Raising redworms...What NOT to do!

Well, my first attempt at raising redworms seems doomed to failure. I thought I had a nice little home for about 1/2 lb. of redworms but they flew the coop looking for greener pastures but sadly expired on the dining room floor.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• redworms
• worms
• compost
• first
• try

[hkat9]

Farmer George, I hope your wife forgave you after you had dead worms all over the dining room floor!! Hope the worms are doing much better!

[edbogus]

@hkat9 haha...I gave the floor a good cleanup and now the worm population has exploded (in the container of course) heh heh They are quite content with my garden scraps, coffee grounds and occassional eggshells and my garden loves the worm castings! Thanks for your comments! -"farmer" George

[HomeworkHelper1]

What I'm guessing you did is that you didn't give the worms a chance to burrow before you covered them, so they crawled out. What one needs to do is to expose them to light until they burrow in, then put the lid on.

[edbogus]

You are absolutely right! Now I know to do that. Luckily I still had a bunch who stayed put and now they are quickly reproducing...its amazing how much they eat and I'm getting some real nice worm castings for my garden! Thanks for your comments and happy worming! -George

[cuzblake]

Hey cousin, now what u need 2 do is get some chickens and let them go in ur living room! They will clean up the worms.

[edbogus]

Good idea Blake! I knew I could count on a family member for sound advise! :) -George

[vitevac]

Do you have air holes?

[katnip2u]

If you put in veggie/fruit/greens and other organic matter scraps and cover the bin with a lid, the composting of the organic matter releases gasses/fumes that in high concentration are toxic to the worms, hence they crawl out of the bin for fresh air. But without water/moist environment their skins dehydrate/they dry up=die.

You need to keep airing the bin, or place the small bin into a large bin and keep in uncovered/partially covered for ventilation. That's how I solved the same problem.

[MEGAONE302]

The rent was to high?

[best333WillC]

I have euro's and red worms.  IN separate bins, what is an easy way to tell a difference between them?

[MusicWavesMan]

think you had it too wet

[marthale7]

Air. looks like you did not drill holes they breath just like we do and they do not have enough air they will try to fly the coop. the next challenge is keeping the moister just right. Like a wrung out sponge is the ticket.