Resilient Worms

19 years ago

For those that might be overthinking vermicomposting I wanted to share a recent experience.

I have an 18 gallon rubbermaid bin that I started with a coffee cup full of worms. I fretted and worried for about a month but finally relaxed a bit, thanks in part to the advice I got here. I've had two generations of babies and the population has at least doubled.

Three days ago I left them some food for them, checked the moisture and off I went. Today I went to add an old banana that I found and was horrified to see that I had left the top off. For 3 days. The top of the bedding was completely dry and I was afraid to look. But, my worms were happily munching away in a spot that had remained moist. No one had taken the opportunity to escape. No one had died from dehydration. A little bit of water, the banana and the lid and they're back to normal.

I just wanted to share this, especially for the newbies, who like I was, are checking 2-3 times per day. While I certainly wouldn't recommend a topless bin, this just goes to show that they are more resilient than we might give them credit for.

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Comments (2)

briden
19 years ago
I know exactly what you mean.
I usually check my bins 2-3 times per day to see if they are in the new food and how far they have gone.
I over analyze everything....

Like a couple of days ago i checked in to my large 189 Litre bin and couldnt find many worms and they were not coming to the food either so i decided that something must be wrong. I ran out to the store and bought a smaller 58 Litre bin and made holes etc.,filled it with new bedding (the other one had lots of fruit fly larva) and began to rummage for worms to weigh and move.

Turned out i jumped the gun and i should have stayed away...
I only took apart a very small section of the bin and found about 10 large worms,new babies and about 80 cocoons and the bin has only been running for about a month.
I can only imagine how many cocoons i would have found if i continued.

I put the whole bin back together,drilled a few more holes,added new bedding on top and decided to butt out!!
(for a little while anyway!!LOL)

On the bright side , i now have a bin ready to go for when i harvest and split my African worms who are currently in a 58 Litre.
wfike
19 years ago
Worms like a litte neglect more than they like excessive care. Most worms don't die they are murdered with attention!
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