Composting Worm Bin

[Timmah!]

Some expressed an interest, so here's me blathering about worms for longer than any normal person probably would:  

 

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[VHS2]

Can't watch the videos. Just had my lunch...

[TBB]

And who said you were normal??? 

[MadMonk2]

Timmahl, MadMonk2 here.  I have been looking at premade worm composters on line and my wife is very interested as well.  Is yours one that you built or is it a premade unit???  We live on Red Clay land and there are worms there, but they are scarce.  I of course want them for catfishing.... my wife wants them for the raised bed garden beds that I am building for her, and she likes the idea of composting her kitchen waste for the beds as well as anything else that will compost.  Anyway, thanks for the vids.

[RobMc]

1 minute ago, MadMonk2 said:

Timmahl, MadMonk2 here.  I have been looking at premade worm composters on line and my wife is very interested as well.  Is yours one that you built or is it a premade unit???  We live on Red Clay land and there are worms there, but they are scarce.  I of course want them for catfishing.... my wife wants them for the raised bed garden beds that I am building for her, and she likes the idea of composting her kitchen waste for the beds as well as anything else that will compost.  Anyway, thanks for the vids.

Hello son, gather the move went well? unfortunately @Timmah! cannot spare any worms, you will notice the blender, needed for the next batch of pasta sauce. On the plus side there may be some spare capacity after he has finished chopping the sweetbreads for his next dish - 'The dogs bollocks' (how does he think of these recipes ????)

[Timmah!]

2 hours ago, MadMonk2 said:

Timmahl, MadMonk2 here.  I have been looking at premade worm composters on line and my wife is very interested as well.  Is yours one that you built or is it a premade unit???  We live on Red Clay land and there are worms there, but they are scarce.  I of course want them for catfishing.... my wife wants them for the raised bed garden beds that I am building for her, and she likes the idea of composting her kitchen waste for the beds as well as anything else that will compost.  Anyway, thanks for the vids.

The bins are available for $8.00 or so, a piece.  Made it myself.  Just a 1.5-hole saw & some Teflon tape to secure the spigot purchased online.  

You want European Nightcrawles if fishing is your intention.  The Red Wigglers I use were purchased for about $30/lb. online. and simple to build oneself. 

Edited March 29, 2022 by Timmah!

[J3st3r]

Had a couple night-crawler and Blood Worm composting worm farms for a few years. Used a 55 gallon plastic barrel cut in 1/2. Don't use shredded News Paper. The ink will kill them over time. I had good luck growing my farms in clean top soil with a few hands full of tiny styrofoam balls. The styrofoam helps to keep the ground loose and it seemed to help keep the bed hydrated.

Got the styrofoam balls from a chunk of styrofoam packing. I put the wire wheel on my cordless drill and shredded it. It made short work of it but the little balls will go flying all over the place if you don't do it inside of a cardboard box or something.    

Pretty sure that all paper products are poisonous to worms to some extent because of the chemicals used in paper production. Especially older paper because they used Mercury and a bunch of other toxic chemicals when processing the wood pulp and in the bleaching process.       

 

Keep an eye out for them to start crawling up the sides of your container. That means that there is something wrong. Either they need more food, or more or less moisture or there is something wrong with the soil.

Mold is a killer for worms. I lost my Blood Worms because of mold. I was feeding them more than they could compost and it started to mold. Wasn't but a small patch of mold but it was enough to wipe them all out.

I had Night Crawlers growing for many years until our basement flooded due to a freak storm after an extremely dry summer and all of the storm drains in town being full of road salt, gravel and ash that the township dumps on the roads every winter. Storm drain Maintenance isn't in my small towns budget says our dipshit mayor. They used to have the local fire company come out and flush the storm drains every spring with the tanker truck but that hasn't happened in 10-12 years.       

 

Blood Worms can be a bit hard to farm but they make really really good Trout bait. You can catch pretty much any fresh water fish with a big fat juicy Night Crawler.

I found it easier to just go out and catch Night Crawlers for fishing. I can easily catch a couple hundred in the yard in an hour or 2. I've been treating the lawn with granulated time release Flea,Tick and ant killer for a few years now and the Night Crawler population has exploded in our lawn. You can't take a step without seeing atleast 20-30 in a 2 foot square area. Neighbors lawns have Night Crawlers as well but no where near that many.      

