7:28pm: Walt
I live in Florida and my PEs thrived in outdoor bins. They like it hot. Not sure about humane bio-solids.
Dwayne

Comment by Walter J. Haas on January 17, 2009 at 8:21pm: will Pes compost humane bio-solids like Efs? Why do they escape so ofton? how do you stop them? are they as gregarious Efs? What is the hottest it can be for them? Newbee with Pes!

walt

Comment by Dwayne on November 26, 2008 at 6:09am: As cooler weather has arrived here in North Florida I am seeing fewer PEs and more EFs and no Black Soldier Fly maggots! Have the cooler temps changed things for any of you?
Dwayne