For my next trick: worm ranching

Reposted from my blog:
No chicken jokes this time.

Here be worms.

wormbin1 by merriwether, on Flickr

Today's project is a vermiculture worm bin. I've been wanting to raise worms for a while, mainly for fishing but also for the great soil they produce from kitchen fruit/veggie scrapes.

So, worm bins. They are easy to make out of two identical, opaque plastic bins, shredded newspaper, and something that will make holes in two different sizes (1/4" and 1/16" diameter). The ideal bins would only be about a foot deep but as wide as possible to maximize the surface area. Right now Walmart, Target, Home Depot and other stores all have their "Christmas storage bins" on clearance dirt cheap (ha ha ha) so it's a great time to tackle (ha ha ha...fishing joke...worms...get it) this project. You want opaque bins as worms hate light and won't act naturally or even die if exposed to too much light.


WormBinSketch by merriwether, on Flickr
1. inner bin
2. outer bin
3. loosely wadded up strips of damp newspaper
4. fruit/veggie waste
5. red wiggler worms
6. worm casings (aka worm poop) both in inner and outer bin
7. bricks or other thing to lift up inner bin

The key to a healthy worm bin is ventilation, hence lots of air holes are drilled in both bins. The holes in the wall of the outer bin should be 1/4" in diameter but only 1/16" in the walls and lid of the inner bin. If you use holes larger than 1/16" on the inner bin the worms will crawl out which leads to dried out worm carcasses all over. Yucky. Also drill about twenty or thirty 1/4" holes in the BOTTOM of the inner bed to allow the processed worm casings to fall into the outer bin. Occasionally you'll have a worm drop into the outer bin, too. Oh well.


wormbin5 by merriwether, on Flickr
Outer bin with brick risers in place. The risers raise the inner bin away from the outer bin to increase air flow to the inner bin.

There are several ways to get red wigglers, I bought mine from a bait shop. If you do this make sure you don't buy the big nightcrawlers used for bass fishing as they won't eat you kitchen waste. You'll want the smaller worms used for trout and pan fish. If you don't want to buy the worms you can gather your own from the wild. Look in/under compost or manure piles or just lay some wet cardboard down on the grass for a day or too. When you lift it there will likely be a number of red wigglers under it. Lastly, there are a bunch of places online that will sell you pounds of red wigglers. I've never tried any of them so I can't recommend a particular one. Most plans call for starting out with one pound of worms.

Place the worms and the media they came in in the bottom of the inner bin. If you caught them yourself then put a 1" layer of damp earth in the bottom of the bin. This soil shouldn't be dripping wet nor dusty dry. Aim for somewhat clumpy.


wormbin4 by merriwether, on Flickr
Worms, now home. Note all the ventilation holes.


wormbin3 by merriwether, on Flickr
Worm food: potato peels, lettuce, and a few other scraps.

One pound of worms will eat 1/2 pound of kitchen waste every day. Some people add their scraps every day, others collect about 3-days worth of kitchen waste before added it to the bins to minimize annoying/disturbing the worms. Do whatever you significant other tells you to do. It's just easier that way. Once you have a large, hungry horde of worms you can expand you scraps to include meat and other non-plant matter.


wormbin2 by merriwether, on Flickr
Newspaper layer. Yes, worms are excellent climbers.

Cover everything with 2"-3" of shredded newspaper. Cut the newspaper into 1" strips, soak them in water, squeeze them out to "damp sponge" wetness, loosely wad them up and toss them in the bin. Don't use glossy advertisements as they don't dampen well and the inks may be somewhat toxic.

That's about it. Store the bins in a dark area where they will neither freeze nor overheat. They can handle temperatures close to 30F and as high as 100F but will stop breeding at these temperatures. Under ideal conditions your worm population will double every 90 days. Note that like with every other creature, worms don't like living in their own excrement. You'll have to empty the inner bin about every 4 months to keep your worms healthy. Worm casings are loaded with beneficial microbes and nutrients vital to plants, often having five times as much nitrogen, seven times as much phosphorus, and eleven times as much potassium as ordinary dirt, making it a wonderful natural fertilizer.

Worm bins should have a nice, earthy smell to them. If an unpleasant odor is noticed you've probably been overfeeding the worms. Don't add any scraps for several days until the current material has been consumed. Also check that your system isn't too wet. If it is more than just damp add some more shredded newspaper to absorb excess moisture. My problem in Houston is the system drying out so I keep a spray bottle of water next to the bin to dampen the newspaper as needed.

-Blast

And here I was thinking it involved tiny little whips, barbed wire, lariats and sitting around a campfire being gassy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68v4g6ZjNlw

Bins with holes kind of ruins the romance of the open range thing.

Git along, little wormie...

Rawhide!


Good luck.

Now Blast, are these REALLY *fishing* worms? Or are you planning on feeding them some special marinade????

When I was a kid my Dad had a big box in the basement where he experimented with worm ranching.

The worms originated in big piles of wet newspapers that had been dumped down over the edge of the creek at the end of the street.

Dad fed them corn meal.

We didn't go fishing enough to justify the effort. Stuff like that is just fun for him.