[Timmah!]

1 hour ago, MadMonk2 said:

Timmahl, MadMonk2 here.  I have been looking at premade worm composters on line and my wife is very interested as well.  Is yours one that you built or is it a premade unit???  We live on Red Clay land and there are worms there, but they are scarce.  I of course want them for catfishing.... my wife wants them for the raised bed garden beds that I am building for her, and she likes the idea of composting her kitchen waste for the beds as well as anything else that will compost.  Anyway, thanks for the vids.

Here, check this link out. You can use European Nightcrawles for both  composting & fishing bait; they go deeper than Red Wrigglers, which stay in the top 4 or 5 inches.  Or even a mix to cover the top and deeper levels of a bin/pile.

https://unclejimswormfarm.com/vermicompost-nightcrawler-worms/

[Timmah!]

33 minutes ago, J3st3r said:

Had a couple night-crawler and Blood Worm composting worm farms for a few years. Used a 55 gallon plastic barrel cut in 1/2. Don't use shredded News Paper. The ink will kill them over time. I had good luck growing my farms in clean top soil with a few hands full of tiny styrofoam balls. The styrofoam helps to keep the ground loose and it seemed to help keep the bed hydrated.

Got the styrofoam balls from a chunk of styrofoam packing. I put the wire wheel on my cordless drill and shredded it. It made short work of it but the little balls will go flying all over the place if you don't do it inside of a cardboard box or something.    

Pretty sure that all paper products are poisonous to worms to some extent because of the chemicals used in paper production. Especially older paper because they used Mercury and a bunch of other toxic chemicals when processing the wood pulp and in the bleaching process.       

 

Keep an eye out for them to start crawling up the sides of your container. That means that there is something wrong. Either they need more food, or more or less moisture or there is something wrong with the soil.

Mold is a killer for worms. I lost my Blood Worms because of mold. I was feeding them more than they could compost and it started to mold. Wasn't but a small patch of mold but it was enough to wipe them all out.

I had Night Crawlers growing for many years until our basement flooded due to a freak storm after an extremely dry summer and all of the storm drains in town being full of road salt, gravel and ash that the township dumps on the roads every winter. Storm drain Maintenance isn't in my small towns budget says our dipshit mayor. They used to have the local fire company come out and flush the storm drains every spring with the tanker truck but that hasn't happened in 10-12 years.       

 

Blood Worms can be a bit hard to farm but they make really really good Trout bait. You can catch pretty much any fresh water fish with a big fat juicy Night Crawler.

I found it easier to just go out and catch Night Crawlers for fishing. I can easily catch a couple hundred in the yard in an hour or 2. I've been treating the lawn with granulated time release Flea,Tick and ant killer for a few years now and the Night Crawler population has exploded in our lawn. You can't take a step without seeing atleast 20-30 in a 2 foot square area. Neighbors lawns have Night Crawlers as well but no where near that many.      

Did you monitor your ph, &/or buffer with some dolomite or crushed egg shells?.  What likely killed your worms was NOT mold, as they happily eat mold, in addition to other microorganisms.  The culprit was likely the anaerobic microorganisms from the rotting food. They create toxic conditions, byproducts & poisonously low PH to worms, as opposed to the aerobic bacteria which flourish in the top 6 inches of a bin or forest floor, upon which composting worms feed.  Perlite is a much better option instead of Styrofoam because Perlite is inert, doesn't decompose & leach chemicals (as it's essentially lava/volcanic glass), & has many pores on its surface to hold moisture & air, making these key components available throughout the media/bedding, along with keeping the bedding nice & fluffy.  Can be left in or screened-out to be reused, too.

Edited March 29, 2022 by Timmah!

[J3st3r]

Yep I gave them plenty of egg shells. I used shredded styrofoam because it worked to keep the soil from compacting and it helped maintain moisture levels a bit. Our basement is cool and slightly damp all of the time and doesn't drop below 40F even in the winter months and it stays rite around 70F in the summer. Almost perfect conditions for an active worm habitat eh?

 

The Blood worms loved the fish carcasses. They did OK on veggie scraps but much better on fish carcasses. Night-Crawlers would break down fish carcasses as well but they seemed to prefer veggie scraps and coffee grounds.    

