Comments on: Worm Inn Journal – 02-10-09

By: froggsong

froggsong — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 22:16:52 +0000

Hi there, I just found your site and I love it. It has given me some great ideas for raising worms for my herps as well as some alternate methods for when I start my BSF operation.

I know this is an older post and that it hasn’t received any comments in a few months, but I had an idea about harvesting compost from the Euro system. Perhaps you could devise a way to flip the system over for a period of time, wait until the nightcrawlers go to what is now the “bottom” of the system, remove the compost, then flip it back over. Perhaps Robyn could create a nightcrawler specific Worm Inn that can be easily flipped without the contents falling out of the top. Perhaps a zipper holding two units together? Or maybe a drawstring top as well as bottom?

I’m going to have to remember to check out more of your site. I am tired of spending so much money feeding my pets, lol… Plus I like to stay as green as possible, so “recycling” my food waste sounds like a great idea. I’ve also begun growing my own greens for my bearded dragon, so compost would be great to have.

By: Bentley

Bentley — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:23:49 +0000

Billy – thanks for sharing that info. Definitely good to know!

John – That’s really interesting! I’ve used a similar approach with sticky fly paper (ie hanging the strips beside the lightbulb) with good success.
Anyway – thanks for mentioning that!

By: John Augenstein

John Augenstein — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 05:37:36 +0000

This may be a little off subject, but you mentioned fruit flies and I may have stumbled onto a really effective control for those little pests. I have four tubs of worms in my unheated but attached garage. Back in the late summer and fall of last year I had a serious infestation of fruit flies from feeding spoiled cantalope and apple peels and cores as a large part of my worm food. When the night temperatues began dropping I stacked the bins two high and next to each other, threw a plastic tarp over them and stuck a 120 watt light bulb in a mechanics drop cord under the tarp, on the floor, between the the two stacks of bins to keep the bins from cooling down too much. The cord had a metal cage on it to protect the bulb. The teperature in the tubs stayed around 70 deg. F. When I went out to check the worms the next day I noticed a significant decrease in fruit fly population in the garage. When I pulled the tarp off the tubs, the floor around the light bulb was black with dead fruit flies. I swept up the flies and put everything back in place. By the time a week had passed, all the fruit flies were dead. They are apparently drawn to the light at night and the heat from the bulb takes them out.
John

By: Billy The Clown

Billy The Clown — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 04:07:46 +0000

A quick source for coffee grounds is Starbucks,

Starbucks corporate policy is for the stores to keep the grounds separated out from the rest of the trash and to give them away to any one who asks.

I have about 15 pounds in my garage right now just waiting for the weather to improve and the compost pile to heat up.