Winter Worming Update: 1/8/13

[Marin Rodriguez]

Happy New Year to all. Hope all your holiday vermicomposting dreams came true over the holidays. We are back in the swing of things here on campus getting ready to harvest some awesome vermicompost that has come to perfection over the holidays. We are also ramping up a few science fair experiments using the worms and vermi-tea. Exciting times! To add to that excitement, imagine my surprise when I found out that some of the local worms had moved into some of our outdoor bins! Woo hoo! However it was not quite what we expected when we set it all up in the Fall. From my previous posts, you may know that we have guinea pigs here on campus and that we collect the manure and bedding to feed the worms. Also makes for some good bedding material as the bedding is cellulose ...the same stuff that egg cartons are made of. We clean the cage, rinse the bedding and then set it out in the back 40 to dry. Then we store the manure/bedding in a closed container to feed the worms at a later date.

Here is a pic of the container we store the manure/bedding in. It has a snap on lid as well...pretty secure...or so we thought. Imagine our surprise when I went to get some bedding as we were sprucing up the worm bins and found not one, not 2, but a whole family of worms had taken up residence in this manure bin!

Pics of new residents in manure bin.

After thinking it over, the best explanation we came up with is that at some time while the bedding was outside in the open drying, the locals decided that it would be a cool place to visit and then they decided to stay. Perhaps after one of our recent rains they were making a run for it and found worm-vana!

They seem to like it despite the less than ideal conditions. This bin in NOT opaque, though there is a large supply of food. It also sits outside and never comes inside to warm up at all! Go figure. I am just going to leave them there and see what happens. I guess in the end, just leaving the worms to go about their business is the best policy after all. 

[Sue]

Hi Marin.  Were the horses grazing? I have read that worm cocoons can stand harsh condition and it could be that cocoons were "eaten" by the horses when grazing, survived the journey to the horses' end and hatched in your manure box.

Once in a while I collect used bedding from a pet store a.o. used in guinea pig cages. I do not rinse it, just removed the straw mixed in because it will take a long time to compost. I didn't notice any problem when used in the worm bin.

[Marin Rodriguez]

Hi Sue...

The manure in this particular bin is only from the guinea pigs. No horse manure at all. We have been using it in the worm bins for several months and the worms love it. Problem is that we get more than the worms can process on a weekly basis so we are forced to store and "regular compost" the excess. We rinse it just to make sure that we get rid of any uric acid that may be lingering from the guinea pigs. So far so good. 

[Steve Lambert]

Nice post Marin... thanks for the good read.

We've all heard of the worms leaving our bins for various reasons, but they also crawl into things which is what I think happened to your aging guinea pig waste.  I have found worms that crawled into bags of coffee grounds I'd stacked up on the ground (they were there several weeks), food waste set on the ground in a closed container, etc.  They find the food and habitat that they like and, sometimes, stay awhile. 

A couple of years ago I started a tote-style worm bin I vowed to only use shredded corrugated cardboard as the bedding source.  The tote was clear plastic and it stayed outside under the back porch to protect it from rain.  It had no cover on the top or sides.  Over the months that I maintained the bin I saw castings left on the walls at the lowest level (where VC was), the worm-active feeding level, and the upper level that had moist shredded cardboard as their bedding layer.  I appeared to me that they were on the very walls where light did shine, but since I saw no worms during the day I assumed that at night they came out from the inner, dark portion of the bin to the outside edges to feed, investigate, or whatever.  It just seemed that they crawled into the food and bedding during the daylight hours.  Anyway, it's just my experience, observations, and assumptions.

Best of luck!

[Marin Rodriguez]

Thanks for your comment Steve. Just when you think you know what the worms are going to do they surprise you. It will be interested to watch this play out over the course of the next 6 months or so. I try to keep it documented here. Stay tuned!

[Steve Lambert]

Yes, they do... surprise you.  Thanks for documenting your progress and activities.  This is one of the key sources that I have learned worm farming from... each other.  BTW, your pictures were great.  They really showed what the bedding looked like.  Staying tuned!

Later.

[George]

That one big worm is almost transparent or is an albino, lol

And thanks for the cool story and pictures.

[Marin Rodriguez]

George...

The funny thing is that that big transparent one is not even close to being the biggest of the lot. He is about half the size of the big boy that I found in the bin. I should probably check the other outdoor bins I set up now since we have had some rain and there may be some new residents. More to come!

[Andrew from California]

It's hard to tell from the photos, but my guess is most of those worms are not composting worms. That doesn't matter for the purposes of just letting things progress naturally and seeing what happens, but you probably shouldn't plan on using these worms for a vermicomposting system.

Still, I bet the kids were excited to see worms "magically" appear. Have you tried worm traps? I forget the details, but you basically put a wet piece of cardboard on the ground (preferably on good soil) and wait a few days. Usually any resident earthworms will come up to take advantage of the covering.

[Marin Rodriguez]

Andrew...

That was my first suspicion as well. I figured that with the recent rains, the local earthworms were driven out of their burrows and found relative shelter in my bin of manure and bedding. Not that I'm complaining mind you since it is a fun development. I will allow them visitor status, but won't rely on them to populated any of my bins. they have to work if they want the good stuff!