Setting up an simple bin.

An instructional video on setting up a simple, inexpensive worm bin.

Wikipedia Page

The wikipedia page on vermicompost gives lots of info on worm farming.

Put yourself on the map.

Vermicomposters lets you put yourself on the map to see who's vermiposting how much and where.

An update on the African Nightcrawlers in a Can-O-Worms

This seems a good time to report on my african nightcrawlers in a can-o-worms project. To recap: There was much talk of whether it could be done or not so I bought two lots of 25 african night crawlers from the fishing store and put them in a can-o-worms to see what would happen. There is much talk of them being earth- rather than compost worms, not heat tolerant, prone to wanderlust, and so on... I wanted to know and figured that doing would give a definative answer. If the very worst came to the very worst I'd just have wasted a few dollars on the worms and some establishment time on converting it to red wrigglers.

I am happy to report that the african nightcrawlers are thriving in their can-o-worms. It was a bit touch and go in the beginning. It seemed that they had all died but they recovered. They seemed to want to be in the collector tray all the time but the second level seems to have fixed that problem. I thought they may have been escaping because I found some worms on the concrete nearby but this doesn't seem to happen any more.

Currently the second level is about half full. My friend wanted to start a can-o-worms with african nightcrawlers. I went to my can-o-worms to collect a few for him. I was struggling to find enough. With red wrigglers it is often possible to find a knot of worms under a particularly tasty bit of food. I was hoping to find a similar knot of african nightcrawlers. It wasn't looking good until I looked in the second tray. It was thick with worms! Big fat worms all through the castings. This explains how they get through so much food. They were huge!

So, my theory is that they come up at night ('cause they're nightcrawlers. .. yes?) and munch through all their food (I know they don't really munch).

Two handfulls of bedding and worms later and my friend's wormfarm was off to a good start.

Mesa Lane's home made worm farm.

Mesa Lane's blogger contacted me via the yahoo group 'Worm Bin' to show me some pics of their home made worm farm. The blog offers a good howto on feeding and some good pics of the worm farm itself.

Worm bin from a Otto/Wiz/Wheely Bin

The Ceres worm farm is made from a Wiz Bin. It is a verticle through-put system (in the top and out the bottom). The baffle allows the controlled harvest of vermicast.

Wonder Worm Waste Management offer a similar bin.

African Nightcrawler Can-O-Worms establishment.

We've just gotten back from a 3 week motorhome (that's Austrailian for RV) tour of relatives, friends and wineries. I was worried that the new African Nightcrawler would all die from neglect in their new Can-O-Worms home. I underestimated their durability.

They had done more than survive. They'd eaten their cut lunch of vegetable scraps on cardboard and started breading. Baby african nightcrawlers are just so cute. :D

The numbers are still too low to make the worm farm of much use but their numbers are building. The day after adding food they had formed an eager knot under it.