Edited March 30, 2022 by J3st3r

[BUDMAN]

We did a lot of fishing up North, (upstate NY) during bullhead season we would catch a 5-gallon bucket full and have a fresh fish fry when we got home. We would use nightcrawlers also, sometimes have to use soapy water to bring them up... Two or 3 at a time on one line. Oh, the good oh days...

[J3st3r]

I miss fishing even if it's in our local creek that runs through town which doesn't have anything but a few sun fish and chubs in it. Chubs make really good Bass bait. Thinking about getting my license again. It's been a few years since I fished.

I can't remember 1 time that I was out fishing that I had a bad day. Even if I didn't catch anything it was nice to just be out and walking around down by the river or the creek or the lake that's 6 miles from us. Never caught much at the lake during the day time but I've caught quite a few big Catfish. 

There is an abandoned farm pond up on the hill just behind us in the woods that had Alot of Monster sized bass in it. 9+LB large mouth bass and they would bite on a Night Crawler. Last time I was up there I caught 9 in about 45 minutes and all of them were 5-6+lb. Wonder if they are still there? One was big enough to snap my 20 lb monofilament line in the duckweed that covered 1/2 of the pond. Lost my last hook and I doubt I could have carried more than the 9 I had on my stringer. lol  

Used to go up there and get dozens of big frogs for my neighbor to cook up. They loved them and I had fun shooting them with my BB gun lol.      

[Timmah!]

12 minutes ago, J3st3r said:

I miss fishing even if it's in our local creek that runs through town which doesn't have anything but a few sun fish and chubs in it. Chubs make really good Bass bait. Thinking about getting my license again. It's been a few years since I fished.

I can't remember 1 time that I was out fishing that I had a bad day. Even if I didn't catch anything it was nice to just be out and walking around down by the river or the creek or the lake that's 6 miles from us. Never caught much at the lake during the day time but I've caught quite a few big Catfish. 

There is an abandoned farm pond up on the hill just behind us in the woods that had Alot of Monster sized bass in it. 9+LB large mouth bass and they would bite on a Night Crawler. Last time I was up there I caught 9 in about 45 minutes and all of them were 5-6+lb. Wonder if they are still there? One was big enough to snap my 20 lb monofilament line in the duckweed that covered 1/2 of the pond. Lost my last hook and I doubt I could have carried more than the 9 I had on my stringer. lol  

Used to go up there and get dozens of big frogs for my neighbor to cook up. They loved them and I had fun shooting them with my BB gun lol.      

Good times.  I, too enjoy the company of the outdoors to most other people.

[J3st3r]

Had to use some stupid online video splicer thing to make the video longer than 60 seconds so Youtube would let me upload it without making it a Youtube SHORTS video. It was only 54 seconds long and it's raining outside or I would try to record a slightly longer video.

 

Anyway here is a 6 foot square section of the back yard. So many night crawlers that you can not take a step without seeing atleast 100. I walked up through that spot not 10 minutes ago and there was alot more. And it was raining again, not as many out when it's raining. There are Probably 2x that many on a damp warm night.

It's kinda freaky trying to walk up though the yard with so much movement lol.   

 

Neighbor gave me this phone when he got a new one a couple years ago. I put a new battery in it but I don't use it. Home phone works fine. I'm not a big social media junkie. Got enough distractions and bills to deal with and I hate talking on the phone.   

Wait a bit for better quality. 4K video off of my old iphone 6s is processing. It's taking forever though.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 6, 2022 by J3st3r

[M!dg3t]

Now you need to make your own tequila!

[major-mark63]

gush had enoudgh worms in my ass when young enough for me shhhhhheeeeeessssshhhhhh

[major-mark63]

21 hours ago, M!dg3t said:

Now you need to make your own tequila!

its called mescal ??? with the worm in bottle??

[RobMc]

2 hours ago, major-mark63 said:

gush had enoudgh worms in my ass when young enough for me shhhhhheeeeeessssshhhhhh

???????????????? you'd better rephrase this Mark, doesn't sound right to me???   

[Timmah!]

50 minutes ago, RobMc said:

???????????????? you'd better rephrase this Mark, doesn't sound right to me???   

Sounds like dogging gone wrong?