He let the worms go in the backyard when the experiment was over. (unlike what he did with the mice that he bred from white mice into an almost entirely black strain)

No forum is complete without a Resident Mad Scientist....

There are many wondeful projects out there. It's a matter of how you want to spend your true capital: time. After the initial exciting investments, how much ongoing time overhead is it worth to keep all the 'balls in the air."

So-called passive return projects, that is, those in which you have the lowest maintenance time requrements and are most self-sustaining, are the ones to look for. Of those, the ones which dovetail with your other chosen projects, that is, give you something you want or already are doing as inputs or outputs for other projects, are better targets.

I can see worms as plant-based waste converters, animal feed, soil builders, fish / crawdad bait, and for sale to bait stores. I wonder if you could construct one of those multi-level grow systems: fish and crawdads in tanks eating animal and plant waste, animals eating plants and plant waste housed above the tanks, and plants growing above the animal cages in worm inhabited and enriched soil?

I know Blast needs more projects!

I remember my Dad raising Earths,Wigglers(yellow & red),Night Crawlers,Grubs,& The Main Important Wormfood was Coffee Grounds,De-Germed Cornmeal,Ground Eggshells.A Major Rule of Thumb-Never,Ever use even Leaves from ANY Citrus fruit as,In a few months You'll Notice a large Population of some of The Biggest Cockroaches,You have Ever seen in the Western Hemisphere,Roaches are Bane,They Eat The Worms,& Roach poop is Toxic to All but The Earthworms,Not to mention that they Also Escape,& Attempt to Populate,Everywhere,lol!That Could be a Real Big Problem in Houston!I Hope Missesweather Doesn't read this post Before You have built your DogHouse to sleep in!Worm Castings are a Moneymaker in their own rights! Good Luck with this Grand Endeavour!

Hey Blast,

I see that the new worm ranch is next to the flaming tubers progect; your wife is a lot more understanding than mine!

Thanks for the info, Mike

DW drew a big smiley face on the calender on this Tuesday...the day I go back to work.

-Blast

I only have one small piece of advice to offer. Your affinity for all things hot and smoldering is known internationally. You really need to be careful when you place your brand these little guys.

I've found using a Bic lighter and a paperclip works best when 'marking your property', so to speak.

Good luck!

Blast,

Very cool project.

Here's a writeup from a friend who investigated "worm ranching" in a midtown Manhattan apartment, and whether worms like spicy food. . .

When I Compost My Jalapenos. . . (Partable Chef NYC Blog) Beware, this blog has some non-child friendly words, and loads of good food porn. (as in pictures that will make you hungrey. It's totally safe for work.)

Hi Blast - the sketch looks great, but it looks like something's been left out. Where do you fit in the henweigh?

The henweigh holds the top lid down, just in case the worms get too boisterous.

I wonder if he has the hammerfor?

Looks good so far. How do I get 'em to stay on my new George Foreman grill? Without cheesing off the petaheads? Marinate in sangria perhaps? Not a bad way to go, really ...

Doug, you've seen the long-handled fish-grilling baskets for barbecues, right? You just need one with a smaller mesh... and a lid.

Sue

I hope you properly and humanely dispatch and skin them before cooking. Nothing is as waterproof as a wormskin garment. Beats Goretex all hollow.....

I had been using a 9mm to shoot them in the back of the head but the neighbors complained. Now I hang them and slit their throats with my kukhri. You don't want to completely decapitate them though as there's a lot of good meat in the worm jowls, tongue, and neck.

-Blast

I wouldn't mind being marinated in sangria. I think I may have been a time or two. I just tried it from the inside out.

Isn't a 9mm a little light? I would go with nothing less than a 357 Mag but that is probably just my old habits showing up again.

Somehow this thread has turned into a can of worms

"6. worm casings (aka worm poop)"

actually, the term is "castings".

which i always thought was a funny word, in light of worms being unable to cast - no arms - and they're usually the ones being cast anyways.

Hikermor...

You can your worms? Do you use a pressure canner, or just the water-bath method?

Sue

Two words: worm jerky!
There just might be a market for that.

-Blast

Alas, such complexities are beyond my feeble skills. I just buy the cans by the six pack at Trader Joe's, hopefully when they are on sale.

Great! Someone in my family has been "worm ranching" for years. We used to joke that they were her pets. Of course, no one's laughing when we are chowing down on the garden's bounty courtesy of the little critters.

I know you all are joking about eating them but I couldn't pass up this article:




Do let us know how that goes, Blast. After all, it could put you at an advantage if you ever find yourself in a survival situation with only worms for food.

Oh and don't forget:



Ah, the advantages of raising your own meat--you know exactly what's in it.

Let them gorge on cornmeal for a day or two before you fry them, or put them in water until it changes color

Blast, from what I've read you probably want to grab at least one more identical bin to make a spare inner bin. The outer bin is mostly to catch any effluent that may drain out, I doubt much of the castings will sift through into it.

Instead, when the first inner bin is about full of castings, add the second inner bin on top of it and start adding food and bedding. Eventually most of the worms will migrate into the new bin and you can remove the first inner bin to harvest the castings.