Bedding as Bedding?

John Duffy
#1. December 14th, 2012, at 8:48 PM.

What is it about “the look?”…Nobody can do it like a wife…Did you get the obligatory hand on the hip to go with it?
…anyway, I see no reason why cotton sheets wouldn’t work just fine for worm bedding.
Now Bentley, if we catch you tucking-in your worms every night we might have to have the folks from Happy Village come to see you

Tom Bergstrand
#2. December 14th, 2012, at 10:12 PM.

Just a note. I heard a long time ago that old white COTTON t-shirts added to a bin will disappear. Now there are so many synthetics added I would wonder about the “bio-degradability” of them. I would think that ANYTHING that is labeled 100% cotton would do just fine. HOWEVER, a small caveat. The label that says 100% cotton just might NOT be cotton. I would cut that off just to be safe.

Curtis
#3. December 14th, 2012, at 11:42 PM.

I’m curious to see how this goes. My guess is that it will take a long time for the cotton to degrade, which could be great depending on your application. I think I like cardboard or manure best, so that I don’t really have to worry about there being enough “food,” since they seem to be able to process those beddings as food quite readily.

ONEMAN
#4. December 15th, 2012, at 2:51 PM.

I think that if your getting black gold on the sheets then you should stop the JEANS EXPERIMENT? Or at least put on a new pair over the top of your pants?????????? I Know your wife does not want a small wriggler in her bed in the morning !!! But how far do you have to go to keep them warm!!! lol

ONEMAN
#5. December 15th, 2012, at 3:00 PM.

Hi .Tom Bergstrand you are so right. What now then??????????????? I have no answer, have you? If i had the spam then i would probably give it too the worms? yuck!!!

ONEMAN
#6. December 15th, 2012, at 3:23 PM.

If its Natural or in any way organic then it will work!!! Simple as that ? How nature is wonderful.

AND I STILL HAVE NO SPAM!!!

ONEMAN
#7. December 15th, 2012, at 4:46 PM.

I Have BEDDING DOWN no matter how much CHEMICAL I PUT DOWN FOR THE SLUGS! SHE IS STILL HERE!

John W.
#8. December 18th, 2012, at 10:15 AM.

I would think bedding like that would be great for helping hold in moisture as well! I think I would keep it as a top covering. I try to keep something like paper bags or burlap on the top so I can water it and it disperses water evenly and keeps water in. Eventually the worms break it down. I would think they would break the sheets down even if they are on top too.
Good luck.

John W.
#9. December 19th, 2012, at 5:56 PM.

Well this post has inspired me (and maybe made my wife roll her eyes)
But when she tossed my 100% cotton shirt out yesterday…I grabbed it and put it in my worm in after cutting it up some!

Flytraplady5
#11. January 2nd, 2013, at 1:19 AM.

I have been wondering about cotton clothing myself
will be gr8 to see how this turns out

oneman
#12. January 3rd, 2013, at 10:33 AM.

Hi.

Its a slow process but well worth a go! You gain nothing bye doing things the same way so try it and expand your knowledge and discover something new. You will be surprised. Then tell us all about it please. I have done this myself and i need to instill the point that you have to record every thing from day one no matter how little. I have a diary with start area/worm input/ food input and bedding input. I know that this is not the recommended food/bedding split ( i use 50/50 with waste scraps and brown cardboard but it varies every week to what i can re use.

The fact is i use a hand blender in a bucket about once a week with rain water and any brown cardboard/egg boxes/trays etc and scraps. My bucket is a peddle bin liner that you use in the kitchen. not sure what it holds but about 28 pints of water with the bin/scrap limited to about 1/4 of the bin with scarps/bedding will only come half way up (enough to get the hand blender to the bottom.. This all comes down to a soup when blended. Its a average indoor kitchen pedal bin liner half full bin with craps and bedding. PLEASE, PLEASE, Remember that this soup needs to age for 2 weeks/more, out side before you feed our worm friends. They do not like fresh and tend to scarper to the top of the compost bin and have a debate about re housing!!! Best worm separation method i have ever found ( if not a bit cruel to them)

Millions of them congregate at the top of the heap to protest there living conditions and then you can scoop them all up in one go!!!

The casts will still be there though and they tend to lay more little lemons when they have too much food or need to change so a fantastic worm separator, Just not the eggs.

Kind Regards

Flytraplady5
#13. January 3rd, 2013, at 10:01 PM.

I leave my cardboard boxes out by my gravel driveway. after a couple of rains, the boxes are completely soaked and even have some soil/grit on them if you leave them a month or so, some mold will start growing on the cardboard.The cardboard tears us easily when it is this wet
Have jest made my first worm bin using this method so the jury is still
I live out in the country so the neighbors don’t see my cardboard

Trent H
#14. January 11th, 2013, at 11:45 PM.

I used old blue jeans in my out door beds last year and they worked great. I was surprised to see how fast the worms processed them. Now I save all the old cotton fabric and use it as bedding in the out door beds.

Casey Wilder
#15. January 14th, 2013, at 12:30 AM.

Hey, Bentley. Keep us posted on how this goes. Towards the end of December, I actually cut up some old cotton t-shirts and denim jeans and threw some of it as mixed bedding in my worm factory. If I think about it (or see you posting about this again) ill let y’all know how tshirts and denim are doing in my system.

Take care!